Re: WHAT recession ?

[nick markowitz <nmarkowitz@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 11, 6:17=A0pm, Robert Macy <robert.a.m...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Jan 11, 11:51=A0am, Jim <alarmi...@xxxxxxx> wrote:
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> > On Jan 11, 11:52=A0am, "Bill" <billnomailnosp...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
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> > > "Jim" =A0wrote in message
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> > > > ...Jeeeeeze ..... now I actually have to go to work again.
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> > > And are accounts paying their bills on time?
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> > > Delinquent accounts lessening? Same? Growing?
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> > Over the last few years I've lost a higher number of accounts than
> > usual. Some (I'm sure) due to the economy. Lost jobs, people moving to
> > another state because of job changes, etc. However ( and let this be
> > of interest to those of you who have been in this business for many
> > years) I've been in this industry for 43 years. One of the attrition
> > issues that I never considered was that I would start losing accounts
> > because they died. Other related losses are due to moving to Florida
> > for retirement, can't afford fee because they're retired on limited
> > income. One spouse dies or gets sick and the other can no longer
> > afford it. Sold house and moved in with family/to gated community/
> > senior community, etc. So ..... the longer you're in business the more
> > you have to deal with this kind of attrition.
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> > There are a few delinquet accounts that I'm carrying for a while .....
> > just because they've been good customers for so long and are going
> > through hard times. Some I've had to cancel after a while. Others I'll
> > carry for a bit to see how it goes. Some I've carried have come back
> > and I've forgiven past due. I play this by ear.
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> > However. as far as growth, as far as alarm accounts go, I'd have to
> > say it's about status quo or a little less. But ....... In the last
> > 4/5 years I've increased my home theater and CCTV, automated lighting,
> > whole house audio and residential network wiring, and setup business.
> > It's not recurring income but the profit margin is lots better, so
> > income is growing. And I peiodiacally increase monthly monitoring fees
> > in small amounts too.
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> > How about you?
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> I remember when my absolutely first consulting client died! He was
> more than just my first consulting client, he was a friend. Years and
> years of working with him, he had slowly gotten behind and owed me
> enough to run our firm on for a year. Upon his death, I just walked
> away, couldn't push collecting the debt since he left a widow and
> subteen daughter, and a lot of debts behind. Months later, the widow
> showed up with a truck full of his electronic test equipment and said
> they didn't offer her much money for this stuff and asked if I could
> use it. You bet! =A0Along with the myriad of items buried in the truck
> were such goodies as BERT [bit error rate tester for communications
> channels], HP Function Generators, Tektronix scopes and spectrum
> analyzer with tracking generator option! and a full blown Intel
> Development System!

I have not taken on new clients for 4 years now I have enough work
just in my current base to keep me busy between all the crazy stuff I
work on and build  loss couple gain couple accounts as customer shrink
and grow .