So who is a millionaire on here?

I guess that would be your subtle way of claiming millionaire status without patting yourself on the ass in front of the crowd?

Cheers. - Frank

That's what people I like to work with sound like. In online marketing the quiet ones never stick their head up to have it chopped off.

Claiming how much one made is one thing. Managing to hang on to it is another feat entirely.

Personally, I will just as freely admit that I lost a million as claiming that I made a million.

There are pro and cons to both occurrences. :-)

Cheers. - Frank

Claude,

Event the event planner sometimes asks how many speaking engagements one makes a year just to do the math on how much money one makes.

The best answer for people who ask how money do you make is... "Why? Do you work for IRS?" We both laugh and move on to the next topic.

Nothing wrong with making money and having a strong social conscience. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

Honestly, your attitude is one that makes many people hate business and the people that run the business world.

Cheers. - Frank

I think you just contradicted yourself there. Profit does not equal freedom or even happiness for that matter.
IMO, the purpose of a business is to do something you enjoy in order to make a profit, then you will feel the real freedom.

I would kindly disagree with this. I just so happen to love the hell out of what I do.. all of it. Making money is seriously a bonus for me.

I am artistic ( not autistic ) by nature I think. I have always been into photography and drawing and the like. I very much like the precision of architectural drawing. When I was young... 12 If my math is correct My mother "saw" the future, and bought me my first computer a TI 99 4/A. That immediately sucked me in. I would stay up for days on end programming RPG Text games, and distribute cassette tape copies to all the geeks in school.

Not to much later I got into "hacking" with my Apple II ( All caps keyboard ) and later upgraded to the Apple II+ got in heavy with the BBS scene, and ran one for 4 years.

I grew up in a family owned print shop. in about 1990 or so, some guy ( don't remember his name ) had this piece of hardware that connected to type set machines to an Apple. with the use of a BBS system clients could "upload" text directly. I had a connection getting Bell and Howell Private label Apples, that I would load up with the BBS software and customize, and sell to this guys clients. At the age of like 15... I was making a KILLING.

Migrating to web design was obviously very natural. For that matter running a business online was very natural as well. I was very fortunate early on in the "Internet" to get involved in a pretty big start-up... well it ended up big.

After that I did some pretty decently high profile stuff for a few years and kind of got burnt out after a while. I got into Installing Satellite Systems as a change of pace.

At the same time I got really into digital photography, and was selling prints. In my then local market I was selling more than a few and made the jump to getting my own Large Format Printer. Kind a had to justify the expense of the printer so I went out and pre sold a bunch of work. It took exactly 6 days from the time I set it up, to the time it was paid off.

Satellite Installation was getting in the way at this point... So I hired my first crew to install for me while I sold prints, banners, etc and started doing web design again. Got into printing, and video work and anything and everything that your average small to medium business would use to promote their business.

Then my Girlfriend of 5 years got preggers... She wanted to be close to her family.. so we moved to West By God Virginia. I pretty much picked up right were I left off. Started a Satellite business and focused on that for about 6 months, and then got that running smooth and then got into the business of small / medium business promotion.

What exactly does freedom look like to you?

I work 8 to 3 mostly 7 days a week... 8 am to 3 am - well not exactly that much. I do spend a fair amount of time in the afternoon with my son - 2 to 3 hours. Weekends he gets even more time.

I basically don't own a business, I work for one - that happens to be mine! LOL

Some interesting numbers... if you have a roof over your head, food, and water - regardless of your income.. that puts you at roughly the top 25 percentile of wealth in the world. A million dollars... that makes you a 2 percenter in the world.

I personally believe its not so important as to how much you have.. its what you do with what you do have. If you have, and those around you don't.. there is something wrong.

I live in North Carolina, and drive to an Oreck store that's in a town north of me. It is an almighty shock standing in that store how many people walk in for service. It's also shocking to see how they sell new vacuums to these people. It's a tiny retail space and we are often shoulder to shoulder. I've waited in line 20-30 minutes to buy spray cleaner for my air purifier. Claude's may be a different set up, but I have no doubts that this store does well over a million a year. As for that $110 figure. I spend well more than that by the time I buy bags, tune ups, air purifier cleaner, smell good stuff to place in the purifier, drops for the floor steamer and a new floor steamer or vacuum every few years. We have rode to the store several times just to see if they have anything interesting a new.


Edited:

I have air purifiers at home and in my office.
I have Oreck vacuums at both locations.
I have floor steamers at both locations.
These items also make great gifts. People love them.

It might just be that a couple of thousand people are buying high end vacuum cleaners in the 800-1200 range and those people are also entering a service agreement and perhaps buying other cleaning products.

Add that to another couple of thousand buying low end products and consumables.

Add that to other repairs...

Doesn't seem to far from the realms of possibility.

You've also got to remember that many retail businesses also have some online supply going on and also if the repair department has a reputation for fixing specific brands that may be capturing business from a far wider market than the 30K residents.

I know from my retail experience that people who only look in from the outside don't really get an understanding of the true scope of the business.

In one of my retail businesses which involves the custom framing of pictures if you asked Joe Blow on the street "What's a picture frame cost?", most would say between $10 - $50...whereas our average is currently just over $312 per frame.

Each week would sell at least 10 frames in the $600 - $1000 range plus 2-3 in the $1000 plus range and although not common we would sell at least 6 a year in the $2000 - $5000 range.

That would be normal retail for us....

but if you also add the "behind the scenes" stuff like...

Several ongoing commercial contracts to supply large multi-nationals that run into $20-50K each plus per year.

Another $300K of online sales.

That is only the picture framing stuff and I won't say I'm in the average bunch for that industry.

Most people would only draw conclusions about what a business does from their own perspective and unless they've got first hand experience or consult to other businesses regularly they wouldn't have a clue.