Category: Uncategorized

So we are goanna tell you the truth about why going into business with family members is a very bad idea.

So we are mainly working with smaller family businesses and we have seen first hand how tricky the minefield is to navigate when it comes to family businesses.

So it is very easy for parents who have started their own business from the ground up that they would like their children to take it over at some point.

This might all sound very good on paper but it is very seldom as easy as it seems and sounds.

Very often there is a huge pressure to take over the family business that also affects the normal family life between siblings and parents.

When we are often asked if a company should be handed down to the children our normal answer is NO!.

The only time we support this idea is if there is only one child who will take over the family business.

And this can then be that there is only ONE child, or that the other siblings gets bought out by the parents early on.

Usually we come in as business advisers when there is problems in a family run company or they are in need of outside consulting to solve severe issues.

Very often there can be a situation where a brother and a sister has completely different plans and visions for the family business.

And if they own 50% each then nobody really has the tiebreaker.

We usually recommend that an outside party own anywhere from 2-5% of the business and they can then take on the role as the tiebreaker.

Also making sure that the children actually wants to take over the family business is extremely important, because otherwise it will fail when they feel pressured going into the business.

In many cases we would like to see family businesses sold when the first generation retires, this would save a lot of heartache for many families.

We have seen and we see on a yearly basis how money and family businesses destroys families forever.

So NO it is not a good idea to go into business with your family members and in many cases to hand over a business to several siblings.

Yes there are exceptions to this rule where family members work well together and it flows fine, but those are far and few between.

Ask anybody who has worked in a family business about the conflicts that they have had with family members over visions and financial aspects of the business.

Also usually when a business does better these conflicts are not as visible, but when a family run business does poorly these conflicts becomes very real and very public.

Now with the Covid-19 hitting a lot of business that are run as family businesses like restaurants, coffee shops, small hotels and vacations type of businesses.

We can see the horror that many families goes true when they are losing their business.

It is also very dangerous for familes to have several people depending on their income from ONE business.

It would in many cases be better to separate the business into several parts.

So if the shit hits the fan in one business, there are other family businesses to relay on for income.

So for instance if you start a restaurant and if goes well, then maybe start also a food truck or two, and then a coffee shop on top of this.

And if you have 3 children then if they are interested let each one of them run one of the businesses when you retire.

So Dividing up companies by adding your own LLCs or Inc:s is a good idea for risk management.

So what do you do if your family is already broken from a failed business or a huge fight over a family business.

We have created a mending fence plan for family members who have not spoken in a long time, and who have lost touch due to a family business.

What we then do is that usually another family member reaches out to Mrlifeadvise consulting and says that Billy and Gina have not spoken to each other for years due to this thing happening back then.

What we then do is that we contact both parties for a meeting with them first individually and we then discuss if they would be willing to meet their sibling or family member for a coffee with us as mediator, or online.

And very often there is a lot of hesitation involved and we then just simply explain that this is your family member dont you owe it to yourself to make sure that this relationship is over for good?.

And then we meet for coffee once a month and if it all goes well we make it once a week for 2h.

Or we have this meeting online to begin with.

So very often nobody reaches out to their sibling after a huge fight and then the years go by, and very often when we speak to business owner as advisers they one thing many of them mention is that i wish that i would have mended fences when my sibling was still alive.

We had a stupid fight, about things that does not really matter in life, and i wish that i could take it all back.

And sometimes it is to late, even when the sibling is alive.

Sometimes there has just been too much water under the bridge.

And then those relationships can not be salvaged.

Very often it is also depending on what has happen in the first place, if these relationships can be salavaged or not.

We can just mention one case where the oldest brother of 4 siblings stole all the company funds and let the business die and the other siblings suffered for years due to this greed of one brother.

So in these kind of cases there is no walking it all back, what is done is done.

So in general we do not recommend family members to go into business together or the first generation to hand over a business unless everything is structured to perfection.

If you have a small business and you need business advise, feel free to check out https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/ different online options in our shop.

We can also recommend that if you are now looking to lose some weight this year that you check out one of our clients very smart blueprint book on Amazon , see the link here below.

Take care out there.

https://www.amazon.com/Loseweightcheap-Scandinavian-weight-formula-actually-ebook/dp/B07TP3LKHB

Mrlifeadvise.

So we have seen in this Covid-19 pandemic that many companies are doing very well and the other half is suffering or has already closed their doors.

Today we want to talk about the importance of not entering into a bad commercial lease.

When you start your business, you are all fired up and ready to rock.

And you do have your business plan and you have saved and borrowed capital and nothing is goanna hold you back from succeeding.

This is all great, and you should be proud of yourself for taking the risk and exposing your chin(like all business owners do).

But if Covid-19 has thought us anything it is that any kind of force majeure can happen and we are not goanna know what will happen tomorrow.

So when we look at clients who have been able to survive with their nightclubs, restaurants, coffee shops and brick and mortar stores, the story is the same for all, they have had a good lease.

So what you need to remember is that a commercial lease is a huge undertaking and it comes with a huge risk of failure.

Becuase yes if you have a bar or a store you want to be where there is a lot of foot traffic and the right kind of foot traffic.

But this is something that landlords have all the stats on when they rent out space.

If you draw up a business plan that allows you to pay 9.000 dollars a month for a retail space, and then a year into it you can see that the foot traffic is less than half on what you calculated on, you are in big trouble.

So airing on the side of caution is always is to be preferred, and specially if you are a first time business owner.

We will give you the playbook on how to find a great spot for your business without putting yourself in harms way financially and how you should market your establishment to drive sales and customers to your business.

The commercial lease should always have a way out for you, if that location that you pick is not working out for you.

So very often you have to spend several month looking for a commercial space before you can find something you can actually afford and that will suit your business idea.

The second thing you need to do is to become a detective on that neighbourhood you want to rent in.

If you are opening up a hair saloon for say, you want to make sure that there is enough customers in that area so you can actually sustain your business.

So the way you find this out is by looking at how many people live in that neighbourhood you are looking to rent space in.

And then you need to look at the competition how many hair saloons do you need to compete with in that area?.

After that you need to figure out what the income level is in that area, if you offer a premium service or a premium product you need to make sure that the people you cater to can actually afford your products or your services.

Very often you need to make sure that the lease cost per month is not more than 30% of what you expect to take home each month for your business.

MARKETING.

When it comes to marketing for a newly started business that if betting on foot traffic you need to be very hands on, and do a lot of different types of marketing.

There are 3 different types of marketing you need to go with to get your business of the ground.

The first is the online marketing using social media plattforms and pay for adds on google ad words and on for Facebook ads that are targeting your area.

The second string marketing should be local door to doors marketing, where you print up flyers(each month) for a 12 month period that is distributed to all homes in that area close to your establishment.

These flyers should be delivered the first day each month and should include some kind of great deal for customers entering your establishment.

It could for instance be a high quality shampoo for 9 dollars that usually retails for 25 dollars, you can buy these in bulk for 9 dollars and sell for cost.

If you have a coffee shop it could be buy one coffee get one for free.

Because customer acquisition is the most vital thing for any business, and it it is usually very expensive.

Without customers your business does not exist FOR LONG.

So make sure that you really focus on customer acquisition the first year of business.

The third type of marketing you can do is to create word of mouth affiliates.

So you offer your existing customers discounts on your services for every new customers they can acquire for your business.

When you have found what you believe is your perfect location for your business. now you need help negotiating the lease contract.

So when you negotiate a commercial lease the first thing you should spend money on is a very experienced commercial lease lawyer who can guide and protect you along the way.

The second thing is to make sue that you sign a 1+2 YEAR lease.

So one is the contract deal length, and the 2 is the option to lease for another 2 years for a fixed price.

This way you have that out if it does not work out in that location, and if everything works out you will have an option to stay for another two years with a set price on the lease.

A good lease lawyer will make sure that you have the following things in your contract for your lease.

Nr1:Surrender lease option, (you give back the lease for a cost less than your contract is worth).

Nr2:Early termination clause(Pretty much the same as the above here, you pay something to get out from under the lease.

Nr3:Subletting the premises(You can sublet the store or space to another company for the reminder of your lease contract).

Nr4: The most important thing, never co-sign personally for a commercial lease(this is a no no) because anything can happen.

We had clients over the years who’s businesses tanked, and they where still paying for another 3 years on the commercial lease, because they co-signed for the lease when they opened up their business.

And this is not something you want to get stuck with if your business fails.

If you feel that you need business advice from experienced business advisers check out our different options for you in our shop in the link here below.

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

Here are some templates you can familiarize yourself with regarding commercial lease agreements.

https://legaltemplates.net/form/commercial-lease-agreement/

So take care out there.

Mrlifeadvise.

So some people have mention to us the house THE ONE that is also called in Bel air.

So this house is called the 500 million dollar house, and this is a great marketing ploy to have people talking about it for years.

Even if the LA real estate is a crazy market and has been for the past 20+ years, this house is over the top.

Who would have thought 20 years ago that houses in Encino hills would be selling for 9 million dollars in 2021.

Yes i know that Encino is only 20 min away from Beverly hills but still!.

The builder and the owner is Mr.Nile Niami with a lot of funding from other people and banks.

So the house has cost 85+ million to build over a 8 year period, and stuff has been added on to the house every year.

Usually with these super mega houses they get delayed because of all the add o:ns.

(Anybody remember the largest house in America built by the Queen or Versailles).

And yes this is the best house in Bel Air, and it might very well be one of the best houses in all of LA, this depends on if you want to be in Beverly hills, Malibu or in Bel Air.

The question everybody wonders about is how much is the house actually worth and what will it actually sell for?.

So all and all the investors are 100+ million into this project so 100 millions will make them break even, but of course the investors wants a healthy return on this investment that has been going on for almost 9 years time.

So there is no doubt that the buyer will be a billionaire, either a US based or from another country.

The house has a major problem and that which is that it is not family friendly due to all the water features and also due to it lacking a lot of safe space for kids playing in the (back yard).

Yes it is 100.000 square feet large and it has real grass to play on, but still it is not family friendly in any way you would look at it.

It just lacks that family friendly feel, that a family will be looking at, when they buy a large home.

All the nightclubs and pools in combination with the bars and patios makes this a party house be definition!.

The 250 million dollar house(selling sunset house) that was owned by Mr. Bruce Makowsky sold for 94 million dollars in late 2019, and this is pre Covid-19 that has seen many billionaires leave California for Texas or Florida.

So the pool of buyers are no less then than it was in 2019.

The 500 million dollar house is a mirage, a nice one but still a mirage.

These big houses are difficult to sell because in a house like this you need at least 10+ full time staffers and you need at least 2-3 full time security personal on sight at all times.

Big houses are always a problem and as a realtor, i often turned down houses over 10.000 square feet homes.

Because they take a long time to sell, and you spend a lot of time and money maketing those type of houses, and usually you have to go back to the seller and ask for a price reduction once or twice at least.

And in the end you run the risk of pissing off the seller so they change to another real estate broker/agent and you loose all your time and money you spent in the process.

This house is a burglars dream home with this much space to roam around and many access points in and out of the lot and the property and 5.5 acres is a lot of land to keep secured.

So from a building standpoint we lift our hat off to Mr.Nile Niami for building one of the best houses ever built in California.

But Nile has often built houses that he put 15 million dollars into and they sold for 25-30 million dollars.

This here is a totally different beast with maybe around 100 qualified buyers from around the world on a house like this.

So we will here estimate the sales price to be under 200 million dollars from the asking price of 400-500 million dollars.

And the sale will go down something like this, an offer will come in at 150 million dollars and that will be rejected by the seller.

Then the negotiating will start with the buyers reps and they will use the 250 million dollar home as reference that this house should go for under 200 million dollars.

People buying these kind of properties are experts in the due diligence process so they know the money owned on this house is 100+ million dollars.

I would based on 20+ years in the real estate game, guess that we are goanna see a closing number between 160-175 million dollars for this house, when it is all said and done.

So it could end up at 1/3 of the asking price of 500 million dollars.

I of course hope that the seller gets as much as possible for this 9 year project , but the ceiling should be between 150-175 million dollars on a house like this.

This is the reason that it is better to build 10 houses in 10 years for under 15 million dollars, it is much safer from an investment standpoint and the market is 1000x bigger.

https://www.trulia.com/

If you look at houses in Bel Air at Trulia, there are not a lot of houses over 20 million in Bel air.

If you are looking at buying a home, and you feel that you need a second opinion on the property you are more than welcome to use one of our services that you find in our shop in the link here below.

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

We would recommend the business consulting service for less than 300 dollars a month, and you can quit anytime you want after the first month.

Take care out there.

This topic is very sensitive and there are a lot of different opinions on it from left to right and the truth as always is somewhere in the middle!.

To understand the difference between the American health care system compared to the one in Europe or even in Canada we need to dig down deep.

What has happened in America in the past 30 years time compared to Europe is that while the top tier healthcare in the US is world class and we find the top ranked hospitals in he US the overall healthcare has declined a lot in America while it has improved in Europe.

And in rural America it has never been as bad as it is right now in 2021.

In rural America the local pharmacy’s have to be nurse, doctor and pharmacist all in one.

And many pharmacy’s are now vaccinating people because of the lack of public health care in small towns.

So while Europe has something called universal healthcare(everybody is welcome, even if you can not pay) the cost in Europe is half of what it is in the US per patient.

Because in the US when you can not pay for healthcare and medicade does not cover you or you do not qualify for medicade, you wait until you end in the ER and the cost balloons on from there.

1/5 Americans have medicade and it covers the basic care needs, but not much more than that, and you need to qualify for it and many hard working Americans will not qualify for it, because you make more than the 1500 USD per month where it usually is capped, not always but in most cases.

So then you are in the hands of private health insurance providers, which has to be among the biggest scammers in the world today.

There are roughly 30 million Americans with no health insurance and another 80 million with some kind of basic coverage.

The big issue with the American health care system is that it is based on you being able to cover premiums on a monthly basis or you having an employer who will include that in your benefit package.

The problem with that is that many jobs do not offer any health care benefits, (dental, eye and other issues) that we all have a need for at one point or another during our life time.

So usually what happens is that if you get cancer and you need treatment and you have a health insurance who is supposed to cover that, what the insurance company usually does is that they want you to cover as much as possible from your own contribution(so called out of pocket) and they only want to cover small portions of your bills.

So when you hear people going bankrupt due to medical bills, this what they mean and this does not happen in Europe!, this is unheard of.

The insurance company makes money from paying out as little on claims as possible, and with healthcare the opportunity that the insurance companies use is the word (necessary treatment) so your cancer doctor can say that you need this drug or this treatment, but then the insurance companies in-house doctor says NO!.

They will say that it is not necesarry tratment and then you have to pay out of pocket if you want that treatment.

And this whole concept of insurance companies telling your doctor what treatment is necessary is just insane, when you think about it.

The American system has some very serious problems and one is that the drug cost is sometimes 10 times what it is in Europe or even in Canada for the exact samt drug from the exact same producer.

Take the insulin cost for instance in the US, which is 10 times higher than in Canada, from the same supplier.

And the same things for all the other drugs you need, they are often 10x to 100x in the US compared to Europe and Canada.

The next big problem in America is that many hospitals in the same area are owned by the same large cooperation.

They will then set their list prices on different treatments, and this then raises your health insurance costs.

Just that you can spend 30.000 dollars on having a baby in the US while you spend less than 300 dollars in Europe when you having a baby, says it all

This having a baby and being forced to pay one years salary for many workers says it all

So as a normal income earner you constantly having to choose between groceries or health insurance.

And you need groceries now, and you have to choose that option, but then when you need care you can not afford it!.

So you can dislike Bernie Sanders and AOC and shout socialists at them, but they are 100% right, the American health care system is broken, and it has been broken for a long time.

And the only way you start fixing the US health care system is that you put pressure on politicians to start building a health care system that cost the same as the European systems costs, which is around half of the US spending today.

Because ER care is so expensive and when people are not seeking out treament in time, the human cost and the financial cost becomes much higher than needed.

There has to be a government intervention towards drug manufactures, private hospital groups and insurance companies who all have to much power over us normal hard working citizens.

The America´s healthcare crisis is much deeper than you might think.

When we say deeper we means that there are serious underlying issues with inequality in the care that a person who makes 250.000 dollars a , and person who makes 25.000 dollar a year receives.

And this all very wrong, but very powerful lobby groups wants to keep things status Quo, and this is the big problem with trying to get politicians to do anything about this big problem.

Tweets by AOC

So AOC and her age group will have to fix the broken system, Bernie is to old.

So what can you do from your end if you want to make sure that you have good health coverage for yourself and for your family?.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurabegleybloom/2021/01/28/leave-america-how-to-move-to-europe-its-easier-than-you-think/

The American health care crisis will not go away anytime soon.

So either you can make enough money to pay for a 5 star health insurance, or/and you can have an employer who can pay for this in a form of a benefit for you as an employee.

So if you move to Europe and you land a job there, and you pay your taxes which will be pretty much the same as in the US, you will be fully covered and your family will be fully covered also.

And unfortunately there are no quick fixes to this American health care crisis.

One would still hope that the next generation understands that America has to learn from Europe when it comes to how you build a fully functioning health care system that is affordable for the state and for the individual.

And using that model is to be preferred, instead of this broken down model that everybody with a set of eyes will see and agree to is broken at the moment.

And non of this universal healthcare, will hinder private practices to succeed also in the future.

But you need to be able as a country to offer a decent healthcare system for regular hard working Americans , and letting insurance companies to play god is just insane!.

And Americans are dying left and right because they can not afford the right type of cancer treatment, because the insurance company says no.

So let us hope that the younger generation can push true a change in the American healthcare system before we lose any more lives because of greed and mismanagement.

And as always if you need advice, you can always become a client to Mrlifeadvise, see the link below here.

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

Take care out there.

Mrlifeadvise.

So here we go, after a debate with a client last week we will go over some numbers with you to explain why the UFC and professional MMA is not worth going pro financially at least.

So when we go over the numbers from the UFC and from Bellator and other fight promotion companies, it is dire reading for financial advisers.

But the same can be said about kick-boxing ,and even Boxing.

There is a clear cut way of looking at this from a financial standpoint for the fighter.

Only 1% makes more than 1 million dollars per year before costs and taxes.

Only 5% makes more than 300.000 dollars before costs and taxes.

So what people fail to understand when we talk about fighters is that it is a full time job, no matter about that.

It also costs a lot of money to pay for trainers and sparring partners and nutrient advisers.

And if we run down the numbers for you here you will be amazed about the take home pay, or how little the take home pay actually is in dollars for a fighter.

So let us say that you sign a UFC or a similar deal and you become semi successful and win some fights on your entry level contract that will be crap to begin with.

So you make 400.000 dollars a year on two fights, okay this sound pretty good or does it?.

Okay first you have to pay your taxes which we will put to 25%, that is 100k out the window.

Then comes the manager that will take 20% give or take a few percentages, so then it is another 80k out the window.

Now you have to pay trainers, staff and your gym and this is another 100k out the window.

So we are now left with 120k after cost for a semi-successful fighter that can bring home 200k per fight with the Reebok deal included that the UFC forced on to their fighter a few years ago.

Then this 120k that the fighter is left with, has to also cover your medical expenses, your mortgage, your 401K and living expenses.

And here you see the results why it is not financially smart to become a professional fighter, if you can do something-else.

You would really have to be something extra if you are goanna try and build a livelihood on professional MMA.

There where options in the UFC for fighters to have their own brand deals, before the Reebok deal that Dana White and the UFC signed, and many fighters could bring home as much as 100k per fight in these marketing deals.

Often a fighter could have 4-5 brands that would pay 20-25k per fight, to the fighter, and this took care of the training cost.

So unless you become Jon Jones or a Connor M, financially you should choose another career.

Boxing pretty much is the same deal as MMA you need to make it to the 1% of the top earners to be able to justify the health risk that you are putting yourself true.

YES we know that some people might not be good at anything-else than fighting and for those peopole the risk might be worth it.

But for others make sure that you understand that you will have a difficult time surviving financially in the fight game long-term wise.

We fully understand the allure or becoming a well recognized professional fighter, but make sure you have the real financial numbers in front of you, before you embark on this very risky and dangerous journey.

Many fighters only actually makes 50.000 dollars per fight and that is pretax and precost.

So most likley you would make more money in a regular 9-5 job if you put the effort in.

We do not want to talk down to MMA fighters or aspiring MMA fighters, but we would really like to see a debate on the financial aspects of making a living as a fighter regardless if it is boxing ,MMA or the UFC.

Take care out there.

Mrlifeadvise.

We have seen over the past 30 years time that a large number of professional athletes end up broke or in financial distress within 3-5 years from the day they retire.

There are estimated numbers that 60% of all NBA players go broke within 5 year after retirement and around 75% of all NFL players have the same outcome.

There are many reason athletes go broke within 5 years after retirement, but we can say with certainty that gambling addiction is a big problem for many athletes.

And very often Las Vegas casinos among others try and get professional players to come and spend time at their casino, and very often there are great perks that are being offered like free hotel rooms and even sometimes free chips to play with in the beginning!.

This is how many athletes gets started with their gambling journey, not everybody can control their gambling like Michael Jordan can, and they become addicted after awhile.

Then they start losing after awhile and then they enter the most dangerous stage in all gambler’s lives which is the state of chasing your losses!.

So let us say that you end up losing 1 million dollars the first year you gamble and you want it back, so after the second year you are down 2 million dollars.

And this is where most gamblers lose it all!, chasing their losses year after year.

NEGA/Never ever gamble again addiction treament program works well in these cases, where you nip the problem in the butt so to speak as soon as possible.

So once the athlete has lost the first one million dollars gambling the access to money gets cut off and the power of attorney makes it so that casinos can not any longer offer any credit to the player.

And of course in most cases it is good to inform all casinos in the US that the player has given a power of attorney to a CPA or another professional.

We want to point out that we often suggest that in normal peoples lives the power of attorney can he given to family members or closly trusted friends.

Because a normal gambling addict does not have access to a lot of money in a short time frame!.

When it comes to professional athletes there is the problem that many of them come from low income households and their family members are often not used to handling large sums of money at once or at all.

So we advise often that in cases with athletes that comes from low earing families that you use a big CPA firm that can manage the money for the athlete from very early on in their careers.

Lets look at an example of an NBA player who makes 4 million dollars a year in salary with endorsements included in this sum.

There is depending on which state the player lives in at least 30-50% in taxes that disappears that way.

Then you have agent fees, and other fees that needs to be covered also.

So for the sake of the argument lets assume that the player gets to keep 50% of their income after taxes and costs.

This would mean that they have around 166.000 dollars a month left in net income and that sounds like a lot of money.

But many professional athletes have up to 7 or even 8 relatives either living with them or that they have to financially care for each month.

So a good portion like 60k can be given out to relatives.

Then comes the houses and the cars that requires monthly payments on mortgages and car leases, So let us say that this takes up another 50k a month of the net income.

Then on top of this their is usually a lot of so called friends hanging around that needs money to stay a float, and here usually there is dinners and nightclubs visits and of course the athlete pays for all of this.

Now if you add gambling on top of this, you can very clearly see why many athletes spend everything they make or sometimes even more.

And in many cases when there is no CPA involved the athlete spend the full paycheck and does not understand to cover their taxes.

So then often the IRA comes knocking after awhile and then the properties and the cars gets sold off to cover the tax bill.

So the NEGA gambling addiction treatment program really helps with making sure that the professional athlete does not have to end up broke, due to a developed over time gambling addiction.

It is mind boggling that we are living in the year of 2021 and still big organization like the professional sports teams does not take this matter serious enough, that over half of all professional athletes end up broke within a few years of retirement.

So it is very much up to the family members and people close to the professional athletes to get involved and seek outside help from big CPA firms who can be a full service staff for handling taxes and also handling investments.

If an athlete makes 10 million dollars during a 5 year period that amount should be enough to live on for the remainder of their life, if the money is wisely invested.

And wise investments are not buying land with a high school friend based on a gut feeling that it could be a good idea.

We are sometimes amazed about the investments that professional athletes end up making with their family members or friend that a normal business plan made by a professional would easily show the risks and down sides of that investment.

Most of these so called investments are complete BS and there is a study out there somewhere that 95% of these investments failed to give back more than 10% of the initial investment.

So one would hope that we could help our young athletes that are coming up now in the professional sports world with sound investments advice, and also making sure that they never start to gamble in the first place, because that is a slippery slope like nothing you ever seen before!.

So you will find our NEGA gambling treatment program in our shop or true this link here below.

NEGA/NEVER EVER GAMBLE AGAIN

And as we recommend in our program that you also go to meetings at the gamblers anonyms.

Here is the link to the US meetings

http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/ga/locations

Take care out there.

NEGA/NEVER EVER GAMBLE AGAIN

So we have been following the saga of the gamestop stock for just about a month now.

And holy shit!, what a mess it has been to follow from the sidelines.

As a business consulting company who also gives advice on investing for companies and company owners we would never recommend anybody to put their money on the casino floor that this stock has showed out to be.

So we want to start by congratulating those small investors who made a buck on the gamestop stock, we take our hat off to you!.

Also our deep condolences to you guys who where/are Robinhood investors, that got seriously burned when you could not trade in a normal way.

This situation clearly sheds the light on why you should not trade true a plattform like Robinhood but rather open up a proper brokerage account, even if you have to pay some fees to have access to that type of trading.

For us who have been in the business advice game and in the inversting game for a long time we have always known that many companies who offers themselves as a great solution for you to save money, often have some ulterior motives when it comes to making money on you as a customers.

So selling the customers information to another company has been going on online since around 1999.

So for an example a company gathered an email lists of people wanting to lose-weight, and then sold that list to a supplement company selling fat burner supplements for instance.

So the Robinhood plattform was selling your client information to Wall street and making money on that.

Then when a few overleveraged hedge funds has shit the bed, they cried out for help from their supplier of information and this is such market manipulation that we have never seen anything like this ever before.

What really upsets us are that these hedge funds can crush companies by shorting them and making billions of dollars and destroying small pension funds Net Worths for city workers for instance and nobody cares.

But as soon as these hedge fund cry babies get a bit wet they cry to mommy for a towel.

We have had the opportunity to meet a few hedge fund managers over the past two decades and there are some smart people among them who have some kind of understanding about why greed is not always good.

We can clearly remember a meeting in 2009 in NYC when we where sitting in on a meeting with our client who had an offer for a really large investment from a hedge fund into their smaller publicly traded company on the Stockholm stock exchange.

And they wanted our client to sell his shares to them so they could take control of the company.

And we advised our client that evening after our meeting that these people will not care for your business or your employees at all they are just there to make a quick buck no matter what they tell you.

He ended up not accepting their offer and they moved on to destroy other peoples lives, and he is still to this day grateful to us as advisers, that we adviced against selling there and then.

So the point we want to get across to our smaller and medium sized business owners and readers are that make sure that you have your own (proper) brokerage account if you are goanna invest, do not put your financial future in the hands of plattforms like the Robinhood for instance.

Because Barstool Dave can afford to lose 750.000 dollars, but as a small business owner if you lose 75.000 dollars because you can not trade properly on a plattform that can be your companies future investments possibilities on the line.

So you can always reach out to us for business advice because we are business advisers, and we love to see smaller businesses thrive and stay in business for a long time.

Because the small businesses are the once who really keep the jobs flowing and the economy going.

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

Also we have a cooperation with Lose-weightcheap , So check these guys out if you feel that you need to lose some weight in a cheaper manner.

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Take care guys and stay safe out there.

Mrlifeadvise.

So very often we read about the success stories in magazines and online from people who made it and made it big!.

But very seldom do we hear about the business failures, more than just a line in the local paper or similar.

More than 50% of all small business owners fail within the first 5 years time.

If you managed to survive the first 5 years then usually that business is goanna be around for a long time.

There are a few very important things that you should always take into consideration when you start a business of any kind, and also along the way as the business grows.

No1: Never guarantee a debt in an INC or an LLC, which in many cases means that you have to put your house or other private assets up as collateral for a commercial business loan.

And the manin reason for that is that 50% of all start ups fail within the first 5 years of opening their doors.

CPAs and business advisers likes to point out that if you put your house up as collateral the interrest on your loan can be as low as 3-5%.

So if you have a commercial loan without any collateral the interest rate is usually from 12-22% which is very high.

So we totally understand that side of the argument, but if you go into business it is a huge risk that you end up losing your home if your business fails.

And if you do not put up you home, then you have something to fall back on and somwhere to live.

There are few things that are more draining as a business owner than when your business goes under you also end up losing your home and having to move in an already extremely stressfull situation.

So taking out a high interest commercial loan is almost always the way to go unless you are 100% sure that you will not end up losing your business.

These cases are very rare, we could say that they are loans taken out to cover POs (purchase orders) for customers or similar cases.

Nr2: Never sign any document that you are personally also liable for the business loan, because if you are, you also need to file personal bankruptcy to get rid of that debt.

So very often you are pressured by lenders to co-sign for your business and this is a very bad idea.

Often they use the argument that do you not believe in your business?, and that is a very weak argument to use on a business owner.

Who could foresee the Covid-19 pandemic hitting the world in March 2020?.

So anything can happen to your business this just a fact!.

Nr3: The third thing you should know that even if you have very good coverage insurance wise, you have to fight tooth and nails to the bitter end with most insurance companies to get what you are entitled to according to your insurance agreement.

And the reason for this is that it is cheaper to drag you to court than to pay out your claim, this is something that we have seen happen all over the world when companies had pandemic insurance and Covid-19 HIT.

So you can never trust your insurance company they are all ASS HOLES ALL OVER THE WORLD.

And their business model is to collect money on premiums and not to pay it out when you need it.

The only customers that gets paid are the lawyers because they will sue immediately and they know the law, so the insurance companies like to harass small business owners, it is much easier to pray on the weaker ones.

No3: Make sure that if you for whatever reason have to personally guarantee a business loan that you never agree to sum larger than 2 years net salaries (the amount you could make working as an employee), then it will take you 2-3 years to pay back if you work two jobs.

No4: Try and avoid blaming yourself for the business failing, take away the good parts and learn from the bad parts of conducting business.

No5: Under no circumstances should you start self medicating with drugs or alcohol after a failed business, this will just lead you down a rabbit hole that many never returns from.

So fresh air, exercise , mindfulness spending more time with your pet/pets will help you true what many says are the worst times of their lives.

No6: Take a break from running your own business, go back to employment for a 2-3 year period and find your balance that way.

This is usually a good way to recover both financially and mentally by working for a corporate rather than immediately after a failed business jump right back into a new one.

No7: If you have to file for chapter 7 or chapter 11 bankruptcy make sure that you have the right advisors by your side like a good CPA or a similar professional who can guide you true it step by step.

No8: Be very careful when lenders and creditors reaches out to you after a failed business.

Very often you are drained financially and also emotionally and many creditor and lenders tries to use that to their advantage when reaching out to you.

So never agree to anything over the phone or just because you feel guilty for failing and leaving debt behind to other companies and lenders, this is part of doing business.

No9: Work two jobs to keep you from sitting at home going over why your business failed, you should learn from the mistakes and do a proper due diligence after a few months time to figure out what the root cause for the failure was.

But once the business has failed you can not fix it anymore so driving yourself crazy by dwelling over things will not get you anywhere.

No10: If you feel that you are ready to start a new business after awhile, a good idea is to keep your daytime job and start the company while working with it in the evenings and on the weekends , this way you ease into it rather than jump from the deep end into a risky venture again.

If you feel that you need expert advise, then feel free to contact us we offer many good packages for small and medium sized business owners and to management https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

One our clients has written this kindle e-book and we highly recommend it to anybody wanting to stay healthy and in shape, or wanting to lose-weight.

Take care out there and stray strong.

So many of our clients keeps asking us every month that is there any light at the end on the tunnel?, during 2021.

So this question is very difficult to answer for companies in general when it comes to how this year 2021 is goanna play out for smaller and medium sized businesses.

When it comes to restaurants, hotels and brick and mortar stores this year 2021 will be in many ways worse than 2020 was.

the main reason for this is that what ever debt that was accumulated for the business but also for the business owner that where not able to withdraw a paycheck from their closed in 2020 business will come due in 2021. I

People like you who had a small restaurant in the NYC and you where forced to close due to Covid-19 in March 2020 and you HAVE been closed for almost a a year by now.

You are now so under water with your lease, with your personal finances that the chance for you to be able to re-open again in the spring of 2021 will be very slim at best.

This is the reason why 30% of all restaurants and coffee shops in NYC will not open their does ever again.

https://ny.eater.com/2021/1/7/22212992/nyc-restaurant-closings-january-2021

When we talk about the light at the end on the tunnel during 2021, this means to us that we will be living in a new normal from April 2021 to the spring of 2022.

So we are looking at another 15 months until we have some what of a normalcy back into our business lives.

But most companies will not make it that far, and the bankruptcy’s will keep coming like a tsunami during this year 2021.

We say WHEN clients keeps asking us will we be back to normal in 2021? in our business life, the short answer is NO!.

In conclusion at this moment in time, many business owners that hoped that if they survived 2020, that they will be able to bounce back in 2021 are starting to realize that this will not happen.

So no matter how emotionally hard it is to have to ask your business and maybe even yourself into bankruptcy this will be the time to do that.

There is a golden rule when it comes to commercial debt for companies and that is 9x your early earnings.

So this means that if your company earns 100.000 dollars a year and the company is 900.000 dollars in debt , most likely it is a god idea to close up shop.

But for each individual company it is a good thing to talk to an experienced CPA and ask them for advice.

When it comes to personal debt that is not backed up by a house or a similar asset the number for when you should most likely declare for bankruptcy is 6x your early net income

We can see that many of our clients are hurting badly both with their business but also in a private way when it comes to fiances.

Of course this all comes down in the end to how did your corporate and private finances look like prior to the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world and your business.

If you where living paycheck to paycheck in your business and also personally there is not much you can do!.

So many times knowing when it is over, is equally as important as knowing when not to throw in the towel.

https://mrlifeadvise.com/shop/

We are always willing to help smaller and medium sized companies as business advisers.

And many times it is important to get a second opinion from someone that is not close to the business that you run.

Take care and stay strong out there.