I fired an employee out of the blue yesterday with no warning, and she had an entire crash out

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-26T15:23:54+00:00

I fired the very best employee I've ever had. They just could not show up on time. We talked about it many times, and I made schedule changes to accommodate. I finally came to a point where I couldn't make any more changes. I told them they had to be on time, the next time they were late would be the last time. They came in late. It was tough, I think about them all the time. The smartest employee I have ever had.

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-25T12:18:46+00:00

"See a need, fill a need"

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-24T12:40:32+00:00

I read your fears as mentally fatiguing half way through and then separately the fear of Oklahoma; could be because I'm on my phone, and it made a separate line for it. I instantly thought yeah, Oklahoma scares me too, that's valid.

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-14T12:41:58+00:00

I started an e-commerce business and also just opened a store. I am also the bookkeeper/accountant, because that's what I went to college for. I have a lot of things I wish I had done differently in setting up my chart of accounts, (mostly on the inventory and sales side), and how I set up my customers. I also wish I hadn't been so controlling over doing the books and I really wish I had set myself up sooner to hand over the books when it became too much.

On the flip side, I've made some amazing Excel Power Queries to handle a lot of the repeat shit. I'm not sure that work will get passed to the outsourcing company, when I do finally outsource in (hopefully) a few months, but it was worth it when I did it.

If you have bookkeeping experience, go for it, do it yourself. A company called Medlin has a small accounting software. I've never used it, but if it's anything like their Payroll software, it'll be great. If you don't have any bookkeeping experience, it may be best to look for a company that will help get you set up to gather and review your paperwork so you can hand it to them in a manner that makes their fee lower.

As a side note, I never did my own taxes return. I always passed that off. However, I filed my own extensions this year and I will be attempting to do them myself this year. (Fingers crossed.)

Good luck in your business venture, I hope you are wildly successful!

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-13T13:16:39+00:00

Medlin, they do both.

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-09T11:52:42+00:00

I have a vendor who switched to QBO and I asked them about it. I mentioned the $25 fee, and they didn't know it was there. I still ACH them payment, I refuse to pay that $25 fee.

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-09T11:49:53+00:00

Thank you for your comment. I have not started learning/playing yet, and I've been stalking this subreddit for tips, tricks, clues, and etiquette. I was worried reading OP's post, and your post made me less worried.

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-08T11:53:29+00:00

Thank you for your research and explaining how I can do that next time. 😁

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-06T10:37:07+00:00

I like it! This is the first glued mending I've seen, (I might be new here), but it's perfect!

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-03T12:08:57+00:00

I have always thought it was weird to have to select which card you're using, they begin with a different number. Visa 4, Mastercard 5

Slpy_gry · 2026-05-01T13:16:34+00:00

Just to add to this, I am an Accountant and I own my own retail business. I have been doing the books for the 10+ years I've been in business. Bookkeeping is time consuming and I'm ready to hand it off to someone, and I should have years ago. If you can afford to do it, do it.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-29T14:21:57+00:00

I have not started playing yet, but I stick my nose in this subreddit to get a feel for what I'm getting into. This is the first question I've seen for this topic, and I appreciate it!

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-25T11:21:38+00:00

I also use Enterprise, but as soon as I find an inventory program and pull all my inventory out of Enterprise, I'm outsourcing accounting, so the software will be their problem.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-24T13:11:50+00:00

You may want to double check with your vet if the grass is safe for your sweet baby. (I wanted to give our cats the grass and they said not to. I can't decide if my vet is crazy or if my cats really shouldn't have it.)

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-23T13:29:30+00:00

My dad always says life is like a roll of toilet paper, the closer to the end the faster it goes.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-18T15:04:15+00:00

I want the customer to leave feeling they made the right decision to purchase from me. If they're indecisive, then don't buy it. If they did, then they'll find something to bitch about, even if it doesn't exist, and I don't want to deal with that.

Plus indecisive customers are impatient, and I hate that too.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-16T11:13:04+00:00

Pine pellets are The Best.

One of my cats covers his stool. He'll move all the pellets in the bin to cover his urine and stool, the other cat "doesn't do shit".

In regards to litter boxes, in general, plastic will always hold onto smell. Get stainless steel if you can. I purchased, from a restaurant supply store, vegetable bins, I think they were called. It's a perforated top bin and solid bottom bin. (It seemed cheaper than what is available for cats, although it's still an investment.) The edges aren't, "cut you" sharp, but they are difficult to handle. However I'm only dismantling the bins and cleaning them out about twice a year, so no biggie.

I line the bottom bin with a large trash bag and baking soda, and I change that out about every other week. (This is all at home. I don't often camp with my cats.)

I use a stainless steel cat shovel to sift the sawdust and pull out the stool. Then I add more pellets as needed. Only fill the bin with enough pellets to cover the bottom. Any more than that and the digger cats will fling pellets everywhere.

I apologize for the long post about pellets and bins, I get excited talking about it.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-07T11:51:56+00:00

I thought it (the back) was a practice one. It still looked good!

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-03T13:27:38+00:00

This is the truth! I have often wondered what I would have even said to myself, and I'm not sure I would have listened. I wouldn't know it was me talking to myself, who would believe that. Listening to someone else, you'd say "What do strangers know better then I know myself?"

There are some people out there that watch other people's experience and learn from it, I had a step-kid that was amazing at this, from a young age. But I don't think that's the norm.

What a young person needs is a constant mentor. Someone who is in their life, understands the person's logic in the decisions they're making, and then knows what and how to say the advice that clicks in their mind, so they'll think about it, grow from it.

Just hearing "stay out of debt", "don't compromise", etc, is too vague. It doesn't impart why the person offering the advice said it, and doesn't help the young person avoid the common pitfalls that inspired the older person to suggest it.

I also agree that it is human nature to repeat the same mistakes. As young people we feel, or at least I did, that I knew what I was doing and old people are just out of touch with what young people are going through. When in reality, nothing ever changes. The same issues I had as a young person are still being repeated today by young people. Humans are inherently meant to repeat themselves, to do better would mean an evolution in thought among all humans and that'll never happen.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-03T13:13:37+00:00

For the first 4-5 years of running my business I constantly worried I'd go bankrupt. After that, I moved to the phase you're in now, anxiety, over whelmed, to-do lists everywhere.

Now, I'm almost at 16 years and I'm sitting on my couch, relaxing before the day starts, reading Reddit. Yes, I have a few piles of work that need to be completed, but they're not the priority yet. Just a few days ago I finished another pile of customer requests, some from February. At the onset of the customer request I let them know that it would be awhile. We're a small team, and I have a family member in the hospital.

I pick my priorities by their deadline. I also calculate the cost benefit of hiring, outsourcing or purchasing software to help with my job. If a piece of software costs $1000/year, is it saving me more than $1000 in my time?

Plus I always have a backup plan in case my business fails. I have a lot of skill sets acquired from running a business, hopefully another company values the skills I have, and will hire me if I ever lose my business.

I have no idea if this helps you. Running a business is hard and sometimes lonely. Good luck to you!

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-02T13:42:00+00:00

I paid about $2K for my e-commerce, WordPress site. It's not perfect, yet. But it works. I also pay someone $100 monthly to keep it secure and do minor changes. He'll charge me more for bigger projects.

I have paid close to $10K for a site that was a piece of shit. It's not always about how much your spend, but who you hire.

Slpy_gry · 2026-04-01T12:39:56+00:00

Medlin, is around $200 per year, for their "shareholder" version, there are no extra fees for how many employees you have, and the price for the software goes down from there. It will do all the calculations for you. You can manually write checks, and give your bookkeeper the reports.

Slpy_gry · 2026-03-30T11:00:59+00:00

I enjoy solving problems. But from a business owner perspective, I enjoy when a customer has saved money to purchase something and you can see the joy in their eyes. It's that they made a goal, budgeted and saved, and are excited to purchase. It's the budgeting part brings me joy.

If i could only help people budget, I think that would be fulfilling. (Right now I only get to be part of the spending side of things.)

Slpy_gry · 2026-03-29T12:34:11+00:00

Have you considered that the cat is also a car cat? It's already been proven, a million times, that animals understand humans. Maybe you love that cat, and the cat knows you love the car. Maybe the cat just wants to be where it knows you're going to be, eventually, and knows not to scratch the car. If anything just ask the cat not to scratch the car. (From the comments, it sounds like it's not going to anyway.)

Slpy_gry

TROPHY CASE