My neighbor has a large upscale landscaping company and he says he’s never been busier.
In a word, Terrible.
Over regulated and over taxed.
Too small to deal with all the regulations.
Sportswear wholesaler. Usually busy. But really swamped now, and the size of the average order has gone up a bit.
Been trying to hire some experienced help for months. Found two, neither showed up for their first day.
We’re busy, but it sometimes feels like we’re constantly trying to squeeze blood from rocks. We’ve also seen a lot of clients go through painful changes and everyone’s pinching pennies and trying to do more with less.
The boom from stocks and commodities is over.
Sales will go from boom levels to somewhat below normal levels.
The reason for the dip below normal is because people flush with boom level cash will buy somewhat in advance of need.
The economy fluctuates because of human psychology.
If the business is real estate related, the drop will be more substantial. This is because houses have become very expensive again and because most mortgage worthy people have already been frightened into buying. People with lower incomes (say $10 to $20/hour) simply can’t buy ~$400,000 houses. Zoning and planning restrictions need to be loosened to drop the price of housing. We crave a free republic insomuch as possible for good reason - it’s for the good of the vast majority.
I have a friend who works a free food line. She says they’ve never been busier. Another friend works at the local welfare office handing out EBT cards. Same thing.
From time to time some church friends and I meet a local pizza joint and sit at the bar. A few months ago I was a bit early and the only one from our group so I started chatting with a guy sitting at the bar. He works at the local golf course which is a university course, has a golf team, and is open to the public, and he does course maintenance.
I asked him how business was at the course. He said that over the last five years or so they have such few people playing that they don’t know how to handle the lost revenue; there is a certain maintenance level that is required and they are having trouble financing it. He says people blame it on the economy.
He also said that he is a liberal and he believes that people have stopped playing golf just make Obama look bad. At this statement I almost lost it and I really had to maintain my laughter.
America remains over-retailed. A 40% shrinkage is coming, almost regardless of future political events.