The Work Thread

[buttercup]

@bear_necessities

Absolutely am. In fact that third party business appraisal is what is due the 21st.

We are buying the business for the asset value only which is roughly 1.2M for 50 wheelchair accessible vans. The cost of these vans is like woah. 65 - 80k new.

The profit this year was elevated due to hurricane IDA as the business has a FEMA contract for hurricanes in Texas and Louisiana. That isn’t reliable though. The business averages 300k to 400k outside of that contract a year profit. The owner can’t travel and does no marketing so lots of room to grow.

It is a great deal. One I got for being kind for a few years and helping someone that needed it. Still nervous AF.

Should add I also have the last five years of returns and all the records as well which is submitted into the business evaluation.

[bear_necessities]

@buttercup Yeah I would be nervous too, especially buying a business for the price of only the equipment. Are there no other assets on the books? Cash, accounts receivable, are you buying the contracts and customer lists for that price too? Cuz damn, IDK, I'd almost feel like I was robbing this guy if that was the case LOL

[Derp]

@solstice said in The Work Thread:

So yeah, no out for them, there. It's entirely motivated by archaic 'You're not productive if you're not in your seat' wisdom.

This is why we're not allowed to do WFH anymore either. Too many conservatives got all mad that the government offices were empty, even though we were already planning on going to remote work for a lot of stuff and downsizing in an effort to be fiscally conservative, which is the freaking mantra.

So we're all back ot working in close quarters as positive tests skyrocket. Because apparently the only way to make sure we're doing stuff is for the overlords to lord over us at all times. Instead of like -- productivity benchmarks. Because it's 2022.

[Too Old For This]

This is where I praise my overlords for having the foresight that having people at home means fewer people are sick with COVID which means more people are working instead of using valuable company time being sick.

Granted, it makes training more difficult, but given my supervisor's haphazard training techniques? I don't know that in-person would honestly be much better.

[silverfox]

Lol we have 2-3 kids per class out with covid and 3 staff members out (2 just came back from quarantine).

At this point it isn't 'if' we get covid. It is 'when'.

Even with that eventuality I wouldn't teach online again. Never again.

[buttercup]

@bear_necessities

It is a good will deal so all the contracts and contractors he employs carry over.

The owner is nearing 80 at 77 and has lived twenty years longer then he should have. He will be blocky to make it to 80. He struggles to manage the business. He can’t travel anymore. He is very wealthy too. He started the business twenty years ago with two vans and has no debt with the company. All fifty vans he paid cash for as the business grew.

His children are wildly successful (rich) and don’t want the business. I showed interest four years ago. I helped him with hurricane responses and gave him ideas to grow his business he loved but admits he can’t be execute. He struggles to manage the employees in this environment. He can’t travel anymore and it hinders him as he has vehicles in several cities. His wife has cancer and he wants to more than anything wants what he loves to grow and continue. He like my ideas about the future of the business and how it can help wheelchair bound people and he knows I plan to use the business t launch something that has the potential to change lives (and would have made his life better) for people with mobility disabilities.

He called me and offered the business for the asset value. He told me he just wants the business to survive him and continue to help people as he has. He knows my charitable works (a lot) and I help in an organization he belongs to as well in a charity.

The bank got his finances and their business VP got the executive board to sign off on approval from their internal valuation. They have all the taxes, interims, and clear asset list.

Part of the SBA requirements are that I pay (5k) for a third party valuation which will wrap up soon. I already have the commitment letter from the bank.

I have friends who are investors and have offers from them to invest further after they reviewed the business. They targeted the business as being worth about 2.4. The bank pegged it at 2.6 in their valuation. Once this comes back and if it is above 1.5 we will schedule closing. Pretty high confidence it’s going through based on conversations with the third party.

Excited. Nervous.

[Too Old For This]

@silverfox My son's school has started mandatory masks because over 80 cases of COVID happened in a single day. Granted, it's a very large high school... but I've gotten no less than five calls in the last 4-5 months letting my know my child was potentially exposed to COVID.

Thankfully he's vaxxed and boosted and all tests have come back negative, but I still spent an hour on the phone with his school today trying to insist he be allowed to finish out the year from home. Because holy shit that's a lot of cases for ONE DAY.

[Herja]

Goodwill is what you pay OVER the valuation of a business. If a business is worth 2 million, but you pay 3 million, then the excess is considered goodwill and amortized since it refers to the intangible property that you are purchasing, such as branding and intellectual property, etc. If the business is valued at over 2 million, but you are only paying 1 million for it, then the excess valuation is going to be taxed as a gift per the IRS. I would be very careful and make sure all your documentation is in order.

[buttercup]

@herja

You are correct.

I meant Goodwill in the sense that it is included in the asset purchase as an understanding between us. There is probably a better term for this. I am not buying his C Corp he owns all the shares of and has been doing business as.

He is giving me he rights to use his phone numbers, contractor relationships, etc. I am not paying for them over fair value of the company. I will not be using his company name for example. We only have one contract and they have agreed to continue the same contract with me.

I will depreciate the vehicles for tax purposes as I go. But tax wise I won’t quantify the rest of the business and pay more. The business valuations have been agnostic of goodwill factors.

The financial transaction is an asset purchase. I have formed my own LLC, done all the business startup work there.

That said I am no accountant and will hire one as needed for tax purposes.

[Ganymede]

@derp said in The Work Thread:

@solstice said in The Work Thread:

So yeah, no out for them, there. It's entirely motivated by archaic 'You're not productive if you're not in your seat' wisdom.

This is why we're not allowed to do WFH anymore either. Too many conservatives got all mad that the government offices were empty, even though we were already planning on going to remote work for a lot of stuff and downsizing in an effort to be fiscally conservative, which is the freaking mantra.

I understand.

Some businesses can be entirely remote. Government work is one of them. Just about everything is automated and, at worst, you could put one or two people in the office to man the phones and direct calls, if needed, but most modern, urban offices can direct calls electronically. Easy-peasy.

Other business cannot work that way. They just don't. Productivity demonstrably dips when people are not at the office or the place of production.

But most people don't understand that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions. All businesses are different in different ways. Garages cannot do their jobs from home, so shutting them down will kill them; but many office services can, and should, be done from home.

A little empathy and understand goes a long way.

Anyhow, I understand and empathize. My only point, if I had one, is that there's no one-size-fits-all solution here.

[mietze]

I work in a private school that has a toddler and preschool program in addition to K-12. Despite masking requirements for all students 3 years old and up, and requirement that all staff and admin be vaccinated we had to shut down the high school and middle school classes, plus 3 others this week to quarentine. We are now out of subs (admin are filling in for classes in addition to all available subs on deck).

The part of the school i work in is the preschool and we know that we will not close unless we don't have the staffing because that is in essence daycare. Every day it is running the gauntlet because we have people attempting to bring sick kids in, using the DoH loophole that allows non symptomatic people even in the same household as someone quarentined to not be quarentined if there's a test to stay program (we have one but will run out of test supplies next tuesday).

Its a stressful time. I wish people were more appreciative that the staff are here and continue to come despite the danger to ourselves which is what people have screamed they want from daycare providers and schools but alas it is a constant stream of bitching about the inevitable closing that people anticipate. I could not take one particular parent's continual stream of conspiracy light complaining (when i know they are a stay at home parent anyway so their family wouldn't lose income anyway if we and their public school older students had to deal with a closure). So when she started in on her conversational bullshit (which i understand is not personal to me and is her own anxiety but I have enough of my own without dealing with her vomiting on me about my profession and other workers/teachers) i told her that if we close its likely because either the lead or i or both are actually ill with the virus and too many of the other staff are ill or out of commission to not step in to fill our vacancies. It shut her up.

I wish people could maybe be a little kinder to the people who are directly providing services to them. But I don't think we are culturally capable of that anymore.

[silverfox]

@too-old-for-this

I wound suggest you look into an online school rather than see if a regular one can accommodate it.

Last year nearly broke me as a teacher trying to do kids in front of me and online too. I would not wish that living hell on anyone. The only reason I'm still in education is because I was shifted to a support position and not a classroom one. I couldn't do it. If I was asked to then I would quit.

No. No. No. No.

[Too Old For This]

@silverfox I can't afford to pay for him to school from home and there is no free online high school he can attend. The school he's at provided all the kids with laptops specifically because the school year started out at home. It transitioned to in-class during the year, and there are still kids at home right now because returning to school was opt-in. I wanted my son to be able to enjoy his last year of high school. Make friends, join clubs, have fun. Instead, nearly all the clubs are cancelled, and making friends is difficult when you're discouraged from being within easy talking distance, and he is miserably struggling through these months.

He could be schooled from home, via laptop. There are students getting that right now. He could be, too. But I am told that because we opted into in-school before Omicron was even a known quantity, we cannot now opt for at-home to finish the year. Even though he has all the tools and there is staffing dedicated to the online schooling of the students that chose not to come back.

[faraday]

@too-old-for-this said in The Work Thread:

there is no free online high school he can attend.

It sucks that they won't just let him switch. Bureaucratic nonsense

Is there no cyber charter school in your state? At least half have them, though the quality can be crappy depending.

[Too Old For This]

@faraday You have to qualify for a charter school before the school year begins. It is insanely difficult to move into a charter school in the middle of the school year without 'good reason' and 'I don't want my son to get COVID' doesn't count.

[faraday]

@too-old-for-this Bummer. Our state has different rules I guess. You just switch by choice.

[silverfox]

I'm sorry this is scary for you.

My heart hurts for your kid's school though. Having kids go back and forth adds an insane amount of stress. It was that which led me personally to have a mental health crisis that led to the police knocking on my door to do a wellness check.

I know it seems like it doesn't make sense to you why it isn't allowed. You care about your kid and that is exactly what you should be. I am in no way saying what you are doing is wrong.

It is just so. Freaking. Hard. to teach or be in education right now.

[Too Old For This]

@faraday Charter schools are choice schools, but there's still only so much space for kids in each school. We have to apply for charter schools because there are SO MANY parents that want their kids in charter schools (they have a reputation for being 'better' than just whatever school happens to be yours by district) that they couldn't take every kid if they wanted to. So, applications. Preference is given to kids that have siblings already attending a charter school. So yes. Charter schools are 'Choice' schools, but if all the charter schools are full (as they inevitably are long before the school year even begins) then you still can't join it.

@silverfox This isn't scary for me. This is infuriating. You have choices for your mental health, for being able to take an administrative position, or move jobs. He doesn't get that option. I am his police wellness check, and I'm here, every day, watching his mental health deteriorate because he is every bit as cognizant of what's going on but has zero agency. Be in school or fail and have to repeat his senior year. Those are his choices. No appeals. No other position, no other job. Be present or fail. That's the choice he gets. I am sorry that your mental health is in jeopardy. So is his, and he has infinitely fewer options on what to do about it.

[Pyrephox]

One of the complicating factors is that pretty much none of the schools which went virtual or hybrid did so with any real understanding of the support that virtual learning requires for teachers. Which isn't unusual: even a lot of purpose-made virtual schools aren't aware of best practices in virtual instruction and don't provide their staff with the training and support necessary to really succeed at virtual learning. It's not as simple as chucking a teacher without specific training in front of a Zoom and having 30+ students log on, give the teacher no additional assistants or support, and expect that to go well. It's not.

I think it ended up burning out a lot of teachers and students, and convincing districts and many parents that virtual learning was a non-viable option, and now everyone is exhausted and stressed and at the end of their mental ropes. Everyone, from the kids all the way up.

[Ganymede]

@too-old-for-this said in The Work Thread:

He could be schooled from home, via laptop. There are students getting that right now. He could be, too. But I am told that because we opted into in-school before Omicron was even a known quantity, we cannot now opt for at-home to finish the year. Even though he has all the tools and there is staffing dedicated to the online schooling of the students that chose not to come back.

This is the infuriating part for me about your situation. It does boil down to bureaucratic nonsense. I can't think of a reason why a student should be barred from switching how they take their classes, especially since virtual learning was permitted so as to increase flexibility.