Wednesday 10 April 2024

Business Model Chatter

 I took a business class while attending Louisiana Tech at night (while in the Air Force).  It was an interesting class because the professor (masters degree and all) had gone out five years prior with an idea....then failed miserably in 18 months.  He went through a learning process...writing up his own paper (30 pages) of where he went wrong in the process of building a business model.

He was brutally honest in the class....what he had been taught in the late 1960s for his degree...was great on paper, but in apply all that crap to reality, it was mostly worthless information.  It was stuff that college couldn't teach.

We spent 2.5 hours that night covering the singular topic, and I will admit....I had a lot of wise professors with Louisiana Tech...but this guy impressed me.

I left that night fairly well consumed on the topic of business models.  You have to have a written model in planning a business, and have an understanding of local/state taxes.  It impressed upon me....you have to account for sales taxes, property taxes, and the social security taxes of your employees.  You also have to plan out the cost of monthly operations with salary, and to be successful....you need plus-numbers.  

Meaning of plus-numbers?  You have to start out expecting dismal numbers for the first six months, and eventually see a trend developing where there is profit.  If at the first year concluding....this has yet to happen, you need to prepare for an end-process.

I sat this week looking at the California pursuit of $20-an-hour for restaurant workers.  Whatever business model they had for 2023....it's dissolved entirely now.

A burger operation now concerned?  If you had a burger-men dinner for $12 to $14 in 2023....under the new model.....you probably are selling the same menu for $16 to $18 now.  Figure the upswing on costs with taxation?  There's probably another 50-cents made for the state and local community.  

But here's the full impact....other folks (non-restaurant workers) now want the $20-an-hour deal.  Politicians?  Now in trouble.

People outside of California?  Well....they will want the $20-an-hour deal as well.  So at some point, you will see some Louisiana gas station, or some Alabama pancake 'house' doubling up their prices because their employees won't work for $15-an-hour anymore.....they want that California deal ($20).

Imagine driving up to bar where you used stop on Thursday nights after work....spending a couple of bucks on beer, and buying a $12 plate of food....but now....by the time you wrap up the beer, food and chatter with the buddies....you've spent $30. 

What I see coming?  I think a whole bunch of people are going to cut back on their budget, and just say 'no'.....they can't spend freely anymore.

That's the new reality.  And your business models?  Well....they will dissolve away. 

4 comments:

LargeMarge said...

Off-Topic:
Dear Mister Republic,
I looked for a column, but the site says 'not found'.
Any help?
http://ripleyporch.blogspot.com/2023/09/my-eight-thoughts-on-2024.html#c3109015125396065157

Schnitzel_Republic said...

I went looking. Occasionally (at least once a month), I'll go and look at past essays and just say it wasn't my best writing and will just delete it. I probably toss five to ten a year. I'm thinking this was one of those.

You have to remember....I might write 40 a month just off this blog. The other one...the German-theme blog....it's probably in the same range.

Lately, I've been thinking of just purging those being 10 years or older. A lot of those I wrote from the 3.5 years in life in Arlington (2010 to 2013), are back in draft form (unlisted). At one point, I was thinking of a book from that material (probably 1,500 blogs over weird crap in DC).

LargeMarge said...

Eugene, Oregon.
We have a local writer organization -- 'WordCrafters'.
Classes, workshops, visiting authors.
Helps me tighten my scribbles.
.
Back On-Topic:
I see nothing wrong with your writing.
You are bold, clear, clean, versatile.
Your opinions are palatable and functional.
Your columns are grammatically accurate, interesting, geographically diverse.
.
However, I think any focused collection could get tiring.
Unless you pander to the hooker-obsessed.
Pretty much describes the entirety of the District Of Corruption population in the first place...

Schnitzel_Republic said...

My chief aim (going back to 2001 when started)...was just to tell a story that would resemble what Paul Harvey did over the years.

A lot of people don't focus on the simplicity of a situation or how things unfolded, or how the facts don't readily fit.

In my case, I've traveled around the US and the globe a good bit. I've probably consumed around 2,000 books in my life (95-percent non-fiction). And I have this odd interest in my later years...in economics, Roman history, public infrastructure, and propaganda. So I see a dozen interesting stories per day....to pick over and ask questions.