Small Business Loan

Small business loans are advertised and promoted like they are a good idea. They are not. Don't take one out. Start small and grow slowly. That way, if your business idea doesn't work out, you will not have to pay back money you don't have. We did not take out a business loan to start David's Garden Seeds®.

Small Business Loan - 5/31-6/6/2021

Monday, May 31, 2021

Delicious breakfast tacos are the way to go. Then we had donuts for dessert.

Delicious breakfast tacos are the way to go. Potato, egg, and cheese is my favorite. Then we had donuts for dessert.

Happy Memorial Day! It is an overcast, wet day. Nacho is out front fixing things and putting up more skirting. He brought us donuts. I made potato, egg, and cheese breakfast tacos.

Our farm store is not open today. Our people all have today off so they have been enjoying a three day weekend. Of course, we have been working on our business, but not as much as if we were open. I have orders to fill which I will go over and do soon so they can go out in tomorrow's mail. I was hoping to swim but the water is just so chilly with these rainy days.

Well, another fish is dead. It has two fang marks across its body so Nacho says it was a snake. The first fish killed was the all silver fish and this fish was silver and black. I feel so disappointed and disgusted. How do other people have fish ponds without snakes getting the fish? I have no idea what to do.

I was doing some research on the subject of snakes and ponds. I can plant wormwood, mugwort, lavender, mother in law's tongue, and marigolds. The internet says snake repellent is worthless. David said he ordered some snake repellant.

The snake repellent came from Amazon.

Weird, Random Eyeglasses Appearance

This evening when I went out on the back deck, I found a pair of black metal framed glasses. I believe they are for a guy. All of the cushions were down on the deck this morning and I picked them all up and put them back on the chairs. Then tonight, this phantom pair of glasses was sitting on one of the chairs on the cushion. Someone put them there.

We did not have any company. The contractors here today have said they do not belong to them. They are not ours. They do not belong to anyone in our family. It is kind of freaky but someone was in our yard, on our back deck sometime today and put these glasses on our chair. Do they belong to you? If so, stop by the store and pick them up.

These random glasses were placed on a chair on our back deck today. Our business was closed for the holiday and we had no company. The contractor says they are not his or his helpers'.

Small Business Loan - Just Say No To Small Business Loans!

This is our small business logo. It is our fourth and, hopefully, final logo. #davidsgardenseeds #smallbusinessloanscanbedangerous

There are over 30 million small businesses in the United States. In fact, small businesses make up over 99.9% of all businesses in the USA. A small business is considered to be 500 employees or less. David's Garden Seeds® is a small business with 20 people. When we started almost 12 years ago, countless people and companies told David to get a small business loan. Why?

Many people will tell you to take out a small business loan when they find out you are starting a small business. Tell them you don't borrow money and don't. The SBA may send you loan information. Throw it out. Do not do it. You don't need a small business loan. Just say no! As my friend, Dave Ramsey, says, "No is a complete sentence!"

When you start a business, use the extra cash you have on hand or have a big garage sale and buy minimal equipment. You don't have to buy expensive or brand new things. Wait until you are actually making real money to buy better equipment and never borrow money! Trust me, it is a bad idea to go into debt.

Tuesday, June 1, 2021

I am up early this morning as we have 9am doctor appointments in San Antonio. I feel so tired. I really need more sleep. We had a power failure in the night because the clock radio is flashing. I set the alarm on Alexa and I am surprised it went off and woke me up.

Apparently it poured in the night and we had a scary thunderstorm. My husband was texting the neighbor at 3am asking if they were okay after the big one hit. I saw the text chain this morning. I did not hear a thing. I slept through it all, waking up just once in the night around 2am. I have not slept that well in a very long time so thank you, Jesus, for a good night's sleep where I could breathe well!

Us waiting to see the podiatrist. They are in San Antonio so we had to wear masks. They are very afraid in SA...

My foot after having the ingrown part of the toenail taken out and the joint injection for arthritis where the bandaid is. This has been very painful for three months.

Today is the first day of work after a three day weekend and we won't be here for the first few hours.

Nacho will be back early this morning, finishing up on the skirting, fencing, and whatever else he worked on all day long yesterday.

Nacho finished up and Jay paid him because we were not there. I did not find any new dead fish bodies this morning but could only find five fish when I fed them.

So we went to the doctor. I have been having a lot of pain in the top of my right foot, but not my left. Turns out I have bone rubbing on bone in the joint there so the doctor gave me a very long steroid injection which will help. Today I am having lots of pain but it is temporary. I have to take it easy for the next three days.

The electric gate people are here starting the process with cement.

They also cemented something outside the gate.

Two men showed up to put in our electric gate at the front of the property. We have been waiting a good long time. They are digging a hole here.

Most of our people are back from the holiday weekend but a few are not. A customer was in a little while ago for some zinnias. If you don't know, zinnias are heat tolerant and do very well in the south central Texas heat. If you would like to get some zinnia seeds, here is the link.

Small Business Loans

Twelve years ago this coming September 1, David started our business, David's Garden Seeds® in our living room. He had just been laid off from a one year job. The company closed their office in San Antonio after one year. So he used his unemployment money to fund some seed and supply purchases to sell seeds on Amazon. Soon, the money started coming in, and the unemployment stopped. David did not need to find another job. He made a company out of his favorite hobby--gardening!

Many at that point in starting a new business would take out a small business loan. This is not a good idea. If your business idea fails, and you have a small business loan, you still have to pay it back. If you used money you have, yes, you lose some money, but you don't have to worry about paying a big chunk of money back. Remember that most small business close soon after they are opened.

Approximately 20% of all small businesses in the United States fail before their first anniversary. Our first business, a VCR repair shop back in 1989, failed after about four months. My husband rented a large storefront that we could not afford and the repairs were a lot more difficult than VCR repair school back then had taught him. Soon he could not afford the rent and was evicted. Then he brought about 100 VCRs into our home to repair. It was a nightmare. He should have started in our home. We lost thousands of dollars. Soon, they invented the throw away VCR that cost $50 instead of $400 so no one needed VCR repair any longer.

By the end of five years in business, around 50% of small businesses fail. After ten years, just one third of small businesses are still in business. Small business is hard, involves lots of hours, little profit at first, and should never involve small business loans or any other kind of loan. Small business loans are bad for you. No one likes to think they will fail but statistically, they do. Don't be one of the many with small business loans. Don't think about declaring bankruptcy. That is something you don't want to do. So don't take out a small business loan or any other kind of loan. Grow slowly.

So one of our team members brought some out of town family visitors by the store this afternoon from Arizona so we got to think about what grows in the heat without this awful humidity that we experience here. Made me want to move back to El Paso. Things may not be green there, but I never spent much time soaking wet, either.

I typed up another David's Garden Seeds® newsletter this afternoon. This issue is about fall gardening.

Speaking of newsletters, I should get one out for Mrs. David's Garden Seeds®. You can sign up by filling out the small newsletter form on the right side column of any of my website pages, about halfway down.

Amazon is back to their old tricks of not delivering packages through their Amazon drivers or through the USPS. This past Friday I was supposed to receive three separate packages from an Amazon driver. A driver delivered one. The other two were lost. Today they still were not delivered. Amazon says they were sent to the wrong starting destination and now are lost in transit so I cannot have them as they are from third party sellers. So back to the drawing board. Why not locate the packages and get them sent? No, that would make too much sense.

Wednesday, June 2, 2021 -
Just Say No To Small Business Loans

Good Wednesday morning from the farm! I just put out a Mrs. David's Garden Seeds® newsletter catching everyone up on what is happening on the farm. I will try to make it a weekly newsletter from now on.

Look at the beautiful, dark yolks in my frying pan this morning. My eggs are fresh and so good! It is because we feed our chickens good quality things they love.

Our baby chicks look like small full grown chickens. They are 12 weeks old today so happy birthday, little ones. They are fully integrated with our flock now and should start laying eggs in another three months or so. We can expect the new eggs to start around the beginning of September. If you need some farm, fresh chicken eggs, come visit the farm and get a carton or two of our beautifully colored eggs with blue, green, off white and shades of brown eggs laid by our pretty one year old hens. Just $4 for a dozen, all-organic, dark yolked eggs is a bargain and helps us buy feed for them. We don't buy the cheap stuff.

Our rabbits are doing well. The babies are getting big.

Our guineas are trying to start a family again with a nest full of eggs. I hope this time, something good happens. The male gets upset anytime I go in the coop now, flying at me and hitting me. He never used to do that so I am guessing he doesn't want me messing with the eggs.

Well, it is time to get ready and go to our store to greet our customers and fill some seed orders.

It was a hot and humid day. David ordered taco plates for lunch for a few of us from a new place and they were good. We had one couple come in to buy seeds from San Antonio. At 5pm, I closed up shop and went to get eggs and feed the chickens. Then I went in the house and straightened the kitchen. I made pork chops and vegetables for dinner.

Then we sat down at 7pm to watch the first episode of the new season of Masterchef. We love Gordon Ramsay. It was a fun episode to watch.

Thursday, June 3, 2021

Our feed shed is about to collapse as all of the sand is washing out from under it. We got a ridiculous amount of rain.

More flooding between the feed shed and the chicken coop. It washed away the trash can that is used for composting chicken poo.

Early this morning, before the monsoon hit, I went out and fed and watered all of our farm animals. Everything was fine. Then I went inside, fed the cat and dogs and made a nice breakfast of potatoes and eggs for David and me. After that, I chopped veggies from the garden with some potatoes, placed them in the slow cooker and added a whole chicken. I turned it on so it would be ready for dinner.

Then I went and got dressed for the day. After that I opened the farm store and at 10am, David and I left to go to an important meeting regarding our new website. While we were in the meeting, the monsoon hit. We finished the meeting and could barely see the road driving home.

It poured all afternoon. We had raging, rushing rivers in the backyard. The sand washed away in several spots. We have a lot of standing water. The sand under the shed by the chicken coop has washed away. The building is barely standing and only the middle supports are still intact which means I cannot go in there to get feed for the animals since that is where it is all kept. Our people fixed it just yesterday but they did not put sand bags like David said so now it is worse than ever.

On the TV news this evening, I heard a weatherman say five inches today. I don't think he was wrong and we are supposed to get more tonight and more tomorrow. There are no dry spots in the chicken coop.

Rant Time!

I found my box of business cards on the third shelf up, far above my head. I am 5 feet tall. Why?

The label on the box of business cards is clearly addressed to me. It does not say David's Garden Seeds. It says Juanita Schulze and never should have been hidden from me.

The label on the box of business cards is clearly addressed to me. It says Juanita Schulze and never should have been hidden from me.

To top it all off, a package addressed to me with our company business cards, all 16 pounds of them, was delivered and hidden away by someone. I got an email saying FedEx delivered it at 3:11pm. Someone got it from the loading dock. I went to find it at 6pm since no one ever brought it to me. It was nowhere to be found.

I called the manager at home and he had not seen it. I went building by building, searching for a double order of business cards that we needed instead of resting my leg, foot, and back which were so painful today. I finally went back to the building where the packages are normally delivered. It wasn't on the table by the door like it should have been so I began searching through a lot of boxes in that place. There are rows of boxes on shelves. Folks, today, I am having bad arthritis pain so I should not have had to go through this.

Up on the third shelf, way above my short head (I am five feet tall), I saw a box with no markings on the side. I reached up and pulled the 16 pound box with my injured right shoulder and found that it is my Vistaprint box with the business cards I ordered two weeks ago with my name clearly typed on it. Someone hid it away up on the top shelf instead of bringing it to me or at least leaving it on the table by the door. Why?

Incidentally, David went in the production building and found several of his boxes of things he ordered up there on the shelves as well. What is going on with our people? Don't any of them read?

So what should have been a three minute venture ended up taking me about 45 minutes to play Let's Find My Package.

This has been brought up in meetings before. Always read the address label. I was pretty sure all of our team members could read but they have opened my personal packages before. If it says my name, bring the box to me. If it says David's name, take the box to him. If you don't know what to do, ask your manager. How is that hard?

The delivery people say they will deliver in one place only but then half the time they put boxes anywhere they feel like including the gate and by the bathroom door. Go figure.

Start A Business But Don't Take Out A Small Business Loan

Here are the 2 sign halves that still have not been hung on the roof. They are just gathering sand sitting outside. We can't get anyone to hang the sign.

The chicken and vegetables were good.

Before we left for this morning's meeting, the electric gate folks were working on the gate but when the rain started, that was the end of that. We have been trying to get this done for about four weeks.

Oh, and the huge sign? Still not hung. Good help is so hard to find. We have found it true. Are you looking for a good business idea without taking out a small business loan? Just show up and perform whatever service you do when you say you will do it. If you do, you are way ahead of the "professionals" who show up when they feel like it, but not when they say. Never take out a small business loan. Start small with equipment you already have or buy used equipment. Be on time and have a good attitude. Do what you said you would do and you will get a lot of business.

Amazon was supposed to be here with three items since noon and they are still not here. This is the second time this week that they failed to deliver important items that I order because they are needed. Why don't they mail them instead of sending a delivery driver who obviously doesn't want to drive all the way out here? It truly is ridiculous. It is now 7:15pm and you know that if you are an hour outside of San Antonio and you don't have your delivery by now that you will not get your delivery.

Of course, at 7:15pm, they changed the delivery time to 10pm. And we all know that it did not come at 10pm.

Friday, June 4, 2021 - Don't Borrow Money With Any Type Of Small Business Loan

Today seems to be a beautiful day as we wait to see if more rain will come. Thankfully, the weatherman was wrong about rain last night.

Good Friday morning. Thankfully, we were spared anymore rain overnight. However, we are supposed to get some more today. I sure hope not.

When I fed the fish this morning, I could only find five. I hope the other two are still in there okay but I have not found that many fish in a while. Tomorrow morning, I am going to start planting seeds that the snakes hate all the way around the pond and gazebo.

I don't have any help in the store today as Matthew is in the back forty substituting for another one of the outdoor workers since one is in Florida and the other one went to Houston. A third one quit a few weeks ago. We start out paying $12 an hour now to those working outside. So why is it so hard to find young people who want to earn $12 an hour for forty hours a week? I do not understand. Last summer, it was the same. Young people want the money, but they don't want to work for it.

Covered pond. Reflection of roof is seen in pond but you can also see a few fish. Oh, the fish say don't take out a small business loan.

Today, Amazon says my package with three items that was on the way all day yesterday could get here today or tomorrow. Why not hire competent people who will deliver the packages instead of the ones they have now who deliver if they feel like it? I know. Good help truly is hard to find. They won't read. They won't do anything unless they feel like it. It is sad that they can't walk across the parking lot to hand me a package with my name on it. Instead they open them and pretend they thought it was returned seeds or they hide the box on the top shelf.

Oh, that's right...I already ranted about that. Sorry. It just burns me up that we are paying people between $12 and $16 and they can't read a shipping label and bring me a package. This happens almost every day which is why I am so disgusted about it. If I did not get notices on my phone that my packages arrive, I would probably never get a package. As soon as I get a notice on my phone, I hunt the package down unless I am busy in the middle of something important like yesterday.

It is 9:19am. I just had a talk with the production manager about my package being put up on the third row of shelving yesterday. He said from now on he will have to distribute all packages. Why? The people in that building make between $12 and $16 an hour. Do you mean to say they refuse or can't read the labels? Why not? They are paid by the hour, not by the box. He should not be trying to cover for people, but should talk to them and expect them to read and do the right thing.

I am sure everyone in that building heard me because I was not shy and spoke rather loudly. I also said if they can't read, we don't need them here. This has happened so many times that I am sick of it. If I am paying you $14 an hour, I expect you to read labels if you have been assigned to sort boxes and packages. The production manager should expect it, too.

The snake repellent came in today and Jerry spread it on the ground around the pond and gazebo, but not near the water. It smells really strong and ugly.

My Amazon packages finally came right at 7pm. I had just sat down in front of the TV to relax and got the notice that the packages were here. I went out to the loading dock and could not lift two of them. I had to call someone for help to get them inside.

A guy finally came to hang the roof sign but he did not put up any supports so it is difficult to see and not at all like I thought it would look.

The roof sign looks way too small up there. It would have been better had he propped it up at the top on boards like I wanted. No one listens to my ideas.

Small Business Loans

Let's talk some more about small business loans and why small business loans are bad for small business owners. Let's say you have an idea that you think is a good one and you will get a lot of sales by selling your product or service. So you create this idea in your head but you need to have the product made or you need to buy equipment to perform your service. You see that you can get a small business loan for a lot of money so you can buy what you need and still pay yourself a salary with the leftover money.

Keep in mind that you haven't sold anything yet, but you are going to pay yourself with small business loan money that you have to pay back with interest.

First, your pay right now should come from your primary job, not from a small business loan. Second, small business loans are bad because you have to pay the money back. Start slow during your non-working hours and build your business over time. If it is a good idea, you will get business. If it is not a good idea, you will be glad you did not get a small business loan.

Saturday, June 5, 2021

Good Saturday morning. It was foggy looking when I went out to feed all of the farm animals. The ground is still totally muddy and we have standing water in several places out there. Fortunately, it did not rain anymore since Thursday afternoon. The animal coops still have wet dirt. There are clouds today but it will be hot and humid. I hope the ground dries up soon. Our feed shed is still not on supports on the two sides, just down the middle. We cannot use it until the ground dries and then they fix the ground and the supports, hopefully next week.

It was very hazy this morning when I fed the animals. Just say no to small business loans.

See the haze in the air. It was so humid this morning after all of the rain we had this week.

So I opened the store at 10am. It is now 11:07am and still no customers. Funny, but I had a bunch of online messages asking about the hours and if we have this and that, but no one has come to pick out what they want. Some are not happy that we are closed on Sundays, but you know what? I need a day off and we go to church on Sundays. You have six days to come shop which is crazy because it means I have to sit in this store for a lot of hours each week.

More Small Business Loan Info

Remember, small business loans can end up losing you a lot of money and collateral if your business plan fails. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Slow and steady wins the race. So have a garage sale, sell a few extras, like a car or a boat, to get money to start your business. We had a big indoor garage sale with ticketed items in every room of our home in San Antonio to raise some money 12 years ago. We sold some old computers, clothes, furniture, kid toys, exercise equipment, pots and pans and other household items, books, and DVDs.

We didn't like it, but cash was short and we had to have money. Later on, when you have money, you can buy new stuff. This is the way to succeed in business, not taking out a small business loan. Small and steady wins the race.

One of our new zinnias growing near the farm store.

Two different shades of pink zinnias by the farm store.

It is now noon and still no customers. This means I have gotten a lot of computer work done, which is great.

I am so tired. I fell asleep on the couch around 8:30 last night, woke up at 10pm to let the dogs out a final time and then made the mistake of sitting back down when the dogs came back in. I woke up again at 2:30am and my back was killing me. I got up off of the couch and I was hungry. I grabbed some bread and then it took me an hour to fall back to sleep in bed. I took pills and finally dozed off, only to be awakened just after 6am.

The outside temperature is 82° and Alexa just told me that the high today will be 83° so I don't think I will be able to enjoy the pool. I counted just four fish this morning when I fed them so the snakes may have struck again. I didn't see any bodies floating, though.

It is 2pm and no customers. I believe it has been a month since we have had Saturday customers so we will now be officially closed until next spring on Saturdays! The spring seed rush that started in January of 2021 is now over and I get to have two days off a week! Our store will be open on Monday at 9am with seeds, home canned goods, and farm fresh eggs. See you then!

For the rest of the afternoon and evening, I cleaned up the house and did laundry. Matt came over at 7pm for Svengoolie and it was one of the best Svengoolie movies ever, Cult of the Cobra. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the actors looked so familiar. Some I could not place, but most of them, I could. It was hilarious and well done.

Sunday, June 6, 2021 - Say No To Small Business Loans

This morning, we went to a local church that we visited a few weeks ago. There were a lot more people there today. In a few weeks, we will be sending our grandchildren to church camp there. They are really looking forward to it.

Fortunately, it has not rained anymore here since Thursday but the ground is still damp. We really need to get the building back up on Monday so we can use it again. The building where we used to keep the rabbits, and now we keep the feed in, is about to collapse.

After church, we stopped at a small store just down the road from the church. I bought water, coffee creamer, lunch meat, and ice cream. Then we came home and to my delight, Molly, our new stray who doesn't know how to live inside, tore up two dog beds, shredding foam everywhere. She also ate one of David's brand new shoes that he just got this week. To top it all off, she peed on the den carpet. So I had a grand time cleaning all of that up. A life insurance salesman stopped by so David went to his office with him while I cleaned.

I finally got to eat lunch, just leftovers but by that time I was so hungry that I did not care.

I fed and watered the animals and then made a German Pancake for dinner. It was so good!

German pancake is baking.

Fully baked homemade German pancake. It was delicious.

Then we chilled in front of the TV and I fell asleep in the middle of a strange episode of the original Hawaii Five-O. I woke up just at the end so I don't know what happened again, as usual. We are still on the first season but will work our way through the entire series.

So this week I have said a lot about not getting a small business loan, even if you think it will help you. Debt never helps anybody. You may think a small business loan is the answer, but if your business plan was not good and it goes south, you will have to pay that small business loan back. Start slow and put your profits back into the business to buy what you need instead of doing it quickly with a small business loan. Then if you fail, you have nothing to pay back. If you succeed, it is all profit and taxes. Taxes will hit you hard every year.

Return from Small Business Loan to Farm And Business Life

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Since 2009, over 1,500,000 home gardeners, all across the USA, have relied on David's Garden Seeds® to grow beautiful gardens. Trust is at the heart of it. Our customers know David's Garden Seeds® stocks only the highest quality seeds available. Our mission is to become your lifetime supplier of quality seeds. It isn't just to serve you once; we want to earn your trust as your primary supplier.

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