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Your example is a precise representation of just how little people understand business. Restaurants: Shitty business. Most are constantly gasping for air. Y

Your example is a precise representation of just how little people understand business. Restaurants: Shitty business. Most are constantly gasping for air. Yet, they do make a profit, which they use to hire people, pay for supplies, rent, etc. and keep the doors open. If they do not make a profit their choices are reduced to two simple paths: Close the doors or go get money (loan or investor). A lot of restaurant operators are up to their necks in loans, second mortgages, etc. In many ways restaurants are the best example of why good profits are important. Those who do not generate substantial profits are nothing but a brutal slog. Those who do, thrive, grow and expand. Amazon: C'mon. Please. They plowed PROFITS back into the business. Their annual net revenue was zero or near zero for a long time. It should be way beyond self-evident that you can't grow a business like Amazon without profits. Are you suggesting Amazon grew WITHOUT PROFITS? Seriously?

et15 5y ago
I think you're still confusing revenue and profits. This guide is a good overview of the difference: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-difference-between-revenue-and-profit.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-differe...
- robomartin 5y ago
  I have self-funded, founded and run multiple businesses in the last 40 years. What I post does not come from a 30 second google session. It comes from having had significant skin in the game, succeeding and failing. Most people think they understand business. And most people have never run a non-trivial business. It's like trying to explain what it is like to fly like a bird without being a bird. Most simply can't get it because they have no context whatsoever. When things go bad and you have to mortgage your home and top-off your credit cards to keep people employed and keep the doors open, you understand things you cannot possibly comprehend any other way. I've been there. Be well.
  - SirSourdough 5y ago
    If you had just Googled for 30 seconds to learn the definitions of literally the most basic business terms when someone told you you were wrong, maybe you wouldn’t have had to mortgage the house.
    - robomartin 5y ago
      I truly do not know how to respond to this other than to say that the only kind of person who can make such a mean-spirited comment is one who has never experienced the deep dark hole some entrepreneurs experience when things go the wrong way. Some don't come out of the other side. What happened to me took place during the 2008 economic implosion. To put it in the simplest possible terms: All business came to a grinding halt. The music stopped and there were no chairs. A friend of mind died in 2009 from the sheer stress this moment in history caused him as his business crumbled. That December I penned an email from the darkest place I have ever been. One that was prompted by a revelation I had that day: I experienced a level of clarity I had never before experienced. In a moment, I understood, in no uncertain terms, why someone would commit suicide, jump off a bridge, walk in front of a train or shoot themselves due to undue business pressure and financial troubles. I emailed a friend to let him know I now understood this. I wasn't quite there, but, for some strange reason, I had to share. He drove to my office and spent the rest of the day with me. So, yeah, I don't know what to say to someone like you. My less-than-intellectual impulse is to deliver the most vile insult I could. Yet, that would mean descending to a level I am not interested in visiting. I'll leave you with this: I hope you never get to experience some of what many entrepreneurs have to live through when things take a turn for the worse. If you do, I hope the experience humbles you and you become a nicer person. Be well.
  - ceejayoz 5y ago
    OK, but none of that really qualifies you to arbitrarily redefine the term "profit" to fit your argument. https://www.google.com/search?q=uber+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=uber+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+first+profit make it fairly clear how people use the terms.

et15 5y ago

I think you're still confusing revenue and profits. This guide is a good overview of the difference: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-difference-between-revenue-and-profit.asp https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-differe...

robomartin 5y ago
I have self-funded, founded and run multiple businesses in the last 40 years. What I post does not come from a 30 second google session. It comes from having had significant skin in the game, succeeding and failing. Most people think they understand business. And most people have never run a non-trivial business. It's like trying to explain what it is like to fly like a bird without being a bird. Most simply can't get it because they have no context whatsoever. When things go bad and you have to mortgage your home and top-off your credit cards to keep people employed and keep the doors open, you understand things you cannot possibly comprehend any other way. I've been there. Be well.
- SirSourdough 5y ago
  If you had just Googled for 30 seconds to learn the definitions of literally the most basic business terms when someone told you you were wrong, maybe you wouldn’t have had to mortgage the house.
  - robomartin 5y ago
    I truly do not know how to respond to this other than to say that the only kind of person who can make such a mean-spirited comment is one who has never experienced the deep dark hole some entrepreneurs experience when things go the wrong way. Some don't come out of the other side. What happened to me took place during the 2008 economic implosion. To put it in the simplest possible terms: All business came to a grinding halt. The music stopped and there were no chairs. A friend of mind died in 2009 from the sheer stress this moment in history caused him as his business crumbled. That December I penned an email from the darkest place I have ever been. One that was prompted by a revelation I had that day: I experienced a level of clarity I had never before experienced. In a moment, I understood, in no uncertain terms, why someone would commit suicide, jump off a bridge, walk in front of a train or shoot themselves due to undue business pressure and financial troubles. I emailed a friend to let him know I now understood this. I wasn't quite there, but, for some strange reason, I had to share. He drove to my office and spent the rest of the day with me. So, yeah, I don't know what to say to someone like you. My less-than-intellectual impulse is to deliver the most vile insult I could. Yet, that would mean descending to a level I am not interested in visiting. I'll leave you with this: I hope you never get to experience some of what many entrepreneurs have to live through when things take a turn for the worse. If you do, I hope the experience humbles you and you become a nicer person. Be well.
- ceejayoz 5y ago
  OK, but none of that really qualifies you to arbitrarily redefine the term "profit" to fit your argument. https://www.google.com/search?q=uber+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=uber+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+first+profit https://www.google.com/search?q=amazon+first+profit make it fairly clear how people use the terms.