I agree- not that I wont donate (because Im always up for helping a casue that keeps pur cars on the road-so I try to donate as often as I can) but everyone who runs a show is telling me they just cant get sponsorships anymore from the bigger companies. People forget that running a good show costs $$$$- so if you can spare the cash or stuff- PLEASE donate to the local car show. Our shop is busy too, I guess maybe Im just not getting the wild goose chases anymore and people who contact us actually want the work from us. Im just not seeing the website traffic (or should I say Dana isnt- I dont even know how to read that stuff) and we still put new pics up all the time of the work going on. I guess she needs to come up with some new stuff on the home page or something to keep people coming back and watching whats going on- Once the Open House happens we'll put pics up of that. I know what you mean about shows and long distance- people just arent gonna do it this year. Luckily for me- I do the same ones each year and the new one Ive added is practically in my backyard instead of going down to KY in August. who knows.......... BTW looking for someone with a video camera if you want to shoot some video of our Open House- Id love to put the band and cars on You Tube or something .
My business is based on the Real Estate Market............................................................................................................................................................ I guess that’s all I need to say!
also in the oil industry, but the downstream side: quality control and loss control on bunker fuels for ships and feedstocks for the refinery's. Been going pretty well and getting ready to hire more people. though will have a better idea as to what the year will bring by July, as that is when shipping is really in full swing.
I know I'm going to blow my "Economic Stimulus Package" on hot rod parts. I need some wide whites for the '40.
Been doing the hotrod ch***is and parts for almost 30 years with some measure of success. It seems to have slowed down from a high point of 3 years ago but we are still taking some orders, customers just don't have to wait as long. It'll all shake out, and if your a survivor, business will be good again.
I design and manufacture furnitre, and in the last 1-1/2 years my two biggest dealers folded. I've started selling on Amazon.com and that is starting to take off, so I'm designing UPS freindly furniture this year and hope to have fifty different thing on Amazon by fall. jim h NORSEWOODS woodworking
Here is a little sound bite to play for the office Megan. http://a1611.g.akamai.net/f/1611/23...DRS Blog/04032008_recession_ranting_idiot.mp3 Negativity is a self fullfilling prophecy.
I work at a large car dealer, Business has been bad for about 2 years. I think we will work thru this downturn ,but it will be hard. I also have a small powdercoat shop, get a few customers now and then. Hate to be like the rest of the old guys, but this ain't nothin like the reccesions of the 70's We'd wait around the shop for a couple of weeks for a car to work on. It dosen't help that those jack***es on TV keep telling us how bad it is. Also that we can't drill our own oil and pay our enemys for our fuel.
I'm in the automotive performance aftermarket. Things are slower than normal now. Most shops I talk to say that this is the worst its been in years. More shops have closed this year than usual... but we've also open up accounts for more startup businesses too. As far as my place... we are doing good. We just looked at the situation and went after more of a market share by changing things up a bit... rather than sitting around waiting for the economy to ramp up.
I suspect alot of us will end up a whole lot busier when the "economic stimulus packages" hit the mail. I have already seen and heard several "I'm waiting for that check to do ______, _____, and re-wire it all at the same time." happens every year around here. march and april waffle, and by May, I need 10 more guys.
Yeah, I think that typically this time of year is tough for about the next month or so for tax paying folks. Nobody is in the mood to buy non-essentials after writing a big check to the IRS. Tman, Dave Ramsey has a show to do...that's all it is a show...you can take his opinons and put them on the shelf with a million others. If Ramsey is saying that we are at the start of a recession then ****, it's worse than I thought. Maybe we're using the wrong word and we should call it something different. All I know is, that the money that fuels exploration is drying up so investors are skidish and some are pulling back their well investments unless it's a sure bet you're going to hit big. I know that the northwest is doing good, you haven't told me anything I don't know. When you get up there you have more oil and it's shallower than in south Texas. We don't see hardly any oil drilling here, mostly natural gas. The oil was pumped out years ago that's why the northwest is doing good. However, we are going to drill the deepest land well in south Texas in a few weeks. It will be a record setter at over 25,000 feet. The average well here is between 15 and 20 thousand feet. So it's hard to say but instead of sniping people that respond to this thread why don't you offer up your opinion and not Dave Ramsey's.
Haha.. was hoping someone would say that... its time to call a spade a spade... just because we dont have 2 consecutive negitive GDP's doesn't mean the economy isnt in the toliet. Its not a bad thing, The American public has been on a crazy spending binge for the last 15-20 years... buying this and that trying to keep up with the Jones... maybe some hard times will wake people up and realize they need to save for what they want and there retirement/future. The newer generations are even worse, with Daddy footing the bill for everything and bailing them out of any financial problem they get into... let them sweat and they will learn. For god sakes, "I Cant Afford it" is the new cuss word of todays society. I think the last time i checked, national average of savings per household was around 2% of annual income... 2%?!?!?!? Scary... and with the baby boomers fixing to hit social security, you best be investing your penny's... FWIW: I got laid off 2 months ago, my Wife got laid off 2 weeks ago.... im not bitter, really!!!
Been in business for 19 years.Collision side of business always ****s from late Feb thru early April.Street rod business is as strong as ever. Mike
"It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours." Harry Truman Our automotive parts/service/radiator-shop has been slow since right before Christmas. Not abnormal but far slower than "normal". We can hardly keep up with our reproduction Mopar muscle car radiator orders at $1000-1600 per clip. I don't feel most of the "boomers" are as strapped for cash as the "working poor" right now. The debt and excess of our society is finally catching up with the majority of Americans. We have not only outsourced many of our jobs... we have outsourced our lifestyle along with it. sad. The rich are getting or at the very least staying rich... the poor are still generously accepting handouts and the middle cl*** is nearly footing the entire bill... again.
Aman,what pay is that in{25,000ft}? The oil business in west Texas and New Mexico is off the chart. I get several job offers a week from out there. I was raised in the area and know lots of people. They say if your a warm body and can p*** a drug test[at least on the second try} you will have no problem going to work. I know differant regions are affected differant. What's the rig count in south Texas? My father-in law and brother -in-law are both in the service business for oilfield and it's booming for them. They are in the Houston to dallas area . I am in the concrete business now. It's a little off but not like the evening news would lead you to believe. I setting between 15-20 houses a week and pouring them. Company wide we are setting 50+ a week. It's a buyers market here in Houston now. Most of the homes we set are $500,000 and up. That is a very nice house here,not like the calif. market. Strange how differant area are hit.
I have a very Non Hamb business.. I sell wildlife feeders and fish feeders online... Sales have been cut in half for us here inthe last 6 months. It's really getting bad. As a matter of fact I have just started a more HAMB friendly vendor business to fill the gap by doing weekend festivals, trade days, and car shows. Metal signs, garage art, license plates, etc. Hey, I gotta do something to earn some project money! LOL Should be a fun thing to do. Here's a small sample of some of the sign designs. Hoping to add some 50's related car and hot rod accessories as time goes on.
there have always been downturns in our economy , it's the business cycle and there have been many ups and downs since or country was founded. nothing goes up forever..including the stock market and home prices. things need to readjust. then it will come back , it always does if you are a student of history you would know this , unfortunately it seams very few people have learned this lesson . those that have and planned accordingly for it are doing fine . i'm doing just fine
dudes! i'm in the business of repairing,installing and rebuilding food processing equipment and it seems like people keep eating so i'm as busy as i want to be. i grew up in the family grocery business and my dad always told us kids "people will walk and wear the clothes on their back until they fall off before they stop eating because they have no choice, everybody has to eat!" people are tightening up with money because the used machinery market is doing well.people don't want to put out that 100% outlay for new machines but will take a risk at 60%.
No point in arguing over whether we are in a recession or not. Its like when your son says he feels terrible because he says he has a cold, and you want to debate him because you think it's the flu. The point is the kid feels awful. Some folks are feeling an economic pinch right now and it won't help them one little bit by pitching definitions at them.
Well, I'm a business student and have a good background in market research and blah blah blah. You guys are the ones that see the most change. The truth is that our economy is set up to do this, the bad times produce the good, but things can't be good forever. Usually things happen that cause it to go down, like a lot of you have said, and those things have happened lately. However, the country is out on a skinny limb this time around. Hardly anyone has a backup, that is what is wrong with the real estate market. The only way to survive is adapt. We, small business owners, have to work harder, spend less, and act smarter. This means t******* up, cutting jobs, and adding onto your personal abilities. Things will be different, so guys with luxury businesses, like so-cal speed shop (for example only), are going to suffer because their market is going to fall out from under them. But you guys with small shops can adapt and start selling/fixing everyones cars. You may not want to, but it will be better than seeing your kids go hungry. It all comes down to your customers tightening up, and you tightening up, and your employees tightening up. It ****s, and it is not going to be fixed by a stimulus package (which is just a ploy to get more people to file taxes because guess who else needs money). Hard work is what will fix it. I hate to say it but we got to big. We are so internationally spread out we cannot recover our own dollar's value. We have no value, so neither does our cash. This effects the big guys most, but we are all going to feel it over the next few years. Of course there are a few back doors that will shore it up and eventually reinforce the economy. But it is not going to be as good for quite a while. You guys all know this stuff, I'm preachin to the choir, but I just had to get this stuff off my chest. I love hot rods, and I don't want it to be all over because I am worried about stuff like finding a job or getting a meal. The truth is that there is so little I can do, except work harder.
I talked to a guy that had over a million in cars, all really nice and fully restored/worked over, but he was feeling really bad because he wasn't going to recover his money out of them now; he waited way too long. Oh well, such is life. At least he has some sweet rides to roll around in. Oh, and he just (in the last few months) built an enormous restoration facility that will probably see little use now.
The fuel cost is killing all of us. The cost of everything goes up with the cost of fuel. Look at the cost of food. Over $4.00 a gal for diesel. So the truckers p*** it on to us. We don't need no stinken recession. its the inflation thats killing us.
Made ya look (or listen) Dave does have a show, but he does speak common sense (just made our last car payment today ) My opinion is follow the definitions, and like I said, by definition we are not in a recession.....but spending habits ARE changing.........I get a first hand look at a broad cross section of folks finances working in the Mortgage business. What is happening was inevitable, folks got greedy. The Jones' are leveraged to the hilt and there had to be a time to correct, YOU CAN NOT keep up with the Jones'! BUT, you can live smarter. Just like business it is all about overhead, live with less debt and everything is easier. I will work with a couple for 6 months-whenever in a counseling capacity instead of writing a bad loan. And now more than ever, folks are ready to make a change. Yes, some areas of the country are slowing down. Others are booming. I will steal another line from Dave "it is up to each of us to wake up each day, leave the cave, kill something and drag it back to feed our family". Whining about how bad things are is just that, whining. I truly was curious about the oil business down there. Crazy it can be booming up here and flat in your area (which we relate, Texas=oil). I think we agree enough to discuss it over a cold one like gents. We could debate this topic for days so I will shut up. I am going to go play with this A Tudor I am starting.
The Jalopy Journal
