Most people learn from doing, a few learn from listening and observing others. Please share your most valuable lessons learned so we can learn from others before making the same mistakes ourselves. Thanks in advance.
Most people learn from doing, a few learn from listening and observing others. Please share your most valuable lessons learned so we can learn from others before making the same mistakes ourselves. Thanks in advance.
Don’t ever, ever, ever take a Merchant Capital Advance. Not only are they scummy, but if you even so much as hint at getting one, you’ll get calls from more and more “brokers” promising the world for months and it will deter you from being able to do any actual work.
Identity theft is a problem - keep your credit frozen. I didn’t, and this seems to have led to someone trying (possibly successfully) to get loans or something against our business using our personal information.
Never agree to any kind of financial transaction that involves personal liability of any kind. Corporate/LLC or nothing.
Some people just suck. Even a preliminary background check outside of the usual checking services could save your bacon - my business partner hired a “friend” he’d “known for years”. Ended up walking out, but not before robbing us (criminal trial pending) and had been filing frivolous lawsuits for everything from sexual harassment with the EEOC (which we won) to absurd ramblings with no real complaint (but still needing our lawyers to respond). Turns out he did the same to the next guy he worked for too. A quick check of the state court system showed a pretty clear pattern of stupid shit, and I absolutely would have vetoed their hiring if only I’d looked there first instead of taking business partners word.
4a. Avoid hiring friends and/or family if at all possible. Friends especially. If things ever go pear-shaped with the business, that friendship is gone.
4b. Spending a few bucks on HR - even an external HR service or using a payroll providers HR service - totally worth it.