Died On The Vine

Most Recent

• Dog Tails (0)

  Category: Home and Garden

  Doggie day care, boarding with no direction. The tail definitely wagged the dog here. Check us out at Dog Food Recipes for information and help.

  More

  Hello, I have always loved dogs, for as long as I can remember dogs have been a part of my life. My mother was a trainer and very often did boarding out of our home. I’m just happiest around dogs they are definitely were I am most comfortable. I tried the corporate world thing and it wasn’t for me. I decided that I had the do something that was pure to my DNA and something that I was truly passionate about, I didn’t want to feel like I was working. No more grind. So naturally I settled on working with dogs. My plan was to offer doggie day care and some boarding out of my home. Why not I had an extensive background working with dogs. I have trained many dogs and was a part time volunteer at my local shelter. I had written many articles on canine nutrition and behavior. I really thought I couldn’t fail.

  But after 10 months I was drowning in things I knew nothing about and issues I was not prepared for. Apparently I was not charging enough for my services based on the amount of money I needed to turn a profit. I guess I should have figured that out before I started. I never calculated out how many clients I would need in order to make the money necessary to make my endeavor profitable. Sounds so simple now but I just didn’t know back then. It became very chaotic in the end trying to manage all the clients I had and I wasn’t doing a good job maintaining the dogs while the were with me. I was so wrapped up in the business and operational end of what I was doing that I had little time to actually oversee what was going on.  A lot of my neighbors complained and the county shut me down. That was it, it didn’t matter how passionate or knowledgeable I was about dogs, I had no experience as a business person. I certainly learned a lot. I haven’t completely given up, I work part time as a trainer, going to peoples homes as well as a canine nutritionist helping dog owners learn how to use homemade dog food recipes and prepare their dogs meals.  I’m also part time in the real world, until the doggie biz can sustain me. I approach what I do as a trainer today differently, as a business and I work slowly but steadily growing and being able to do full time in the future.

  5 Surprised that didn't work (4) Not surprised at all (1) Add to favorites

  On 12/06/2011 at 1:51 am - Home and Garden - by bowwow - USA (MD)

  Share email this post ReTweet this post Share this post on Facebook

• Don’t Start A Business When Your Dad Is Dying…… (0)

  Category: Retail

  Basically, I don’t recommend starting a business while there is a family crisis.

  More

  I’m a born and bred NYC girl. I have been collecting vintage clothing since I was a pre-teen or as they are now labeled “tween”. I would scour vintage clothing stores, flea markets in Connecticut (where my family had a country home) and hit all the flea markets in Manhattan every weekend. I got to know the vendors that had the things I wanted, made great relationships with them as I got older and would buy most of the things they had that I liked. I began to amass a huge collection of vintage Emilio Pucci clothing, accessories, jewelry and household items (approximately 700 pieces) by the time I was 30. I had a fantastic vintage alligator/croc handbag collection. I could go on, but I might bore you.
  The point of my story is I decided to “retire” from my family business when my father was dying and then had the brilliant idea of opening a vintage clothing store in The Manhattan Art & Antiques Center. It was perfect for me, a small boutique near my apartment and the hospital. I met a lot of nice people that wanted to put pieces on consignment, but I realized I liked them so much I wanted to buy them for myself. There is the first problem. The second problem was that I openned the store and two days later my father died. Then the next disaster was that I cried everyday while I was in the store. Who is going to buy anything from a shop owner that is hysterical crying? Though I leave the best part of my failed business to the end; as other amazing shops were going out of business I started “buying out” their inventory. So I was spending money and not making money. I wasn’t losing money though as people did purchase items and I did eventually close the store after six months when the Antique Center realized my family dilemma and were sympathetic. Basically, I don’t recommend starting a business while there is a family crisis. I hope this helps someone somewhere.

  39 Surprised that didn't work (32) Not surprised at all (7) Add to favorites

  On 03/15/2011 at 6:36 am - Retail - by gypsyvintage - United States (NewYork)

  Share email this post ReTweet this post Share this post on Facebook

• Cleaning Service That Failed To Clean Up (0)

  Category: Home and Garden

  Mother with young children in school tries her hand at cleaning service business.
  Realizes forthought and planning probably would have saved time
  and energy.

  More

  When my children were young and the youngest was in school for half a day, I
  decided I would try housecleaning on my own. A friend of mine who was doing
  this was offered a job she could not find time to do, so she passed it on to me. It
  was to be one afternoon a week. I took the job, and I managed to get through the
  first two days. After completing the third time, I had to admit the job was not for
  me. I was about forty pounds overweight at the time, and not used to such strenous
  physical activity. The house was a five story split level, and running up and down
  those steps with buckets of water was extremely taxing for me. If memory serves
  me, there was no air conditioning in the house, and I was cleaning with amonia.
  There were three children living in the house, and among them they had enough
  stuffed animals on their beds to stock a Disney store. One of the chores of the job
  was stripping and making up all of the beds in the house. On the third day of my
  working there I was given extra work to do. By the time I finished that day, I felt
  ready to collapse. I must have looked it, because the lady asked if I was alright.
  I believe it was at that point that we mutually agreed that would be my last day
  cleaning for her. Afterwards, I made the decision to abandon professional house-
  cleaning, and to limit cleaning houses to my own (which I must admit is not and
  never has been as clean as that house). Looking back on that experience, I can see
  miscalculations that I made. Well really, no calculations and a lot of assumptions.
  I assumed the business would be relatively easy, after all it was someting I was
  familiar with. I did not take into account how different it turned out to be from
  when I clean my own house in my own time and pace. I was attracted by the
  fact that I did not have to put up any cash (even the cleaning supplies were not
  mine). It would be a tax free income. I was not thinking that in order to be
  succesful in business one must do the research. I should have spoken to people
  who did what I was planning on doing, to see what their experiences were.
  Terms of my employment ought to have been discussed with my client beforehand.
  Amount of work, what was to be cleaned, time involved, etc. In retrospect I also
  realize that if I hated housework before, the job was not going to magically cause
  me to enjoy cleaning someone elses house. What possibly could have worked out
  better, would have been starting a service having people do all of the physical work,
  with me being in a supervisory position coordinating jobs.

  75 Surprised that didn't work (13) Not surprised at all (62) Add to favorites

  On 11/20/2010 at 5:56 pm - Home and Garden - by Sherry - USA (New York)

  Share email this post ReTweet this post Share this post on Facebook

• Phone Room (1)

  Category: Telecommunications/I.T.

  Calling room for people to make inexpensive international calls

  More

  In the mid and late nineties I started a different type of business that was fairly successful for a few years before technology put me out of business. I had an international phone room. The concept is pretty simple, in an area where the residents are primarily 1st generation immigrants you set up a room where people can rent minutes at a very cheap rate and call home. At that time long distance, especially international long distance was very expensive. It was just too expensive for most people who wanted to call international to afford in my neighborhood. So what I did was rent a cheap store front, ideally in a shopping center with a laundry and a grocery store. At this time there were a lot of long distance resellers where you could buy huge blocks of minutes at very low rates. That’s what I did, in my area most of the residents were from South America and Mexico, so I bought minutes for those areas. Set up little cubbies with phones all linked to a computer system where I could give access for a specified time limit. At first it was a little slow as I was viewed as an outsider, but after I hired a local guy as my manager things really took off. We offered some other ancillary services like mail services and calling cards. We even opened another local and I was making great money and saw myself opening many locations in several cities. The concept was simple and I had only a few obstacles to overcome in the beginning. People had a need and I understood that need and met that need, it was great. We were really rocking until people started making calls over the internet. I have tried several concepts since, but haven’t been able to get anything off the ground. I really miss those days, but believe that there are tremendous opportunities now with the internet and changing technology trends, catching lighting in a bottle is the trick it out there so I never give up!

  56 Surprised that didn't work (25) Not surprised at all (31) Add to favorites

  On 11/18/2010 at 6:34 pm - Telecommunications/I.T. - by scorpio74 - USA (TX)

  Share email this post ReTweet this post Share this post on Facebook

• Holiday Mall Kiosk (2)

  Category: Retail

  Started a retail business in mall, holiday kiosk selling trendy and hip baby products.

  More

  For many years I had always wanted to do a little business and see if I can make it successful and grow it. I’m always looking around a different businesses and wondering how they make it and look at ways to improve their operation. It’s almost like people watching for me, just looking at a business as an outsider and observing how they do their thing. Well last year I finally got my chance to be one of those business’s that I had been criticizing for years. I decided to open a holiday business at the local mall. I figured that a lot of retailers make their whole year during the holiday season. So I thought if I start during the holidays I could really cash in and maybe even do well enough to keep the business going year round. I had a couple of ideas but decided on baby products and leased a Kiosk at the mall.

  The mall wanted an astronomical monthly rent, the deal originally was for Oct, Nov and Dec with Oct at $3,500/month and Nov & Dec both $10,000/month. Those numbers were just crazy to me and I said no, then began to look for different venues like flea markets and holiday fairs. Eventually the mall was willing to make a deal for Nov & Dec at $5,000/month in a location that they said was really the best spot for my type of business. I signed a lease believing that I would be highly profitable with the new lower rent and one less month. There was a lot I had to do to get set up, estimate all the products needed to open and consider lead time for future orders, get a merchant account and equipment, get a cash register and a lot of other supplies for the little cart, get insurance and set up a phone line for the cart. So I began and Nov was not all that I had anticipated, slow. The numbers I had projected just weren’t there. I was concerned because that meant I’d have to really play catch up in Dec. I really needed to break even in Nov, but took a lose. Dec started slow and things were not looking good. We received such praise and positive feedback from shoppers but just wasn’t ringing up enough sales daily. Weekdays were pretty slow and became depended on good weekends but they fell short as well. About ten days before X-mas things really started to pick up but I could see the writing on the wall, we needed insane daily sales to make up the ground and I just didn’t see It happening. We were busy and selling a lot but never made it into the black.

  I was shocked at the overall experience, invested $25,000, $10k went to rent the rest went to supplies and merchandise. In the end I took a $5k lose, which was funny cause 60 days earlier I truly believed I’d be looking at a $20k profit. I realized I truly over estimated peoples buying habits and the amount I could earn. I don’t regret for one second my attempt at entrepreneurship and look forward to using what I learned in a future business. Success is all relative to so many other factors on one hand maybe I did sell enough but thinking I could cover such a high rent was a mistake. If my rent was $1,000/month my results would have been very different. I learned that it’s hard to look at a business in such a short span of time, it takes time for any business to get into the black and 60 days is tough. You really need a special situation to accomplish that and really need to understand all the variables. Experience is everything, and now I have a little.

  119 Surprised that didn't work (68) Not surprised at all (51) Add to favorites

  On 11/12/2010 at 6:11 pm - Retail - by amp77 - USA (FL)

  Share email this post ReTweet this post Share this post on Facebook