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A comment on Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/businesses?.

Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by sharemywin on Thursday April 10, 2014 @10:50AM (#7566597)
I bought a pizza shop. Invested 100k from credit cards in it to prove I was committed. I work full time as a developer so, I needed someone to run it. Got sales to over 40k a month in sales and still couldn't turn any kind of profit. Bought a second shop pretty sure I was robbed blind. Sold both never got paid for either shop. Not sure how to proceed now. Getting garnished so huge chunk of my pay is lost to paying back debt. Learned many valuable lessons. I consider it my ivy league of the real world education. I flipped a house paid 85k with a loan fixed it up sold it for 128k, still broke even took to long to fix up. Bought a rental property tenants destroyed couldn't get it re-rented. Owned a mortgage company market collapsed.
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by gamblor956 on Thursday April 10, 2014 @12:43PM (#7567702)
Have you ever considered forming a company through which to take on these investments and projects? The company can declare bankruptcy independently, which should limit the (future) impact to your credit score and finances. (Obviously, wouldn't do anything for your past ventures.)
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by ek750 on Thursday April 10, 2014 @11:56PM (#7571145)
While this is true in theory, from my experience of running businesses and from talking to accountants and bank employees, this doesn't work for most people. A corporation or llc can shield you, but unless the company has a proven revenue stream or assets, no bank or landlord will take on risk without asking you to assume personal liability as well.

Kind of like needing a cosigner when you get that first car.

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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by sharemywin on Saturday April 12, 2014 @01:37AM (#7577084)
your exactly right. only way to get money for a business like that is credit cards, second mortgage etc.
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by cpncrunch on Thursday April 10, 2014 @11:25AM (#7566945)
Wow, that's brutal! Have you considered bankruptcy?
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by sharemywin on Saturday April 12, 2014 @01:43AM (#7577096)
chapter 13 is brutal. no 401k contributions for 5 years.
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by seanmccann on Thursday April 10, 2014 @11:30AM (#7567000)
How did you not get paid when you sold them?
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by sharemywin on Saturday April 12, 2014 @01:39AM (#7577086)
loan that never get's paid. don't have the time to run them. so then you could take back equipment, but it's mostly worthless for resell especially in a hurry. easier to just take a loss on taxes against future income.
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by jesusmichael on Thursday April 10, 2014 @12:43PM (#7567704)
wow man... You should stick to working and give your money to someone else to manage...
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Re:Ask HN: How much money have you lost on side projects/bus... by sharemywin on Saturday April 12, 2014 @01:41AM (#7577092)
on a positive note. I saw the crap loans companies were approving before the downturn so I pulled out all of my money from the market and only lost 5% that year versus a lot that lost 30-40%. And put it back in the following year and had pretty good gains. so at least my experience paid off some.
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