The Shawn1112 Show

frank

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I'm only a salesman or 2 away from going back to being a 2.5 million per year company.
Silent partner has 51% so his word is the word, and he refuses to want to grow the company. He is content with what he makes because he has 3-4 other sources of income. His retirement pay from CFD is close to $120k a year, Wife is a full time nurse, owns several rental properties that are paid off and owns another installation company with his sons.

I worked for a department manager when I was in the car dealer world that was the same way, he was married, kids grown up and out of the house, collecting a pension, wife working, house paid for and a few rental houses, I wanted to grow the department as I was young and wanted to make more money, he held the department back as he didn’t want to work any harder. Know the feeling Shawn.
 
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Blood on Blood

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Apr 6, 2005
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Myself and a partner own a office furniture installation company. Been in the business close to 23yrs. Have worked both the Union side and non union side and have done both installing and delivering. My boss of 15-16yrs passed away 4 yrs ago Nov 1st. I was the Operations Manager for a good 10yrs prior to him passing. He had just begun in the last year of him around started teaching me the ins and outs of the company and how to quote jobs. Well he passed and my partner was his partner and is a silent partner and needs to stay silent. My partner doesnt know how to do dick as far as bidding jobs out etc. He gave me the opportunity to buy the company outright for $50k after my boss passed. I had no confidence in myself (I'm a HS drop out that was a freshman 3 straight years) so I pussied out. I had to learn billing, payroll, quoting jobs, etc all on my own and all on the fly, hence the reason I had no confidence in myself. First 12-18 months were brutal, literally would work from 6a-9p Mon-Fri just trying to figure shit out. I had no idea how to quote upholstery jobs. So I had to dig and dig thru old invoices to try and make out what he charged and why he charged XXXX amount of dollars. Had to do the same with installation work as he was all over the board on pricing. Then something else would come up and again would have to dig thru shit and try and make sense of it.

Fast forward to 2.5yrs later and we are doing great. Last 2yrs in a row I have tried buying my partner out as I can 100% handle everything thrown at me now. He has refused as we have both made some decent coin since my boss passed. I have a plan to get rid of him next April when our fiscal year ends, not going to publicly state what I'm going to do. But its going to boil down to a more than fair offer and he is going to be faced with take it and run, or get nothing at all and you still have to leave lol. Ive said it before and will say it again, if we were to lose our #1 customer, we would be in some serious shit. I'd probably survive but would require a major downsizing and me having to go back in the field to work.

Sounds as though you need to expand the customer base so that if the key customer leaves, you are still sitting pretty.
 

Shawn1112

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Sounds as though you need to expand the customer base so that if the key customer leaves, you are still sitting pretty.
Hence the reason I want to hire a salesman or 2. When my boss was still alive we sold furniture. He could walk in an empty space and sell 50-100 workstations (cubicles) with his eyes shut. We got out of sales when he passed. Which sucks because all these decommissioning jobs I do. It’s all 100% free furniture, I’m getting paid to remove it. When he was alive we stored all that shit, and he sold used but 100% refurbished. So you as our customer got practically new furniture at a 1/3rd of the price of new.
 

Shawn1112

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Partner may not want to expand, but essentially being single threaded customer base is a foolish long-term plan.

That is weird complacency as the silent partner, who doesn’t perform the day to day, isn’t looking to expand.

Larger customer base = larger additional guaranteed income.
Agreed 1000000%. He doesn’t want the overhead that comes with it. With our yearly bonuses he makes about $80k a year just at our company. I’m sure it’s close to that at his company with his sons. Wife probably pulls in close to a $100k as a full time nurse. So combined not including his rental properties, he is pulling in close to $380k a year at 64yrs old that includes his CFD retirement. So look at it from his point of view lol.
 

crooks

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Hence the reason I want to hire a salesman or 2. When my boss was still alive we sold furniture. He could walk in an empty space and sell 50-100 workstations (cubicles) with his eyes shut. We got out of sales when he passed. Which sucks because all these decommissioning jobs I do. It’s all 100% free furniture, I’m getting paid to remove it. When he was alive we stored all that shit, and he sold used but 100% refurbished. So you as our customer got practically new furniture at a 1/3rd of the price of new.


Other then word of mouth. How do you advertise used office furniture?
 

Sprayin

Public Enemy #1
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Shiiiit. I'm talking all thru the 80's and 90's. But even today some North Side hoods are fucked up, Rodgers Park and Albany Park are fucking war zones right now. Last week 8 people shot and 2 dead on Lawrence in Albany Park

Cabrini Green was considered the North Side.
Wrigleyville was HORRIBLE in the 80's. First time I ever seen someone get shot was at Blaine School in Wrigleyville when I was probably 8yrs old.
Dude took a dome shot probably 25' from the monkey bars and I was on the monkey bars when it happened.
See another dude across the street from ST Andrews on Addison get beat to death with crow bars at bats.
It actually surprised the hell out of me to learn how some of these really bad neighborhoods border with nicer neighborhoods. I was in what I thought was a pretty decent area (Irving Park - Addison & Kimball). And just like 2-3 blocks north where Irving Parks meets Albany Park was just a total shitshow. I didn't know about that when I moved there. I only lived in the city for one year, but I couldn't get out fast enough.

When we were looking at houses, we looked in Oak Park briefly, and I couldn't believe the difference one street made where it bordered Austin or Cicero. Said fuck all of that and went more suburbs.
 

GLADIATOR

aka STROKE-KING
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Shiiiit. I'm talking all thru the 80's and 90's. But even today some North Side hoods are fucked up, Rodgers Park and Albany Park are fucking war zones right now. Last week 8 people shot and 2 dead on Lawrence in Albany Park

Cabrini Green was considered the North Side.
Wrigleyville was HORRIBLE in the 80's. First time I ever seen someone get shot was at Blaine School in Wrigleyville when I was probably 8yrs old.
Dude took a dome shot probably 25' from the monkey bars and I was on the monkey bars when it happened.
See another dude across the street from ST Andrews on Addison get beat to death with crow bars at bats.
A guy I met through work actually grew up outside of wrigley in the old Torco building. His dad moved them there because that’s all he could afford. He paid $19k for the building. The neighborhood was so bad his dad made them study martial arts so they could defend themselves going to and attending school. His dad later sold that building for 2.5 million bucks.
 
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DEEZUZ

NO PUKESTERS
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frank

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I remember around The area of grand, Columbus, Ontario - near navy pier as a kid in the 80’s and it was rough. My dad had a condo/ office in mclurg court, with in a few blocks around it was nasty, few times had some 12 year olds kids asking for his wallet, he would say it’s in his briefcase and when he would reach I he would pull a gun on them and they would take off running. The amount of crime and homeless was terrible.
 
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boostedguy05

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man,I bet if your parents read these stories...they prob would still ground you at your age...lmao

ya' havent mentioned first night in jail yet,everyone has had that night!
mine was driving at 15 y/o...didnt go well
carry on


Did you miss the part where his dad would bring him to a bar, dad would get drunk, and make Shawn drive home when he was 12. they know whats up.
 

boostedguy05

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I think about work in my sleep. I will wake up in the middle of the night and remember something that I forgot to do, lol.

Exciting day for me today........NOT!
50th anniversary picnic for the Royals (gang in the city). My Dad is one of the original Royals and wants me to take him. (he dont drive DUI's). Only doing it because he hasnt seen a bunch of these dudes in probably 20 years and one of the "big guys" is my Godfather. That group of guys are all mid 60's and older and probably dont have much time left. I dont get a long with any of them that are my age, lots of bad blood from when we were younger.
Shit was crazy earlier today. Bunch of young dudes (today’s generation) showed up uninvited. But the shit was on FB so everyone knew about it. Told my Pops and my Brother, shit gonna kick off with these young disrespectful MFers. Sure as shit 3-4 hours in to it they (young dudes) start beating the fuck out of a 65yr old dude. Probably between 9-12 dudes jumping on this old guy and 4-5 dudes hit him clean as shit and didn’t drop him. My Pops the only old timer that tried to help, I grabbed him and told him get in my fucking truck, we are out of here. I’m not trying to catch a murder. He was mad as shit, but as we left I explained to him. If you jumped in to help the old timer and these young dudes started beating you, I’m gonna go to my truck get my firearm and probably kill 2-3 of them. When we got back to my house I think it sunk in.

:eek3:
 

Shawn1112

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A guy I met through work actually grew up outside of wrigley in the old Torco building. His dad moved them there because that’s all he could afford. He paid $19k for the building. The neighborhood was so bad his dad made them study martial arts so they could defend themselves going to and attending school. His dad later sold that building for 2.5 million bucks.
My Grandma owned a 3 flat on a double lot 1/2 mile from Wrigley. Bought it in the late 50's for like $32k.
Sold it when she retired late 80's for $75k. Guy that bought it sat on it and just rented it out until 2010'ish, sold it for 1.2 million. Person that bought from him, ripped it down and built 1 huge single family home on the double lot and its valued at over 2 million now.
 

Shawn1112

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man,I bet if your parents read these stories...they prob would still ground you at your age...lmao

ya' havent mentioned first night in jail yet,everyone has had that night!
mine was driving at 15 y/o...didnt go well
carry on
My mom tried grounding us, but how you going to keep 3 boys in the house when your never home lol.
Locked up for the first time at 12yrs old. This is one of the few times I was actually not guilty. We were in a church basement fucking around and a few older guys thru me and Miguel in a room that locked from the outside. Those fuckers left and we were making noise cause we couldnt get out. Priest came with some other guy, grabbed us and called the police. Had us arrested for trespassing. My Mom only picked me up twice from the police station and both times beat the fuck out of me in front of the police. After that, the next 50ish times I was locked up as a juvi, I called my uncle or my cousin as she just turned 18. I would tell the police I lived with her. Worst time with using her. I got locked up twice in the same day. My poor cousin was prego and had to take 2 busses to the police station to get me out. So she signed me out the first time, she just got home from signing me out and I called her again. She thought I was joking but was dead fucking serious. Her and I still laugh about that day.
I remember around The area of grand, Columbus, Ontario - near navy pier as a kid in the 80’s and it was rough. My dad had a condo/ office in mclurg court, with in a few blocks around it was nasty, few times had some 12 year olds kids asking for his wallet, he would say it’s in his briefcase and when he would reach I he would pull a gun on them and they would take off running. The amount of crime and homeless was terrible.
Yeah, McClurg was pretty shitty back then. But if you went West on Grand the Italian Mafia was still running that neighborhood. I remember Richards bar at Grand and Milwaukee. You would see all the mobsters sitting out front with nothing but nice new Caddy's parked on the street.
Then West of there at Smith Park you had all the C-Notes, who thought they were part of the mob lol.
True fucking story. My Dad and 6-8 of his Brothers were all Royals. Growing up everyone knew who me and my brothers were because of our last name and who our uncles were.
 

boostedguy05

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True fucking story. My Dad and 6-8 of his Brothers were all Royals. Growing up everyone knew who me and my brothers were because of our last name and who our uncles were.

oh, i believe you. i had to put something, or it wouldnt let me post. that emoji seemed fitting. i was just helping add stories to the thread.
 
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frank

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My mom tried grounding us, but how you going to keep 3 boys in the house when your never home lol.
Locked up for the first time at 12yrs old. This is one of the few times I was actually not guilty. We were in a church basement fucking around and a few older guys thru me and Miguel in a room that locked from the outside. Those fuckers left and we were making noise cause we couldnt get out. Priest came with some other guy, grabbed us and called the police. Had us arrested for trespassing. My Mom only picked me up twice from the police station and both times beat the fuck out of me in front of the police. After that, the next 50ish times I was locked up as a juvi, I called my uncle or my cousin as she just turned 18. I would tell the police I lived with her. Worst time with using her. I got locked up twice in the same day. My poor cousin was prego and had to take 2 busses to the police station to get me out. So she signed me out the first time, she just got home from signing me out and I called her again. She thought I was joking but was dead fucking serious. Her and I still laugh about that day.

Yeah, McClurg was pretty shitty back then. But if you went West on Grand the Italian Mafia was still running that neighborhood. I remember Richards bar at Grand and Milwaukee. You would see all the mobsters sitting out front with nothing but nice new Caddy's parked on the street.
Then West of there at Smith Park you had all the C-Notes, who thought they were part of the mob lol.

True fucking story. My Dad and 6-8 of his Brothers were all Royals. Growing up everyone knew who me and my brothers were because of our last name and who our uncles were.
Richards was one of my dads hang outs, he was over at that bar quite often. No Cadillac’s he was a Rivera guy lol
 
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Shawn1112

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Other then word of mouth. How do you advertise used office furniture?
Sorry I missed these posts.
Before my boss passed it was pretty much 100% word of mouth and we had a very large customer base just from that.
Since he passed, I have created a shitty website, but it gets hits and I post shit on Linkedin.
Man, I would love to feed you patron and just listen to your stories.

How did you get out of the hood to where you are now?
Hard fucking work, and wanted to get my kids out of the city.

Was still gangbanging and getting in to a good amount of trouble when my Daughter was born (I was only 17)
My son came along 4yrs later and even though I worked a full time job, was still getting in trouble both with the Police and at home.
Would go on 3 day benders and not come home all weekend, and other dumb shit. Was fucked up one night in the summer and we were going at it with some SGD's who hung at the park on the corner of my house. We would hang on my front porch all summer till 4-5am every weekend. One night they sent a shorty (young kid) to pull a hit on us. We always had guns on us but kept them just inside my front door cause the police would always fuck with us. Well anyway, shorty had us cold, he came up on a bike at like 3am and nobody saw him except me at the last minute. As I looked at him he was pulling a gun from his waist, but froze once I made eye contact with him. I yelled to my guys, shorty got a pistol grab ours. The kid tried riding away and we lit him up and the van that was following him got lit up as well. Kid made it, THANK GOD and we all got locked up. Everyone beat their cases as the SGD's kept it 100 and didnt trick, they never went to court. They started bricking my windows out, tried setting my garage on fire. Friend of mine made some calls and set up a meeting with their Chief. I went and talked to him and explained they are coming at my house with my fucking kids in the house, lets keep this shit on the streets. He agreed and called off the dogs per say.

I made a promise to myself and my Wife after that, that I was fucking done. I was a union driver at the time. That next summer I got the opportunity to work on an overtime union job for a non union company everyday for the duration of the summer. We would work our normal job 7a-3p during the week. Shoot downtown and work from 5p-12a for $35hr cash, then work Sat and Sun for 5-8hrs a day during the day for $50hr cash. Literally took maybe 4-5 days off that whole summer, so worked like a fucking dog for 3 straight months. I banked most of that money (built a bad ass 85 Monte at the same time lol). With all that money we bought a house and closed the week between X Mas and New Years.
It actually surprised the hell out of me to learn how some of these really bad neighborhoods border with nicer neighborhoods. I was in what I thought was a pretty decent area (Irving Park - Addison & Kimball). And just like 2-3 blocks north where Irving Parks meets Albany Park was just a total shitshow. I didn't know about that when I moved there. I only lived in the city for one year, but I couldn't get out fast enough.

When we were looking at houses, we looked in Oak Park briefly, and I couldn't believe the difference one street made where it bordered Austin or Cicero. Said fuck all of that and went more suburbs.
Good old "Kiddie Land" that was one of the Royals neighborhood by Irving and Kimball. I lived in the heart of Albany Park for a long time. Thats where above happened
 
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