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septagon t1_j1ffi2m wrote

Reply to comment by ipsissimus666 in Churches that allow sleeping overnight in their parking lot? by ipsissimus666

Well what is it about your business that wouldn't work somewhere else?

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ipsissimus666 OP t1_j1fgidl wrote

The people and trust. Here people know who I am; what value I offer; and what it’s like without me.

Sure I could start over in another market, but then I am nobody. A stranger with some testimonials from another state and maybe an obscure reputation.

It’s took years to build the favor I have here. There is no replacing it.

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septagon t1_j1fhd9y wrote

Well like, I have nothing but respect for the grind and I don't know you even in the slightest but I have to ask... If all that favor and reputation and testimony can't get you an apartment around here what's it's actual value? Would being a nobody BUT having a roof over your head actually be a better situation someplace cheaper?

It's just like... You really seem to be arguing hard in favor of a really uncomfortable situation that you don't have to be in. Something isn't adding up here.

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ipsissimus666 OP t1_j1fj7wh wrote

I really struggle with work and value.

I have 12 employees. They all make $20-30 an hour. It’s still not enough to live and prosper on. The only reason they get by is because they have family and friends and significant others to pool resources.

I can’t pay them more, and I don’t have a plan for their upward mobility. It’s gutting because I want them to have assurance that they can grow old and survive. My salary (when I was paying myself) from the business was pretty much in line theirs, even though my job less physically demanding and taxing.

It didn’t feel right.. Particularly through the last few years.

I don’t know what I’m ‘worth’, and through that job and my two new ones, I simply don’t earn enough to make it on my own.

Is it normal to arrive at 50 years old and have roommates and failing health and no considerable retirement? I mean well, work hard, and do my best for people… But the results are what count, and I can’t produce any more.

I don’t know how to advance from here. If this what I’m paid, this is what I’m worth I suppose. But it’s not enough to really live.

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septagon t1_j1fk4zm wrote

Idk man I've never run a business so I'm not going to make any assumptions, it just strikes me as really strange being an employer of 12 and still not making enough ends meet to have a roof over your head. I'm left here scratching my head about that I just don't even know.

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ipsissimus666 OP t1_j1fkj71 wrote

No worries.. For sure it doesn’t make any sense, and it is completely my own doing why I’m in this mess.

I appreciate you listening and sharing all the same. Life is confusing.

All the best to you.

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septagon t1_j1flnln wrote

If you want to listen to my unsolicited advice from someone who's never walked a mile in your shoes here it is: if you're struggling to provide a living for these employees and failing to provide a living for yourself it might be time to throw in the towel. Some businesses need major changes or just stop making financial sense, I wonder if that's where you're at.

There's parts of the country that don't get brutally cold, that have COL half as much as here. Cities like salt lake or the RDU area or maybe up in the Pacific Northwest like Bend or Spokane. Where you can get a non stressful job that lets you afford an apartment and then work things out from there. I'm just spitballing of course that's just probably what I'd be thinking if I was in your shoes. Regardless, I wish you the warmest of holidays and if you've got nobody to vent to, just dm me here.

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