All right middleton I will bite. First you did not go into debt when you purchased the company. You received good will in the form of ownership and value of the company and it's assets.
From where I am standing it sounds like you got the deal of the century. Since the rule of the thumb on business value is 3 times gross or 1 times net, plus goodwill you made out like a bandit. But pops paid the price for selling low and cashing out...such is life.
It's true that during the Bush admin. 5 years ago your father decided to cash-out and like any profitable stock transaction had to pay capital gains on the profit. Perhaps a more creative strategy over time could have lessened the tax implications. I digress
Middleton if you are as old as you claim to be then perhaps you might remember a time during the 80's ITC was only 10K...whoopee! I haven't checked this year since I am retired, but I think it's somewhere around 70-80K.
You have worked very hard over the last 5 years with great determination and sacrifice. You have been rewarded by improving your balance sheet and placing the company in a stronger financial position. In return your 600K investment has increased in value a minimum of 500%.
You have recently purchased a fleet of Trucks and other assests before the credit freeze. This translates into lower vehicle repair costs for the next 3 years and 5 years of tax depreciation while pumping up the companies and your personal net worth. In the meantime you have competitors that did not re-invest and now cannot make those investments. All while piling up huge maintenance bills with an aging fleet of trucks that only pull down net worth and cash flow. So basically you are sitting pretty.
I don't understand why you are over-whelmed with anger filled doubt about Obama before he has even taken office. Yet you are not angry for the piss-poor job that the current administration is responsible for.
The fact is that if you are concerned for business owners and employees you should be overjoyed that Obama has been elected and here is why..
Workers Comp is a complete drain on all companies due to it's inherent flaws of fraud. Fraud usually driven by a lack of medical coverage provided by the employer or simply lazy employees working the system. Before W.C. can truly be reformed there must be some type of universal healthcare system.
A universal healthcare system would be a great benefit due to lowered premium costs across the board. A double whammy so-to-speak, lowered insurance premiums and reformed comp.
There will be a flood of incentives coming down the pipe for small businesses like yours 100 employees or less. Increased ITC, hiring tax-credits, and perhaps decreased fed payroll tax contributions.
In the meantime if a stimulus and tax plan is passed your employees will have more disposable income to access.
You mentioned you have borrowed money in the past to cover your payroll. If your company really does millions in sales one would expect you have a revolving credit line...this is s.o.p. of how business works to cover cash-flow. Anybody with a non-cash business has been there more than once.
Recently credit lines have been capped, reduced, or deemed unavailable. Obama voted for the bailout to keep your credit line in tact even if it is reduced. It's not perfect but it's better than no credit line at all when your biggest egg decides to hold out for 120 days.
If the Detroit bailout occurs it will keep parts available for your new fleet of trucks. Which we all know will be thrashed in 4 years since we all know how company trucks are treated. I don't know if Obama has voiced an opinion on the bailout, but if it keeps millions employed I would think he will back it. Which means Dodge will still be able to carry a full line of replacement parts with plenty of accessable dealerships.
Now the value of your dollar and your employees have shrunk dramatically over the last 8 years while wages on the average have consistantly fallen. Certainly an admittance that the current administration has done a very poor job of expanding the economy is in order. By Jan 20th, there will be massive job loss since the Bush Administration took office.
If Obama can actually gather consensus for swift action he might be able to reduce the flow of 10 billion a month for Iraq which will immediately strengthen the dollar.
If Obama can turn the economy around in the next 24 months, and when I say turn the economy around I mean stabilize it. There will be a flood investment from foreign markets, bargain rates on equities, a stronger dollar, and huge potential for historic growth.
So let me appeal to the calm and rational side of cmiddleton by stating.....chill let's just see how he does. Think about it, all those right-wing hate filled pundits have been the cheerleaders and defenders of one of the worst administrations of our times.
The fact is our current administration's economic policies have not helped you, your children, your employees, your employees children, or your father over the last 8 years.
You took over a struggling company and it took you 5 years to turn it around. Who better to empathize with the job ahead for Obama than you cmiddleton? Just take a look at what this guy has ahead of him come 1-21-2009.
As I mentioned I never liked George, but I've told my kids repeatedly and it's true to this day...I would take a bullet for him in a second out of respect of the office.
What do you say cmiddleton, let us dispense with the post-election division and partisan dogma? With a crew of 30 I'm sure there were some guys doubting whether the Boss' kid would be able to good job running the company. Give'em a chance to prove the doubter wrong just like you were able to.
