Accounting Basics

I have a couple of horror stories that came about due to my previous employer, an entreprenuer, who decided to let his new wife take over book keeping. She was not very bright to say the least and certainly not qualified to handle book keeping. I was working in Las Vegas I was the supervisor over four schools that were on the books at the time. the way it worked out was I would spend most of my time on the school that was in full production. The other schools were either finishing up(punch list) or preparing to start (show up to do a little here and there). I was being paid prevailing wage non-union. I would dispatch employees from the union hall and lay off as needed for different phases of different projects. The union employees had a benefits package that was paid monthly by the employer: a vacation fund that was kept in a credit union, and a retirement and health benefits that was paid to the union itself. One day Victor comes to me and said that he wrote all of these checks using the credit union and they all bounced which accrued several nsf fees. Most people had a regular bank to do banking but Victor used his credit union as his normal bank. I had the B.A. out visiting me the next day. It turned out that not only had the vacation fund not been replenished , but non of the benefits package was paid either, for any of the Protec union employees in Las Vegas. Victor was my friend and now I was caught in the middle of Protecs stupidity and the union which was ready to walk off the job. The general contractor got word of it and now it became a huge mess and the only one down there to deal with evil glares was me.
Next story, the blundering book keeper turned in miss matching w4's to the IRS mine wich didn't match my pay stubs. The company goes out of business while I'm trying to get this all straightened out. I end up getting a bill from the IRS for $30,000 dollars and threat of lean on my house within 20 days. Fortunately I had all of my pay stubs and w2 forms to prove the discrepencies and actually got money back after it was all said and done.

Dot Com To Dot Bomb

I was not involved in technology during the .com bust, but I did make alot of money indirictly. I was in construction working down in vancouver washington. The project was SEH. It was a japanese company that grew wafers for nintendo. This project was huge. It lasted about 3 yrs and as soon as it completed the dot com crash happened. The company never moved into the final phase of the project. The project was a two phase project each phase was a building. After completing the first phase the company moved in I was still coming into the building to complete punch list issues. about half way through phase 2 the punch list items of phase 1 were complete. So basically SEH occupied their building for about a year and a half. We also worked on some buildings for Nintendo in Hillsboro Oregon as well.
Another interesting thing that happened during the crash was auctions from dot com liquidations. I went to an auction in Bellevue the auction company was the ?.?.Murphy company out of Kenmore. The environment was so chaotic that a friend of mine paid $100 for a deskjet printer that he could have gotten at re-pc for $20. I think Murphy was the only one making money.

Ron Kornfeld five steps to writing a business plan

When I first listened to the lecture I for some reason I heard things wrong. I had it in my head that he was saying that companies wanted a short concise business plan, but after writing a business plan myself I now realize that he was talking about the executive summary.The area that impressed me the most about Ron was that he had looked at so many business plans. He definitely made a strong point about the importance of having a quality business plan. Prior to taking this class I didn't even know what a business plan was. I at one time had my own business coulking tilt up warehouses that lasted all of about eight months. My brother in law and I were partners all it cost was $500 worth of equipment that I bought from my uncle and he also gave me his list of contacts. All we had to do was put up a bond in order to get credit from suppliers and go from jobsite to jobsite and under bid the competition and we were on our way. I remeber one time this general contractor was too lazy to put some asphalt emulsion on on 1 wall of his building that was butted up against a hill so after I caulked the seams about four feet up the wall so they could back fill, he offered to supply materials if I would roll on this emulsion on the wall. I said I'll do it for $500 mainly because I didn't want to do it but he accepted so I got paid $500 for 2hrs worth of work. Getting back to my point we did have to give a portfolio of jobs that we had done when we bid on work from foushe and associates. That was the closest thing I'd seen to a business plan.

break down of employees

THE ESTIMATIONATOR
OFFICERS:
CEO/50% OWNER
COO/20% OWNER
MARKETING/10%
BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT/10%
SOFTWARE/10%
SALES:
2 MANAGERS
5 SALES REPS/CUSTOMER SERVICE
RECEPTIONIST
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT:
1 MANAGER
4 SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS
1 WEB DEVELOPER
4 TECH SUPPORT

Michele Armstrong

I thought she was a very good guest speaker. She had everything laid out nicely and was able to complete her topics. This was by far the most useful for all of us who are going to be entering the job market in the near future. She changed my views on how to approach my job search. Prior to her presentation I didn't think Craigs List was a valid medium for finding a job. Before pursuing a career in IT I was in construction, so the advice she gave on how to approach the job search in IT was more than helpful to me. Another avenue that came as a suprise to me was using Twitter as part of my job search. She gave good insights on how to prepare for and interview ie."give and example of how you dealt with this situation." Negotiating salaries was another area that I was unsure of and I think she did a great job of explaining all the variable issues that are involved in negotiating.
I didn't realize that a healthy company has turnover. This is good news for us who are entering the job market. I'm feeling much better about the job forecast around the time I graduate, since she said that companies are now hiring recruiters.The eagerness vs agressiveness was also very helpful, I'm and eager kinda guy and it helps to stay in balance. After taking this class in general I'm thinking seriously about going into business for myself eventually. She covered alot of issues from an entreprenuer perspective that I felt were very useful in dealing with employees and covering your ass legally. The employee training and handbook's are a great idea for ensuring the company's protection.

Derek Young/quiz

Estimated questions to guest speakers: 20

I really liked the dialog the class had with Derek Young. As far as a well organized presentation... I don't think so. As far as interesting, I think he was the most interesting of all the guest speakers. I believe that the questions that were asked by me and my classmates pulled out the most interesting points of the presentation. When the lecture started, it seemed like there was alot of distractions due to him being soft spoken and the loud hallway noise coming in from the open door. I don't know if its just me, but it seems that most of the guest speakers try to stay vague when it comes to facts and figures about their own business ie. revenues. Derek was no exception. I think if he would have just given the presentation in his format, he would have talked about the products themselves and left out all of his personality attributes and struggles that I think is his most interesting attribute.
I have been wondering how various websites generated revenues other than obvious advertisements and product sales. I never considered the idea of personal networking as is demonstrated by Dereks websites. It's absolutely amazing that based on word of mouth Suite 133 has two fortune 500 clients. I think Derek is a great example for why anyone would want to be and entreprenuer demonstrated in the way Suite 133 has turned out. He likes everything laid back. I asked if there was unlimited printing and his response was basically we run everything on the honor system "just leave money in the jar" if you feel like you've over-run your share.Where else can a person set the laid back low stress environment like that?... just be the owner.
I reviewed his website, exit133.com, and was impressed with the vision for exposing Tacoma to the community. One of the things that's going to change peoples perspective of Tacoma is when they get rid of the pulp mill. This morning on my way in from Puyallup on I-5 I could smell the "aroma of Tacoma" though rare it's still there Ironically it was at exit 133 that I smelled it.
I like the way he discussed the differences in philosophy regarding getting extra operating capital between him and his partners. When he first came in he said they were a debt free company which I thought made a huge statement like "look at us we did it without selling our soul's to mafia". I believe that the partner who came from the family owned business has been key in keeping those freedoms alive. I would say that maybe using a little extra finances to get through a bad month in order to keep employees around is not unreasonable, but I think if it weren't for that partner, I don't think Derek could boast of them being a debt free company like he did at the beginning of class.