One year ago today: September 4, 2017, barflies = ???
Five years ago today: September 4, 2013, not that much difference.
Nine years ago today: September 4, 2009, tagless music is ho-hum.
Random years ago today: September 4, 2006, Florida, the moron state.
An off-on day of rain didn’t stop me from putting in some long hours on the hotdog cart. I know the entire construction inside out and there are still fussy parts I don’t understand what they are for. This is the replacement sheet of flashing I used in the new firebox. It is sturdier and higher quality than the tin used in the original construction, but I could not locate that material. This is what took time today, as I am unfamiliar with this brand of work. There is also a steam-tray venting system that runs around the perimeter of this opening which had to be removed to get at what I’m doing here.
We got the freezer happening, the doors are crooked but it works fine. We also planned out this weekend. He’s going to hop a ride with the commissary lady for the supplies. She has a membership at the buying club, so that will save me $150. He won’t need the sodas since he is right next to a bar, which is good because I don’t feel much like hauling those coolers and ice around unless we have to. They are heavy. What I want is the operation to become self-sustaining as quickly as possible. He can’t put any money in because he doesn’t have any, and I don’t like buying supplies because the help always thinks it is good enough that you just make your money back. They don’t understand that buying stock is a high risk investment and I expect a profit from that alone.
This puts my travel plans on hold for this month. It’s a little scary in that I seem to be the only one around here who is aware of how narrow the margins are going to be on this venture. I’m now convinced the average cart operator is not really that sure whether he is making money or not. It is a cash business and one of the worst ways to delude oneself is to think because you have spot cash most of the time, things are sailing along fine. That’s one explanation why so many carts must fail over the first crisis that comes along.
I’ll divert your attention to keeping a good set of books. First, you are required to do so by law, and there are also rules about how you keep them. For this type of business, you use cash accounting, that is, you record income and expenses at the time cash changes hands. But that doesn’t mean you do the same with the purchase or sale of assets. For those who find such things interesting, the other type of accounting is what’s called accrual. It is more used for businesses that operate on credit, because in that situation it gives a more accurate picture of what’s happening. Strange as it sounds, I don’t like accrual accounting because while I agree the picture is more accurate, that is because it is more distorted.
It is also the reason limited liability companies became the norm. In case of a bankruptcy, the creditors are limited to the assets of the business. You get to keep your house and car. Having said that, I don’t use credit and don’t have a high opinion of people who do. That is correct, I see credit as a sign of weakness. Credit also distorts the economy and warps people’s thinking. My reason for forming an LLC is because it also creates a separate entity in case of a lawsuit. Sad but true.
The details are proprietory, but I can tell you the operation of this business is currently tying up $6,910.00. The reason you should pay attention to that is because this is a rare true accounting of the actual costs. The hot dog cart itself has now cost $1,130. All the rest is money that has to be present in some form. Deposits, licenses, fees, insurance, autos, repair funds, operating funds, petty cash, pre-paids, and contingency reserves. Nothing is extravagant and this does not include vehicles, but it should be apparent a food cart requires a reliable tow.
So, you see now the gap between Agt. R’s original idea that you buy a thousand dollar cart and fire it up is quite a departure from reality. He’s got a deeper understanding of how much money is required; though I know if it was up to him he’d cut corners like the liability insurance. So would a lot of people. But without all this accounting, the average operator would probably just wonder why every penny he makes for the first six months seems to evaporate. Or like Mick, the guy who sold us this non-working cart, after 20 years in the business, he still has to use his Friday paycheck to buy supplies for his Saturday commitments. If you want to live hand-to-mouth like that in your business affairs, fine, but count me out. It’s that initial stretch where the money goes bye-bye that probably discourages more beginners than anything else.
Yessiree, $6,910 smackeroos. That might leave a few scratching their heads, but I can tell you doing this type of “desert island” accounting for one month of most people’s finances would shock them to hell and back. That is, write down the money you spend on operations, but also write done the amounts you are not free to spend if you want to be solvent a year from now. It’s a tough call, because the money can be physically there and people’s wants are infinite. More often, the money isn’t there and people rely on credit for emergencies. Ah, now that I explain it, you may see how utterly rotten that structure is.
The only concrete example you get here today is that I have $418 left in petty cash. Two months ago, that would have meant party time to Agt. R, or new tires on the truck. Today he comprehends what a minimal amount it really is, and why so few people have even that amount sitting around. A new term has entered his vocabulary. “Allocated funds.” If he had to run the cart himself this weekend, it would be a major no-go. Keeping the books on a cash basis is mandatory, running the business on a cash basis is foolhardy. I have no idea what size of float is necessary for this undertaking, but I speculate it is in the $800 range just for immediate supplies. And that’s after-tax dollars.
The strange part is if the Democrats ever get back into power, we would be classified as “rich”. Trivia, did you know 21% of radio show call-ins state views that are Libertarian, yet only 3% vote that way? I personally suspect that is a result of the billions the two big parties have spent convincing people votes for anything else are wasted.
Wax museum figure.
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Let’s us talk about the upcoming weekend. I think he’ll be lucky to sell 50 hot dogs that first night, but we must be prepared in case he gets lucky. That means buying, transporting, and storing 120 hot dogs. His focus is selling, my focus is on making sure he can. I’m the one who’s figured out we have to do both Friday and Saturday whether or not that first day is a flop. That means get 240 hotdogs or pay for a second trip for supplies. That is 30 eight-packs. The cart can’t store that many. Add 240 buns.
[Author’s note: one of the reasons I don’t like the cart left alone is this Sony disk player. It is part of the sound system I’m installing. It’s all bolted down and secured when not in use. But sorry, I’ve lived in Miami and I’ve seen first-hand what social integration is all about. And I had the broken car windows to prove it.
Walk through this with us, it should be more than adventure. I now know that I could do this all over again any time I want, where a lot people would land flat on their asses if they tried it. I say that because there is not a hotdog stand on every corner. People fail, I think, because nobody tells them about the downside. The good news here would be if we sold 240 hotdogs, that would pull in close to a thousand bucks. That would kick-start things. And bolster morale. I am also going to break with policy and tell you to the penny what the income and variable expenses are this weekend, assuming it is a go. It isn’t a secret, but I’ve explained many a time why Americans don’t like to reveal or even talk about their income. Did you spot the exactitude of what I stated? The income and variables only.
So here things sit, on the verge of greatness or mediocrity. Roll them dice. And that money was my trip to the Smithsonian six times over. Getting things done always seems to involve much more waiting around than anticipated. It’s because America is no longer geared toward business like the good old days. Periods like today are, by comparison, fast-paced. My comfy kitchen has me at home instead of the coffee shop, and I have more DVD videos on the overhead. It must seem I’m doing little else than watching old movies but I confess I only pay attention to the best parts. I found a collection of 1970-ish productions. You know, back when David Janssen and Robert Vaughn were considered good actors. Did you ever notice they had identical haircuts?
ADDENDUM
Research and reading today centered on modular arithmetic again. I’m understand the process, but I’m unable to grasp a lot of the detailed instructions. For example, how does one “write the odd numbers so that they are divisible by two”. Yet every example in the text uses that step. I can’t follow it. And I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me in plain language how integration and differentiation work. You know, other than blackboard teaching examples, I have never seen anyone solve a differential equation. Oh, I’ve seen plenty of the equations, but that is not what I need to grasp. I want to see somebody come up with an answer that makes sense.
And now the strange event of the day. I turned in a little early, but woke up with a burning, itching feeling all over my forehead and upper cheeks. What the? Then the phone rang and my pal called up about the same thing. That cannot be coincidence. Aha, during the rain showers this afternoon, we both ducked under the neighbor’s tree along the property line for a few minutes. We did this several times. And we do not know what kind of tree it was. We got damp from tree runoff. Now I have this rash and I’m wide awake. Wondering what I did with my cortisone cream.
It is day 279 of my diet and I’ve stopped losing weight. That’s since the middle of May that I’ve been +/- 3 lb. They say this is nothing unusual, my system has just adjusted to less food. And I’ve gotten this far before. How is yours coming along?
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