I never know what I'm going to write about in this blog until I open my laptop. There is no shortage of material, that's for sure! There have been some weeks I have literally sat down and started typing when something major would blow up and POOF change of topic.
Today, I'm killing some time in a little coffee shop overlooking the Hudson River at Chelsea Piers before my business workshop. I walked from Port Authority to Chelsea on the High Line, a pedestrian walkway built out of an old trolley line.
Today, I'm killing some time in a little coffee shop overlooking the Hudson River at Chelsea Piers before my business workshop. I walked from Port Authority to Chelsea on the High Line, a pedestrian walkway built out of an old trolley line.
This twice-monthly business workshop in Manhattan is vital – it's where I need to be in this stage of my development, hanging out with other swashbuckling entrepreneurs. It's a diverse group – from sole proprietors to small firms employing 20 people. I would like to be a small firm employing 20 people, but I understand you have to have some fairly stable income to be able to pay those people on a regular basis! We're getting there. And that's why I go to these workshops, to help draw my map from where we are now to where we want to be. These fast-talking New Yorkers have done it in a much higher pressure environment than Wilkes-Barre, so I figure they can teach me a few tricks. Quite a few of them are in real estate. Quite a few are women.
It's a beautiful day in New York City. But weighing heavily on my mind are the million things I have on my to-do list back in Wilkes-Barre. In fact, when I sat down with my cappuccino and opened my laptop, the first ting I saw was my Action List, in red. I started reading down the list and thought, “this ALONE would make a good blog post!” I can't make this up, I really can't.
On top of my list is planning my daughter's 7th birthday party, which is personal and shouldn't really be on a business action list, except business priorities have been edging out the personal ones lately. And I realized on Monday that, holy moley my out-of-state family is set to come in on Memorial Day weekend, and I have less than two weeks to plan this thing! Well I booked Super Bounce in Wyoming for two hours on that Sunday, and I trust my husband can print out the 24 invitations for every kid in her 1st grade class. We did this last year, too, and only 11 or 12 of them came. My nightmare is one of these years EVERYONE will show up. It happened to one of the other moms I know. Hopefully by around 4th grade Savannah will have the social skills to invite only the friends she really wants there discreetly so as not to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't have a lot of experience with elementary school politics, so I just ask the more experienced moms. They say invite everyone in the class, or just invite all the girls. Savannah likes boys. A lot. Steve and I are in trouble, aren't we?
I know most people aren't reading my blog to read about my daughter's 7th birthday party. I'm only including it here because it's the reality of the Momtrepreneur. Life goes on, swirling around you while you try to run a start-up. It doesn't stop. And if you're a woman, you are likely on the hook for planning the birthday party, getting the kid to soccer, cooking supper and keeping the house clean, too. Not to say my husband doesn't help, he's pretty awesome. But if I left it up to him to clean the house we'd run out of dishes and clean clothes. No offense, hon. That's just the way it is and I've accepted it! At least until our business gets profitable enough to hire some household help, anyway.
So... on to the truly business-related to-do's on my list:
1- The May bills. These are the ones due at the end of the month, which is most of them. A recent on-line log-in revealed we spent over $10,000 just at Home Depot this month. We are flipping 5 houses and doing extensive renovations on two of our rentals, so it shouldn't surprise me. But it did blow my mind a little bit. Will the income received measure up to the expenses due? Guess I'll find out! I suspect a lot of the Home Depot was 6, 12, 18 months no interest promotional purchases. But this is why I often have to pop two melatonin tablets to get to sleep at night. I've heard from people in my workshop it gets better.
2- Rent collections actions. This is never fun, and we haven't had to do it in awhile, but two of our tenants did not pay rent for May. One we suspect might have cut and run, there didn't seem to be signs of occupancy when Steve left a note on her door. I hope so - an abandonment situation is much easier to deal with than a court eviction.
The other no-pay is a guy whose rent was being paid by CEO, which is a local social service agency. I found it odd that I didn't get a check this month, so I waited a few days for the mail and then called them. Turns out his account was closed! And it was up to the tenant, not the agency, to communicate that fact with us. I spoke with him last week and he said he knew the rent was due and would talk to his fiance and get back to me. I'm still waiting on that return phone call. If I don't get it by the time I get done with Savannah's party and the May bills, I'll have to start the court eviction process. At least it's a better time of year to be renting apartments!
Which reminds me, I also need to call back the daughter of a current tenant who's looking for her own place. I may have one for her! In fact, I may have two for her to choose from in the same building because the other CEO client I rented to might have gone up the river! Which brings me to:
3- The Apartment 1-B situation. So Steve gets this call from an unknown phone number. It's a woman claiming our tenant, who just moved in last month, was arrested and has been hauled off to jail. She wants to know how to get his stuff.
I will have to deal with this, but it's a lower priority. I got May's rent – CEO paid it. So even if he has taken up new residence with the state, it's still his apartment. And for all I know this woman could be a crazy ex-girlfriend trying to get his stuff! So until I get a notarized letter from the hoosegow, or until June's rent goes unpaid for 10 days where I can declare it abandoned according to my lease, nobody gets nuttin'.
CEO, by the way, is now oh-for-two. Do I give them one more chance? Or do I count the client of theirs who screwed us over back in 2009 against them and call it three strikes?
4- The skunk on the third floor. This one made me chuckle. Steve got a call on the maintenance line from our third floor tenant. She thinks there's a skunk trapped in the walls. But she only smells it at 3am, weird.
There is a controlled substance, legal in some states for recreational and medical use, that can smell kind of skunky. And there's a new tenant on the second floor who likely has to be educated in the ways of smoke-eating air cleaners, incense and Febreze. Yeah, I'm going to have to make that phone call. Or perhaps an in-person visit, which was more effective with the college boys on the first floor of one of our other buildings.
This is just a small sample of my to-do list. There are 20 urgent things on there right now, some of them exciting, like following up with that business attorney who is setting up our new structure for us, and meeting with our CPA to have her customize Quickbooks for our two new S-Corporations! The property management stuff makes for better reading, though. If I can convince just one landlord that it's not just you, everybody has crazy tenants, then I will have done my good deed for the week.
It's a beautiful afternoon in New York City. I am here to learn how to take our business to the next level. The bullshit has to be dealt with, this is true, but not immediately. It will still be waiting for me when I get back.
It's a beautiful day in New York City. But weighing heavily on my mind are the million things I have on my to-do list back in Wilkes-Barre. In fact, when I sat down with my cappuccino and opened my laptop, the first ting I saw was my Action List, in red. I started reading down the list and thought, “this ALONE would make a good blog post!” I can't make this up, I really can't.
On top of my list is planning my daughter's 7th birthday party, which is personal and shouldn't really be on a business action list, except business priorities have been edging out the personal ones lately. And I realized on Monday that, holy moley my out-of-state family is set to come in on Memorial Day weekend, and I have less than two weeks to plan this thing! Well I booked Super Bounce in Wyoming for two hours on that Sunday, and I trust my husband can print out the 24 invitations for every kid in her 1st grade class. We did this last year, too, and only 11 or 12 of them came. My nightmare is one of these years EVERYONE will show up. It happened to one of the other moms I know. Hopefully by around 4th grade Savannah will have the social skills to invite only the friends she really wants there discreetly so as not to hurt anyone's feelings. I don't have a lot of experience with elementary school politics, so I just ask the more experienced moms. They say invite everyone in the class, or just invite all the girls. Savannah likes boys. A lot. Steve and I are in trouble, aren't we?
I know most people aren't reading my blog to read about my daughter's 7th birthday party. I'm only including it here because it's the reality of the Momtrepreneur. Life goes on, swirling around you while you try to run a start-up. It doesn't stop. And if you're a woman, you are likely on the hook for planning the birthday party, getting the kid to soccer, cooking supper and keeping the house clean, too. Not to say my husband doesn't help, he's pretty awesome. But if I left it up to him to clean the house we'd run out of dishes and clean clothes. No offense, hon. That's just the way it is and I've accepted it! At least until our business gets profitable enough to hire some household help, anyway.
So... on to the truly business-related to-do's on my list:
1- The May bills. These are the ones due at the end of the month, which is most of them. A recent on-line log-in revealed we spent over $10,000 just at Home Depot this month. We are flipping 5 houses and doing extensive renovations on two of our rentals, so it shouldn't surprise me. But it did blow my mind a little bit. Will the income received measure up to the expenses due? Guess I'll find out! I suspect a lot of the Home Depot was 6, 12, 18 months no interest promotional purchases. But this is why I often have to pop two melatonin tablets to get to sleep at night. I've heard from people in my workshop it gets better.
2- Rent collections actions. This is never fun, and we haven't had to do it in awhile, but two of our tenants did not pay rent for May. One we suspect might have cut and run, there didn't seem to be signs of occupancy when Steve left a note on her door. I hope so - an abandonment situation is much easier to deal with than a court eviction.
The other no-pay is a guy whose rent was being paid by CEO, which is a local social service agency. I found it odd that I didn't get a check this month, so I waited a few days for the mail and then called them. Turns out his account was closed! And it was up to the tenant, not the agency, to communicate that fact with us. I spoke with him last week and he said he knew the rent was due and would talk to his fiance and get back to me. I'm still waiting on that return phone call. If I don't get it by the time I get done with Savannah's party and the May bills, I'll have to start the court eviction process. At least it's a better time of year to be renting apartments!
Which reminds me, I also need to call back the daughter of a current tenant who's looking for her own place. I may have one for her! In fact, I may have two for her to choose from in the same building because the other CEO client I rented to might have gone up the river! Which brings me to:
3- The Apartment 1-B situation. So Steve gets this call from an unknown phone number. It's a woman claiming our tenant, who just moved in last month, was arrested and has been hauled off to jail. She wants to know how to get his stuff.
I will have to deal with this, but it's a lower priority. I got May's rent – CEO paid it. So even if he has taken up new residence with the state, it's still his apartment. And for all I know this woman could be a crazy ex-girlfriend trying to get his stuff! So until I get a notarized letter from the hoosegow, or until June's rent goes unpaid for 10 days where I can declare it abandoned according to my lease, nobody gets nuttin'.
CEO, by the way, is now oh-for-two. Do I give them one more chance? Or do I count the client of theirs who screwed us over back in 2009 against them and call it three strikes?
4- The skunk on the third floor. This one made me chuckle. Steve got a call on the maintenance line from our third floor tenant. She thinks there's a skunk trapped in the walls. But she only smells it at 3am, weird.
There is a controlled substance, legal in some states for recreational and medical use, that can smell kind of skunky. And there's a new tenant on the second floor who likely has to be educated in the ways of smoke-eating air cleaners, incense and Febreze. Yeah, I'm going to have to make that phone call. Or perhaps an in-person visit, which was more effective with the college boys on the first floor of one of our other buildings.
This is just a small sample of my to-do list. There are 20 urgent things on there right now, some of them exciting, like following up with that business attorney who is setting up our new structure for us, and meeting with our CPA to have her customize Quickbooks for our two new S-Corporations! The property management stuff makes for better reading, though. If I can convince just one landlord that it's not just you, everybody has crazy tenants, then I will have done my good deed for the week.
It's a beautiful afternoon in New York City. I am here to learn how to take our business to the next level. The bullshit has to be dealt with, this is true, but not immediately. It will still be waiting for me when I get back.