Kevin Marshall's America
I often harp on a point that many local businesses are their own worst enemy and that their efforts to portray themselves as victims in need of rescue is not only ridiculous but often indicative of their inherent problems: in particular, they don’t know what a business is and don’t know how to run it.
Well, even the big city’s got this special brand of blues, as evidenced by the petition to have the St. Mark Bookshop’s rent lowered from its previously agreed to price they signed off on in a lease agreement with their landlord. More from Choire Sicha (who is seriously one of my favorite people that I don’t know personally) of The Awl:
“I encourage you petition-signers to go to your own landlords—during the first quarter of the lease that you just signed—and ask for a rent reduction. See how that goes. Yeah. If the bookstore wants to become a non-profit bookstore, let’s file that paperwork and do this thing. (I’ll help!) But this odd public-private partnership “public good” conception of a commercial business is giving me the willies a little.”
Agreed. It’s nice and sweet to get all wistful about stuff like books, but business is still business.
Though I will say that all this is not nearly as frustrating and unintentionally hilarious as all the pining for Border’s, the big corporate chain that shuttered more local businesses than it opened and then became a victim of its own mismanagement.
RELATED: AOA recently had an interesting interview with Susan Novotny, owner of The Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza and Market Block Books in downtown Troy, about what local indie book stores could, should, and/or aren’t doing to survive.
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22 Responses to Businesses their own worst enemy, here and downstate
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STALK ME
I am waiting for the gov’t to pay me NOT to sell books…
Kevin,
I’m curious- Have you ever been a business owner here in the capitol region? Just wondering.
Liz - No. But that’s not a valid argument against any point I made. One doesn’t need to be a master musician, or even a musician, to know bad music when s/he hears it.
Kevin,
If you are going to slam local businesses, you may want to look into what it costs to run one. Small businesses have enormous taxes, – local, state and federal obligations they must meet in order to do business here. There is also employee pay, employee benefits, the changing laws of supplying healthcare,- not to mention marketing costs, promotion costs etc…
So before you knock the entrepreneurs, who are at least trying to make their small businesses successful, you should consider the monetary expenses it takes just to get it going and maintain it, not to mention making a profit…
And- it is a valid argument. You have no experience or concept of costs involved as a business owner. You only need two ears to listen to music and decide if you like it or not. (very witty comment by the way…)
There is a whole lot more involved in being a business owner. I say KUDOS!- to all the business owners in Troy! Thank you for trying to make the community a prosperous area. It takes a lot of courage and stamina in this economy. And- it’s not easy to navigate all of the tax laws, and regulations.
Liz – No, it’s not. What do any of those incredibly vague points you wrote have to do with the failings of local businesses, particularly the ones that go public with their woes? What about the ones that open for literally six hours during the day, then close down and ask what happened? Those are valid criticisms, and they’re directed specifically at ones that are failing or have already failed.
And of course not all businesses are like that, and it’s foolish to interpret it as such. Going to local papers and bloggers and complaining that you’re failing and that people need to sign a petition to lower your rent is an incredibly inept and stupid move. I don’t have to run a business to know that you’re not in the right to put public pressure on a landlord months after signing a lease you agreed to.
The other posts specifically were related to the Troy Food Co-Op and their now infamous brow-beating letter to the owners, which even they in hindsight admit was hasty and that the tone at very least was a mistake.
I’m not ignorant of how hard it is to run a business. That’s the whole point – that it IS hard, and that you need to put in the work and learn it. If you can’t, and you fail, nine times out of ten that’s nobody else’s fault. That’s why I (and many many others) call it out when I see it.
It seems to me like you’re arguing a point that wasn’t even made here or anywhere else, and quite frankly the only conclusion I can draw is that you’re either being defensive about some point that I’m not privy to, or you’re trying to score points for yourself. Either way, you’d have a point if this were related to anything that was written. But it’s not.
Kevin,
Interesting. I responded to your public blog with points about what is involved in some of the costs of running a small business. And- you think I’m trying to be “defensive or score points” for myself. MmmmHmmmm. Okay Kevin.
I hope that slamming small business owners works out for you.It’s a good thing you’re out there “calling it out when you see it” -
Being snarky doesn’t make you any less wrong (or weird).
Kevin, it’s about taxes, don’t you understand? Maybe we should mail those landlords thousands of teabags, and that will make the point that they’re being too hard on local business.
Cihan - They certainly wouldn’t be twirling their moustaches and cackling then, now would they?!
I should also rephrase, because I said “any less wrong” but that’s not really apt, because (again) Liz was having an argument with some imaginary being who said that running a business isn’t hard, rather than replying to things that were actually written by real people.
Kevin, you are awesome. I can imagine a better response to a crazy unreasonable person. You may need to repeat your response several times as Liz is a firm believer in sock puppets:
http://blog.timesunion.com/teaparty/pulling-up-my-boot-straps-taking-a-deep-breath-and-moving-forward%E2%80%A6-even-if-a-little-teary-eyed%E2%80%A6/2067/#comments
See comment #80
I have a degree in Business Administration and worked as an accountant for several years. I await your challenge to my qualifications, Liz.
I was taught that most small businesses fail within the first year. Most small business owners work at least 16 hours a day, 6-7 days a week during the first several years at least to get their businesses up and running. Simply keeping a shop open during hours convenient to the owner, rather than the customers, usually doesn’t cut it. Lots of small business owners “have no experience or concept of costs involved as a business owner.” That’s why they fail.
Liz, do you know what property owners are up against? Again, I have family members in the business so don’t even think of attacking the source of my knowledge here. Don’t you think that they pay property taxes, income taxes, liability insurance, fire insurance, or upkeep on their buildings? Don’t you know that they lose money when apartments or entire buildings are empty? Do you think the landlords can go to the local government and receive mercy when they fall behind on taxes? Get real! Landlords just end up losing their properties because of back taxes, penalties and interest!
To think that a landlord can simply lower someone’s monthly rent over a long period of time suggests that you have the entitlement mentality that runs rampant these days.
Off topic (my apologies, Kevin) but I’m still waiting for you to answer the questions posed in Comment #51 on your “Being Opposed to Homosexual Marriage” post. I have a feeling that Linus, Sally and I will see the Great Pumpkin first.
Roz-
I don’t disagree with anything that you said. I’m not sure what you think I said.
I was saying that it is hard to be a business owner in upstate NY- especially starting out. There are lots of costs involved. I would include owners of buildings, who have to keep them running and finding tenants in that as well.
As far as the pumpkin thing? If you want to believe for a Great Pumpkin- then good for you. Keep me posted.
Liz,
An “ad hominem” is an attempt to negate the truth of a claim by pointing out a negative characteristic or belief of the person supporting it. The ad hominem is normally described as a logical fallacy.
A “straw man” is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent’s position. To “attack a straw man” is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the “straw man”), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.
Liz, you just made my point by your silly remark about the Great Pumpkin. You dodged that question once again, because you can’t answer it. You can’t answer it, because then you would have to admit that you are simply prejudiced against homosexuals and that you are cherry-picking things out of the Bible.
If you agree with what I said, then why did you go after Kevin in the first place?
“I was saying that it is hard to be a business owner in upstate NY- especially starting out.”
Liz, this wasn’t the actual focus of what you were trying to say. It was more like:
Kevin Marshall is not allowed to criticize small business owners because he isn’t one, and being a small business owner is hard.
That’s interesting, I guess I should go and say that you have no right to criticize President Obama constantly, because you aren’t the President and you have only the faintest notion of what it really takes to run a functioning country. But what you say? You say that you’re an intelligent and thoughtful citizen that informs herself and should be allowed to have such opinions? Well by your own logic, that shouldn’t matter, your criticisms must not be valid.
You came here (a blog I don’t suspect you care for much) to do some soapboxing, but I guess it didn’t really work out for you.
I feel obligated to start with a short discalimer: I don’t think it’s right (or productive) to call Liz things like “crazy unreasonable person”. Let’s perhaps strive to set the bar higher here than it is on other blogs ;-)
But you all make great critiques about her approach to whatever point she was trying to make.
Cihan, exellent point in #15. Shall we keep those standards in mind the next time we see a critical opinion of Obama?
Victoria – re: raising the bar. Very fair point, Victoria, and one I absolutely should have raised and in my haste did not. For that, I was wrong.
Liz, I agree with Kevin. If you agree with me, then you agree with Kevin!
Still awaiting your answer to question #51 on your blog.
Liz? Liz? Bueller? Bueller?
Well for the record, I do very much understand the frustration involved in trying to have a focused, coherent discussion with others sometimes.
Victoria - I just love America more than you do.
Damn it Kevin, you got me! How can I possibly argue that?
It depends on the type of business. No one should bite off more than they can chew–that’s Rule #1. As I shop and/or drive around, it’s painfully obvious how some businesses could improve with not much money. Unfortunately, when you try to voice an opinion, people look at you like you have two heads.