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Spaulding Smails

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Everything posted by Spaulding Smails

  1. Years ago, I built two blinds using masonry scaffolding as the base. I got some used scaffolding pretty cheap from a sub that was downsizing. 5' x 7' was the dimensions of the blind. Easily fit two adults. Built the walls at home, stacked them flat on a trailer with the scaffolding, then erected it and tied it all together with one other guy at my lease. Did the roof framing, decking and down corrugated tin on site. Pretty easy and pretty cheap and lasted for several years.
  2. I've heard hedge trimmers work well. In all seriousness, if your new appliance has a trim that's going to hide imperfections, just use a jigsaw or fine tool. If it's going to be visible, try to use a track saw of clamp a guide to the edge that you can use to run a straight line with a router. If it can be removed and you can work it on a bench then reinstall it, that would be ideal.
  3. Our AR is up 27% MOM. On one hand, that's good because we're continuing to invoice. On the other hand, it's bad because we went from 21% past due to 36% past due. Money has definitely slowed. I've had two commercial clients (one hospitality, one personal services) ask for extended terms or at least deferred payments. We extended terms by 30 days for each but told them an intent to lien would be filed if we didn't receive payment. Earlier this month, we waived the processing fee for all clients. This has helped keep cash flow in check, but has degraded margins. I'm guessing our AR would be up closer to 40% if we hadn't taken those measures. That's not an option for all businesses, but may be a viable alternative if anyone needs an boost to cash flow.
  4. Can you send pics of the interior and exterior of the existing door? You may want to consider that you'll probably have to re-mortise for hinges on the existing jamb, so replacing trim and lowering the header with a strip of 1X material would be pretty simple as long as your interior and exterior conditions don't cause that to open a can of worms.
  5. I think it depends on your business. We now maintain at least six accounts at all times. Usually more. Operations - All deposits and payables to vendors / subs flow through this account. Expense - Our employees have debit cards for small purchases where we don't have an account. We keep the account that those cards are linked to separate to make it easier to reconcile and to prevent a runaway train if fraud occurs. Payroll - Funds are transferred from operations to payroll then to our payroll processing company. Makes it super easy for payroll reporting calculations. Capital Investments - This is our slush fund. We maintain a minimum balance here, and we take a "rake" of profits every quarter. We use this for purchases of vehicles, equipment, etc. Owner Equity - Remaining excess profits flow through here on a quarterly basis. It gets disbursed to me and my partners annually and we hold back a portion for taxes. PPP - We now have a PPP account. I transferred all of our PPP proceeds to this account. I just transferred my full payroll burden to the payroll account from here yesterday. Will do the same on subsequent payroll runs, mortgage and utilities. We'll keep a separate folder for these expenses, but it will make it nice and clean so that those funds don't get lumped in with our operational cash flow. We also create separate accounts for any job over $100K where we're the primary GC. This allows us to prevent "robbing Peter to pay Paul" on jobs. We keep job profits in there for one year to cover any warranty expenditures, then one year after completion, we close the account and transfer any remaining profits to the owner equity account. Multiple accounts can be a pain from a banking and reconciliation standpoint, but it absolutely helps us keep everything in the correct bucket and gives me a good snapshot of cash flow on a real time basis.
  6. This is damn fine work. And, it looks like you didn't even fuck up your wood floors! You saved a shit ton of money and the work is excellent from what I can see.
  7. That's a great observation. Certain industries that have longer lead times, longer receivable terms and bigger backlogs are set up to weather the initial storm, but will feel the impacts of this shutdown months or even years down the line. The industries that were hardest hit were those with point-of-sale transactions that shut off immediately. The only plus-side to those business models is cash flow is almost immediate, so when the reigns start to loosen, they should see an immediate boost to revenue and hopefully profits.
  8. I bank with Broadway. As mentioned previously in this post, we switched about five years ago from BBVA. I have all of my business banking for three businesses through them. We finance all of our vehicle purchases through them and I have a revolving LOC. Plus, my personal banking and mortgage is through them. From a business perspective, the only thing we don't have with them is our mortgage on our building which is through a close friend's smaller bank. It's been phenomenal to have a dedicated banker. Not sure how much of that is just the fact that we do a decent volume of business with them and how much of that is their general level of service, but my perception is that Broadway is small enough to avoid the big bank bureaucracy, but large enough to have their shit together and offer good products, support, online banking, etc. I can't say enough good things about Broadway as a whole leading up to this, and their service through this SBA PPP has been a reaffirmation of how well run they are.
  9. Got a note from our banker this afternoon that we're approved. They're waiting on direction from SBA and the Treasury regarding funding. Sounds like the same update most of y'all are getting at this point.
  10. I've had two calls from my banker today with minor questions about the application. Nice to see bankers working more than 30 hrs/week for once!
  11. Two takeaways from this: -So glad we're with a mid-sized bank now (Broadway) instead of a behemoth (BBVA) like we were a few years ago. BBVA was a revolving door of inexperienced "bankers" who didn't know their head from their ass. Constantly re-telling our story, no proactivity. Broadway has been a dream to work with. They're proactive, they know me, and I truly feel like they have our best interest in mind. They're all about the long-term relationship. They've been rock stars over the last week through this SBA process. -So glad we outsource payroll. I've been able to keep my office focused on operations. I sent one note to our PEO rep Wednesday. They're already handling hundreds of other businesses like mine that need the payroll info. No problem. We'll have the info to you by EOD Thursday. Bam. Perfectly formatted. All the information I needed. Would have been a pain to compile that internally.
  12. I've always had trouble sitting still, and we've had a full plate with kids' activities, etc for the last several years, so coming to a complete stop has been difficult. Work has been bananas trying to figure this all out, so I'm spent at the end of the day. We've been eating good, but I've been drinking too much. To keep busy, I've knocked out a ton of projects around the house. Still a bunch more on the horizon. My son has been obsessed with "Forged In Fire", so we started making a machete. That's been great spending time with him and letting him take the reigns there. Every night, we go outside and shoot hoops or hang while the kids ride bikes. Been playing a ton of darts and 9-ball with my wife. And lots of card games. The only thing that I really watched on TV is sports, so I really miss that. My running has been back up. Averaging 30 miles/week over the last two weeks which is double what I was doing. We're at the ranch right now. It's been incredibly cathartic. I've been working as much as I would be at home, but it's nice to be able to go for a long walk around the place looking for sheds when I need a break.
  13. This is very similar to our forecast and the pending implications. As I said previously, we're in a good industry (construction / facility maintenance) with a good balance sheet and a strong backlog. We had our largest month ever in February, and we were well on our way to $10M in revenue this year (30% YOY increase). Even with Abbott re-opening construction yesterday, we're going to see a drop in production and revenue over the next few months. Not to mention, I'm now forecasting a much lower than originally planned Q3 and Q4. So, even if we're not feeling the pain to the magnitude and immediateness of other industries, this is going to leave a mark. We don't "need" the SBA loan to survive, but we're damn sure going to try to take advantage of it. If nothing else, it extends our runway several months to adjust our business model and keep a big chunk of our employees on the payroll that we would have otherwise had to consider laying off.
  14. https://www.fox26houston.com/news/governor-abbott-issues-essentials-services-order-for-texas
  15. That part was confusing to me as well. You have to think it's going to be what's showing up on your payroll reports. Wages, benefits, retirement, PTO. Things that can be validated and confirmed. If it is open to 1099s, it leaves it way to wide open for manipulating the subs and potential fraud. I think there's going to be plenty of attempts at fraud as is, but isolating it to W2 reports at least makes it more standardized.
  16. It's my interpretation that, as an employer, the calculation for payroll is based on W2 wages only. I'm going to clarify that on my call with my banker tomorrow.
  17. For two people, Gin Rummy is fun. My 12 yo son and I have been playing that a bunch. Hearts and Spades are great for four players. You can play a modified version of Spades with two players as well. I'm glad you brought this up. We used to play the shit out of VC in high school. It was some card game that a Vietnamese friend of mine taught us. Anyone else play that? I need to go back and re-visit the rules and teach it to my kids. That game was a blast.
  18. 2020 started out like an enormous turd in a punch bowl before the rona even entered the picture. I told people that "January 2020 was the hardest year I've ever had in business". From a business perspective, in January, we had: -Two vehicular accidents (one minor that was our fault, the other one totalled our vehicle but was the other driver's fault) -One lawsuit filed against us (bullshit three year old warranty claim that we'll win, but still going to be a pain in the ass) -Two recordable injuries (one of them major where an employee almost cut his finger off) -Had to issue a $60,000 credit (it was a deposit from December and the client decided not to move forward, so no money lost, but started off 2020 $60K in the hole from an accrual standpoint) Surprisingly, we killed it in February. Biggest month ever from a revenue standpoint. We had planned on hiring seven more employees in March. 2020 can eat a bag of dicks.
  19. Below is the SBA summary that my banker sent over. Paycheck Protection Plan (part of the H.R. 748) ** The Bill has passed the Senate and is set to be voted on in the House on Friday (3/27). The President will need to sign, then the Bank will need to receive implementation guidance from the SBA before the program is available to our customers. ** Key Program Details (subject to change prior to final Government approval): Eligibility – Small businesses, non-profits, self-employed, and independent contractors. (Churches and/or religious affiliated businesses MAY qualify – details to come) Must meet SBA Size Standards (based on NAICS Code of subject business). Loan Amount – Lesser of $10MM OR any outstanding balance on SBA Disaster Relief loans obtained between January 31, 2020 through date debt is eligible to be refinanced (information included within your Disaster Relief loan documents) PLUS: Existing Business: 2.5x the average monthly payroll cost incurred and paid over the year prior New Business (less than 1 year): 2.5x the average of 2 months payroll from January 1 st to February 29 th , 2020 Seasonal Business: 2.5x the average of monthly payroll from February 15 th or March 1 st , 2019 through June 30, 2019. *Payroll costs include salary, wages, and payment of cash tips, employee group health care benefits, including insurance premiums; retirement contributions; and covered leave. Salaries/Wages over $100,000 per employee will not be included. Loan Requirements - No Personal Guaranty No Collateral Requirements $0 Guaranty Fee Business must certify loan is necessary to continue to operate, retain their employees, and/or make mortgage and utility payments and that you have not applied or received another 7(a) loan for similar purposes. Loan Forgiveness – Calculated based on payroll costs, mortgage interest, rent, utilities for the 8 week period paid after loan origination. Payroll costs over $100,000 per employee will not be considered in the forgiveness application. *Amount will be reduced if the # of employees used to determine loan amount is decreased or salary expense is reduced* Business must certify funds were utilized to keep business operational and retain/pay employees.
  20. My banker just sent me a summary. I've never really considered an SBA loan, but this one may be pretty enticing. I'll be curious to see what type of conditions accompany it. But, on the surface, it seems to be a pretty solid deal that would help a ton.
  21. That's good insight. I haven't read through the bill, but our HR consultant indicated that we WOULD be on the hook for up to 80 hours if a shelter in place prohibited our people from working (assuming they can't work remotely). If it's limited to those six reasons (essentially direct effect of COVID-19), then we're in a much better spot as a company, but our employees are now up a creek. I understood the FMLA piece that extends beyond that timeframe the same as you. Let me know if you have any more insight or can cite the specifics of that provision that I can share with our consultant. FYI, it sounds like the DOL updated the effective date for that first bill to April 1 to coincide with the start of the quarter as opposed to the previously communicated April 2 enactment date.
  22. Below is the summary of the second stimulus package that I just received from our HR consultant. If true about advance refunding, this could be a huge shot in the arm for many businesses from a cash flow perspective. Lots to be verified and digested here, but it's a start. Late last night Senate lawmakers struck a deal for a $2 trillion stimulus package aimed at helping the people, states and businesses devastated by the coronavirus pandemic. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act — or CARES Act — covers an array of programs, including direct payments to Americans, an aggressive expansion of unemployment insurance, billions in aid to large and small businesses, and a new wave of significant funding for the health care industry. The Senate is expected to vote on this later today! Here are the highlights as it stands : Financial assistance to Americans (direct checks based on income level) An extended unemployment insurance program for laid-off workers that will allow for four months of "full pay," and raise the maximum benefit by $600 per week. The provisions for UI will be back dated to January 27th. $150B for the Health Care System. $150B to state and local governments. The CARES Act provides for advance refunding of paid sick and family leave credits so that employers can get the money they need to provide paid leave in the near-term. $350B for small businesses impacted by the pandemic in the form of loans…and some of these loans could be forgiven (portions pertaining to payroll costs)! Businesses could receive a maximum of two and a half months’ worth of payroll costs, up to a maximum of $10 million, but forgiveness would be proportional based on how many employees the employer retained compared to its pre-COVID-19 levels. Employers can receive credits and loan forgiveness for pay provided to workers who were laid off on March 1 or later if they rehire and pay them.
  23. Get em Sea Bass! AIA sent out a memo from their attorneys basically outlining the same thing. There are numerous conflicts with Travis County orders, direct contradiction of previous information, and the memo provided by Development Services last night essentially "fails to provide clarity".
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