School

[Neobaron]

 UF was #11 for party schools this year TJ... plus Im a diehard gator fan... so i promote UF of the 3 you mentioned =-P

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Im goin' to the University fo West Florida probably.

Litle place in Pensacola and its only an hour away from Panama city! =-D

[Holby]

 Sohool, yes, I am bidding you all farewell so I can go to school right now.
ta~ra!

[Ruatine]

 Gateway College: Florissant, MO

[Germania]

Humm running a pawnshop. That is a hard job, but very profitable.  Maybe a better definition would be a ?legal loan shark.?  People that need instant money want a loan. They bring something they own (a Ring) that is worth $100 as collateral, the shop loans them $30.  The person has (say) 1 month to repay the loan plus interest of $10 and they get the ring back. If they do not bring the money, the pawnshop keeps the ring and then sells it for $60 to get their money back.  A very hard job. The pawn broker needs to know the value of just about everything that could be brought in, most of their clients are desperately poor, has to have the money ready to loan, has to determine if the object is stolen and deal with the police, then has to negotiate the sale later to a buyer if the first guy defaults on the loan.  

I have been self-employed all my life. It is far harder then it is made out to be for many reasons. Your income is always changing. You have no boss to toss your problems to. Any money loses are your own. You have to control all areas from advertising to bill collecting. My hat's off to Germania for running several small businesses.


Wolf Bite

An items value is determined usually by 80% of the original retail price, though it does vary. Usually a quick internet lookup for the cheapest price, then a 50% cut since the item is used, the further 30% or more depending on how desperate they are and how good the resale value or demand of the object is. Always remember the value of an item isn't a price in a book, its what people are willing to pay for it.

Quick example is a Portable Cd Player, worth anywhere from 60-120$ new (CDN funds), I would give no more then 15$ for.

I also can always refer to a few friends who own an actual Retail Pawn Shop, (Howard's Pawnshop in ottawa) for general price checks if im iffy on something.

Interestingly enough I had a similar discussion about stolen property with my probation officer the other day, my general opinion is; If I have a reason to believe its stolen, I will use my own resources to find out and if it is, reject it for pawning. If I didn't know it was stolen and later find out I sell it in the city the same day, although this isn't the true "Right thing to do", my personal situation deems that posession of stolen property wouldn't reflect too well on my probation. Of course if I know the person(s), the items are returned and the pawners are dealt with.

Self Employed is the way to go in my opinion, but as wolf said it's not for everyone. Personally i've never worked at a "McDonalds or Subway" or any other "real" job and don't see myself working at one in the near future. I have certain advantages like no rent, taxes etc etc that make the income fluctuation easier to deal with. Just remmeber that none of my businesses are actually "Legal" but they still follow proper business models that are essentially the same to their "real" counterparts. Good to see a succesful entrepreneur on the boards (wolf).

[Arguia Zsah]

 still not back on school... till Friday anyway...


I still don't know what to vote on this poll... secondary school... *thinks* high school? *shrugs*

[General Austin]

 

If I didn't know it was stolen and later find out I sell it in the city the same day, although this isn't the true "Right thing to do", my personal situation deems that posession of stolen property wouldn't reflect too well on my probation.

You're on probation!?!? Yeek, must be hard to run a business like that..

Wel, congrats to wolf and Germania for going it on their own, mebbe my dad will do the same once he retires in 3 months...*hopes he'll start up an uber-cool indoor soccer rink or something like that*