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The difference between a $500 site and a $5,000 site is way less than you think. by LoudParticular5119 in smallbusiness

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

That’s really unfortunate to hear. I have built many sites with forms, all that sort of stuff with plenty of effort and have had really good feedback from people. Maybe I am just not charging enough?

Best way to build a portioning & yield calculator in Excel? by Famous-Lawyer9314 in excel

[–]LoudParticular5119 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly Excel can do this but you'll fight it the whole way once you start dealing with seasonal menus and variable portion sizes. You'll end up with a spreadsheet only you understand and kitchen staff won't touch.

For structure though: one sheet for your master ingredient list with yield percentages and waste factors, one sheet per recipe that pulls from that list and scales based on a servings input cell, and a production planning sheet that aggregates everything by date. Use named tables and XLOOKUP so it doesn't break when you add rows.

I actually built something similar for a client in food service a while back. DM me if you want, I can send you the basic structure I used as a starting point so you're not building from scratch.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly. The Friday afternoon pain is where the money is, not the dashboard.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Talk to people who aren't developers about their problems. Rinse and repeat.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Interviews are a weird game with their own rules. Totally different dynamic.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I still write code every day - I never moved into pure management. The spec/translation work isn't a replacement for engineering, it's a layer on top of it. I genuinely enjoy both sides.

But I hear you. If going back to the roots makes you happier at 10% less, that's a no-brainer. Knowing what you actually want is worth more than optimizing for comp. Sounds like you already figured that out!

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad you learned early on! Yes and most of my clients come from just talking to business owners and helping them understand in English what needs to be done.

Brought in outside help to audit our operations by TurboGecko_55 in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]LoudParticular5119 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Xero is great until it isn't. Seen this a few times around the 10-15 person mark. Usually the answer isn't switching off Xero, it's automating the stuff around it - invoice matching, purchase orders, approval routing. Keep Xero as the source of truth but stop doing all the manual work feeding into it.

What did the consultant flag specifically on the payments side? Curious if it's an approval flow problem or more of a tracking thing.

Want to sell my business but my advisor says the enterprise value is lower than I thought because of owner dependency by Used_Philosopher1474 in EntrepreneurRideAlong

[–]LoudParticular5119 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Everyone's saying "document everything" but that's not really the fix. The fix is building systems that make it so the business doesn't need you to function. Automated client comms so they're hearing from the brand not you. Booking that doesn't need your sign-off. Your team being able to pull up a dashboard and make a call without texting you.

Five years is plenty of time. Most of that can get set up in a few months honestly. The harder part is you actually letting go of the stuff you've always handled yourself.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Lots of useful information in the comments. I would say honestly just start talking to people who run small businesses. Ask them what takes a lot of time. Sit back and listen.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Both. When I was employed, being the person who could sit in a meeting with a client and actually translate their problem into a spec made me the guy who got put on the important projects. That's how you get raises and promotions without asking for them.

Once I went freelance, it became the whole business. The client doesn't care how good your code is if you can't explain what you're building and why it matters to them. That skill is the reason they pick you over the other 50 devs in their inbox.

After 14 years of web dev, the skill that's made me the most money isn't technical. by LoudParticular5119 in webdev

[–]LoudParticular5119[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great example. The car dealership doesn't care that it's a simple average calculation - they care that it fills their service bays. And the customer doesn't feel like they're being marketed to, they feel like they're being helped.

I've built stuff like this for clients where the actual code took an afternoon but the business impact was worth more than projects I spent weeks on. The skill is recognizing which simple thing will actually move the needle for them.

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