Will this recession end for small contractors, In California, All is dead now..? -

The recession is not only caused by macroeconomic events, but also because of the stupidity and dishonesty of the California Government. Sacramento is a nest of lazy, corrupt and incompetent politicians because the residents of California believed their lies and promises ( that they broke immediately they got office ).I move away from California years ago, and very happy to do so. The state is very beautiful - mountains, lakes, beaches, etc - but the government make it very ugly to live there.visit, but do not stay unless you are either a corrupt politician or very very wealthy. Take your business to somewhere else that will appreciate what you do for them.

What is the one thing you wish an expert had told you before you started your business? -

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One?? I gotta limit this to one?? Fuhgeddaboudit. But, Bishop, here are my top 5, countdown style:No. 5: Fire bad clients. Life is too short to work for obnoxious people. As I said to a business partner once, I d rather work for a large corporation as a meaningless cog than work for this jerk of a client. The first time you fire a bad client, you ll fret over the lost revenue. A day later, you ll be the most relieved entrepreneur you know.No. 4: Figure out what you love to do and do more of that. This goes to the outsourcing/virtual assistant question I answered earlier over here: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?�� You didn t start a business to spend your time on activities you re not good at. Hand them off.No. 3: Get rid of bad hires ASAP. I don t want sound callous about this, but we all make incorrect hiring decisions from time to time. In fact, we probably make the wrong choices at least 30 percent of the time. But we also tend to wait too long to make amends, creating excuses like She ll get better or I don t have the time to hire someone to replace him. Cut your losses. Move on.No. 2: The highs are higher and the lows are lower. It s so hard to understand if you re at a big corporation. The closest parallel I have is when you have kids -- no one makes you happier and no one makes you angrier than your kids. While it s always dangerous to compare work and family, when you run your own show, the emotional side becomes more open, more out there. Maybe it s that you can t blame problems on that dolt of a boss.No. 1: Listen Listen Listen. Your customers -- current, past and future -- are talking to you, about what they like and don t like. Your suppliers are talking to you about what s coming up. Your competitors are talking to you about where they see the market heading. Pay attention! The information out there is the ticket to your future business success. That s my five -- at least for today. Hey Yahoo! community, what are yours?

Great question!In my opinion - the importance of having a mentor. Having access to the mind of someone who can guide and assist you is invaluable!---Brad

That it will consume more of your thoughts than you ever expected.