u/Awould73

Hi there!

I’ve searched the group already and am looking for updated info. I need to find a self-serve car wash to wash my very small (14 feet long) camping trailer. I’m in East Van but happy to go to any of the surrounding areas like Burnaby, North Van, Coquitlam, etc.

To be clear, I need a bay with the hoses and brushes where I do the washing myself, not a drive through wash. My trailer won’t fit and they’d never let me go through with it anyhow, nor would I want to.

I used to go to the place on Royal Oak but last time I was there, which admittedly was a couple years ago now, it was not good. The token machine kept eating my money, the guy there yelled at me when I brought out some of my own smaller brushes to get the gaskets, etc around the windows and said I had to use the brushes they had, the brushes they had were worn down to the nub and filled with sand and gunk that was scratching up the surface of my trailer, and I can’t remember how much it cost but it was something super high for a very small amount of time. I haven’t been back since but I wonder if anyone can tell me if it’s gotten any better?

Also wondering about the place in Coquitlam that I’ve seen talked about here? Yes/no?

Any other recommendations without having to take it all the way out to the Fraser Valley?

Thanks!

Here’s my situation…

I had cancer a few years back and was pretty in shock when I first got the diagnosis. I called the person responsible for administering my union’s extended benefits (who at the time was someone who worked at the union but she has recently retired and the benefits are now administered by a third-party) to see what my benefits plan could do for me as I had to have surgery, chemo, radiation, and I wasn’t able to work for quite a while. Plus, while my odds of beating it were statistically good, it was still a serious cancer that changed me forever and has put me through hell ever since. And chance of recurrence is high.

Our extended benefits did have a disability benefit that would have paid out for this but I guess when she asked me how I was doing, I said “good”, even though I don’t remember saying that in the context of my cancer but more in the context of “I’m hanging in there”. But it appears she took that to mean that I didn’t need benefits, even though I had told her about the full extent of my treatment, prognosis, etc.

When she told me I didn’t qualify for any assistance through my benefits, I just kind of accepted it. I think if the same conversation happened today I would have questioned it. But I was in a haze and terrified and not in a fighting frame of mind. But about a year ago a friend of mine (different employer, different insurer) was diagnosed with the same cancer but not as advanced and with less treatment required, and they received their disability insurance benefit. Which got me thinking.

I’m still trying to dig myself out of the financial hole that I ended up in during that time. So I called my union benefits administrator back again and asked about it. That’s when she said that because I’d said I was fine when she asked me how I was - conversationally - she didn’t actually apply for the benefit for me. WTF.

I asked her to reach out to the underwriter, explain that this was a miscommunication, and see if I could apply for the benefit retroactively. She did so and then got back to me and said no, that they said I had to apply within a year of diagnosis, and it’s been much more than a year now.

But I’m pissed. If I’d gotten the disability benefit that my extended benefits provide for and that I was entitled to, my whole current financial situation would have been so much better. I had to max all of my credit cards and line of credit, as well as cash in my RRSPs during those years of treatment in order to keep the lights on. I’m still paying it all down.

I’d like to know if there is any legal recourse here and if there’s any push back to be had on the one-year time limit that the underwriter is claiming and if I might still be entitled to my insurance benefit.

Thanks!

I'm new to all this so please be gentle.

Short back story:
I kind of started flipping after COVID restrictions started to let up. I saw an ad for a flea market with spots for a reasonable price. I love vintage stuff but I have too much of it and needed to move some of it along, and I was feeling starved for human interaction so it seemed like a good idea. I hadn't done one before but I decided to try. I did well and I loved it. So it started to become a hobby of mine. That was about five years ago.

Cut to now:
I have been doing markets a bit more frequently and consistently since then. I don't really make much money at it after I consider the cost of my storage locker, gas, supplies, market fees, inventory costs, etc. But I haven't really been tracking it either. To this point I've been considering it a hobby that I pretty much break even with, if I'm lucky.

But I'd like to start getting a bit more serious with it. I'm going to open an eBay store and I've started selling through my Instagram over the past couple of months. Over the last couple of weeks I've also met with two retailers who I'm going to do an ongoing wholesale deal with: one for decor and one for jewelry. I'd like to do more of this as well. So I feel like I need to start getting a bit more serious about my record keeping. To this point I haven't been reporting my income as it hasn't really been substantial and at the end of the day, it's all pretty much been a wash. But I feel like I may start to actually make a profit and since I'm engaging with other businesses now who are legit and filing taxes, I think I need to start doing the same.

So, questions:
First, I'm in Canada so that may have an impact on some answers, although I expect much of the broader strokes are still the same. I'm going to meet with a small business accountant in a couple of weeks to talk to them about what I need to do to get set up properly.

1. Sage advice? Any suggestions on what to do/not to do as you go legit? Money is tight at the moment so if I can do this in phases to spread out the costs associated with getting set up, that would be great. Anything you wish you had or had not done when you first started, from a business perspective?
2. No receipts. I'm not sure how to track my inventory in terms of the cost I paid for things vs what I sell them for since I have so much stuff and I don't have receipts for much of it. I got a lot of it from garage sales or thrift stores that I never got a receipt for. I'm going to start trying to enter it all into an inventory system of some sort from this point forward, so do I just estimate a price for how much I paid for items? I have a pretty good memory for such things so it would be pretty accurate, but lacking paper backup.
3. Auction purchases. Much of the inventory I have also came from auctions, often when it was purchased as part of a lot with multiple other items. For these items I do have receipts. If I bought a group of 20 things in a lot for $20 but they're all different (a board game, a lamp, some table linens, a piece of jewelry, etc.) how best do I note my cost? Do I just assign $1 to each item if there are 20 items and the whole lot cost $20, even if the actual value of each item is not equal?
4. Inventory tracking & POS. I have no idea how to track my inventory. I have so much of it and since it's vintage, most of it is unique items. So it's not like I have 100 large blue t-shirts and 100 medium blue t-shirts and they're all $20 each. Every item is a different thing and most are a different price. It's going to take me a bit to get it all entered, but I've tried a few different "systems" before and they haven't worked for me so I want to find the right one this time. In the past I tried an Excel spreadsheet and also the Square app, as that's what I use for my POS system. The spreadsheet just felt too onerous to maintain and the Square app was too clunky to work with, although maybe it's improved since I tried. Now I just punch in a dollar amount on the POS app with no details and keep a hand-written record of sales for each market I do. I'd love to know what inventory systems people use and costs associated with them, and if they can link to a POS system. It needs to be able to work with an eBay store (and any other platforms I may decide to open up) and my Square POS that I use at markets and for my Instagram sales so that I'm not having to re-enter anything anywhere. I don't want to be duplicating work.

Thanks for reading all of this!!!