Taking a big hit in business and coming back
Discussion
Two of us started a business last year. It has gone well and we had a few small bumps along the way which I expected as we learnt the sector and what was required, but after a year we had made a small profit and things were looking up. Until today.
Someone who helped us set up the business made some errors in doing so which only just came to light. This meant today we have to repay monies we earned to a big customer, add money to the business to cover this and then effectively financially start again with 'all new' investment. Luckily we're only talking a few thousand pounds, about ten in all but we're gutted and not a little bit pissed off. It's been a really hard day for us both and will be for the next few days. It'll take us 2 months just to begin trading again.
I'm sure some of you have been in similar positions. Any positive words of advice/motivation?
Someone who helped us set up the business made some errors in doing so which only just came to light. This meant today we have to repay monies we earned to a big customer, add money to the business to cover this and then effectively financially start again with 'all new' investment. Luckily we're only talking a few thousand pounds, about ten in all but we're gutted and not a little bit pissed off. It's been a really hard day for us both and will be for the next few days. It'll take us 2 months just to begin trading again.
I'm sure some of you have been in similar positions. Any positive words of advice/motivation?
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I am very much the opposite approach from tinrobot. I can appreciate that view but it never worked for me.You need to be harder on yourself not softer and you need to get over things quickly. You made a mistake, something happened in the company and between you and other people a screw up happened which isnt good enough: you need to do better.
You need to quickly learn from it and move on. First thing you have learnt now is EVERY SINGLE choice you make in business will either make you money or cost you money. Even when I step foot in my door I know I will either do something that will make me money or cost me money. Even something simple as making a cup of coffee cost me money! lol
Making a small profit for me wasnt good enough and don't tell yourself that it is. Aim higher so you end up somewhere in the middle at the very least.
The mistake you have made now, learn from it so it never ever happens again and don't dwell on it past today. Move on; put a plan in place to recoup that money within the next 3 months and focus your energy and thought process on that.
Business is hard as tinrobot said. Its bloody relentless and by its very nature bloody brutal hence why you need to have a resilient mindset and a bloody strong focus.
Personally I started 5 years ago and when I think back on how many sleepless nights I had, so many times I had to pick myself back up from things that were out of my control losing 80% of revenue overnight its not easy!
BUT you can do it if you want to! push harder, learn better, be better.
One last thing which is always easier said than done and most business owners will tell you this, faliures and mistakes made them better. The things that I had happen to me helped me to learn new things and beat the competition; the very things that knocked me down a little I could use to knock someone else out when the time was right.
Oh and smile! lol. Sometimes when I feel down and feel I am up against it I will just randomly crack a smile and I feel better (it works as stupid as it sounds)
Push on and keep going!
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Business is hard as tinrobot said. Its bloody relentless and by its very nature bloody brutal hence why you need to have a resilient mindset and a bloody strong focus.
Personally I started 5 years ago and when I think back on how many sleepless nights I had, so many times I had to pick myself back up from things that were out of my control losing 80% of revenue overnight its not easy!
And as thanks for that HMG seems intent on trying to treat small business owners as PAYE staff, nice!Personally I started 5 years ago and when I think back on how many sleepless nights I had, so many times I had to pick myself back up from things that were out of my control losing 80% of revenue overnight its not easy!
TX.
Terminator X said:
XMT said:
Business is hard as tinrobot said. Its bloody relentless and by its very nature bloody brutal hence why you need to have a resilient mindset and a bloody strong focus.
Personally I started 5 years ago and when I think back on how many sleepless nights I had, so many times I had to pick myself back up from things that were out of my control losing 80% of revenue overnight its not easy!
And as thanks for that HMG seems intent on trying to treat small business owners as PAYE staff, nice!Personally I started 5 years ago and when I think back on how many sleepless nights I had, so many times I had to pick myself back up from things that were out of my control losing 80% of revenue overnight its not easy!
TX.
It looks set to get worse as they bring in new HMRC requirements for this digit rubbish increased CT is expected and with all that lower prices for goods and services for the public. Go figure!
@ fesuvious - Thank you
Edited by XMT on Friday 20th July 09:36
Eric Mc said:
How come the errors and mistakes weren't picked up earlier? You need to have procedures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again.
Mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them.
The paperwork process was a nightmare to get right and it took an age for it all to be completed exactly as required and for us to finally get paid. Mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them.
And we've definitely learned!
I can't go into details but one moment of stupidity by the person concerned wrecked everything. We're starting to get over it now and now its just the delay in restarting that's frustrating.
StevieBee said:
Undirection said:
Someone who helped us set up the business made some errors
Is there any scope of liability here? Can you revert back to them via any professional liability insurance?
21 years ago I was a young (ish) man, married with three young children and secure in a decent sales management role.
I saw some equipment that could print huge images (I sold print for a living) realised this was new and exiting and I had one chance. So, I turned my life upside down, left my unhappy relationship, left my job which at the time paid me over £50k pa (so not an insignificant salary back in 1997) and started my own business with not a penny to my name.
I really had no idea what I was doing, I was buying and selling large format print. I have limited qualifications and my successful career to date in sales was simply based on my gift of the gab and hard work. I had been right at the top of a large multi-national company for some years and simply didn’t have any negative thoughts re my career, I was just very good at my job.
However, as mentioned I’d not actually run a business so I made it up as I went along.
Paperwork and a good paper trail was pretty easy. I was working from a rented room, sharing it with any number of unnamed and weird bed bugs and other creatures! As I mentioned I was essentially buying and selling exhibition equipment. I purchased a web address and tried to make my little company look significantly bigger than it was. In the evening I made a list of companies to call the next day and during the day sat on the phone making call after call after call after call.
I spent some money on my logo and marketing, it was important I looked the part even if I wasn’t! I remember on one occasion I had some high quality extremely sticky labels printed and applied these to every product that I sent out. Each label had a bar code and as a result my clients left them in place believing they were important.
I’m not sure if any of my clients had any idea I had 10000 labels produced with the same barcode on
......sometimes you need to think out of the box 
As a result of that marketing gimmick I picked up HSBC and M&S as clients who went on to spend over £500,000 per year with us during the good years.......result I also had some cards printed and mailed companies directly (didn’t have e-marketing then!) and as a result picked up BSM and I ended up supplying decals for their entire fleet of learner driver cars which made me a small fortune.
However I made as many bad decisions as good but have never been shy of working hard...... I also played hard trying to relax as often as I could (which wasn’t often!).
Sons tears ago I purchased my own commercial property, got married again, had two more children and life was going pretty well.
Then bam........... we took a real dive in 2008 as did a lot of businesses and we lost 60% of our turnover in 6 months during that period..... gulp....
However here we are nearly 10 years later and celebrating our 22nd birthday next year. We’ve picked ourselves up since 2008 and worked bloody hard but we’re back on track again.
I won’t deny it’s sometimes tough. So tough it can get you down, right down. My wife has worked for the company for 15 years and that relationship works really well and the support I get is second to none. I still work crazy hours, travel all over the world and I never hear a moan that I’m not helping at home or when I get home that I’m wrong to go and cycle 60 miles because I need to wind down. However at work I still make all the decisions and whilst we employ a dozen staff plus contractors and it does get lonely.
However when I’m a bit pissed off I pinch myself and remind myself just how lucky I am and just how s
te life could be.
I’ve never been one to go to networking meetings but do have good friends who have shoulders if need be and have offered advice which is cool.
Keep your chin up, if you’re making a profit something is going well so that’s great.
Remind yourself if the positive things that are happening and try not to dwell on the negative things that happen in life.....it really is far too short.
Sorry about the long post, best of luck and keep up the good work.
I saw some equipment that could print huge images (I sold print for a living) realised this was new and exiting and I had one chance. So, I turned my life upside down, left my unhappy relationship, left my job which at the time paid me over £50k pa (so not an insignificant salary back in 1997) and started my own business with not a penny to my name.
I really had no idea what I was doing, I was buying and selling large format print. I have limited qualifications and my successful career to date in sales was simply based on my gift of the gab and hard work. I had been right at the top of a large multi-national company for some years and simply didn’t have any negative thoughts re my career, I was just very good at my job.
However, as mentioned I’d not actually run a business so I made it up as I went along.
Paperwork and a good paper trail was pretty easy. I was working from a rented room, sharing it with any number of unnamed and weird bed bugs and other creatures! As I mentioned I was essentially buying and selling exhibition equipment. I purchased a web address and tried to make my little company look significantly bigger than it was. In the evening I made a list of companies to call the next day and during the day sat on the phone making call after call after call after call.
I spent some money on my logo and marketing, it was important I looked the part even if I wasn’t! I remember on one occasion I had some high quality extremely sticky labels printed and applied these to every product that I sent out. Each label had a bar code and as a result my clients left them in place believing they were important.
I’m not sure if any of my clients had any idea I had 10000 labels produced with the same barcode on
......sometimes you need to think out of the box As a result of that marketing gimmick I picked up HSBC and M&S as clients who went on to spend over £500,000 per year with us during the good years.......result
I also had some cards printed and mailed companies directly (didn’t have e-marketing then!) and as a result picked up BSM and I ended up supplying decals for their entire fleet of learner driver cars which made me a small fortune.However I made as many bad decisions as good but have never been shy of working hard...... I also played hard trying to relax as often as I could (which wasn’t often!).
Sons tears ago I purchased my own commercial property, got married again, had two more children and life was going pretty well.
Then bam........... we took a real dive in 2008 as did a lot of businesses and we lost 60% of our turnover in 6 months during that period..... gulp....
However here we are nearly 10 years later and celebrating our 22nd birthday next year. We’ve picked ourselves up since 2008 and worked bloody hard but we’re back on track again.
I won’t deny it’s sometimes tough. So tough it can get you down, right down. My wife has worked for the company for 15 years and that relationship works really well and the support I get is second to none. I still work crazy hours, travel all over the world and I never hear a moan that I’m not helping at home or when I get home that I’m wrong to go and cycle 60 miles because I need to wind down. However at work I still make all the decisions and whilst we employ a dozen staff plus contractors and it does get lonely.
However when I’m a bit pissed off I pinch myself and remind myself just how lucky I am and just how s
te life could be.I’ve never been one to go to networking meetings but do have good friends who have shoulders if need be and have offered advice which is cool.
Keep your chin up, if you’re making a profit something is going well so that’s great.
Remind yourself if the positive things that are happening and try not to dwell on the negative things that happen in life.....it really is far too short.
Sorry about the long post, best of luck and keep up the good work.
Edited by HoHoHo on Saturday 21st July 21:39
Great question OP.
One of the intangible assets that is most missing in a new business, and that established ones have, is experience. It’s one of the most difficult and expensive assets to acquire, and also one of the most valuable to have. In a few years you’ll avoid in a split second issues that right now will cost thousands and waste hours of time. Whereas right now, you’re having to learn the hard way.
Only advice I’d give would be to get an experienced person or two as an advisory Board, and as previously suggested, join some kind of networking/social group for similar entrepreneurs. Both shortcut a lot of learning and give much needed support and encouragement.
And don’t dwell on it too much. These things happen, and getting through it and the whole episode behind you is what matters. Good luck with the business!
One of the intangible assets that is most missing in a new business, and that established ones have, is experience. It’s one of the most difficult and expensive assets to acquire, and also one of the most valuable to have. In a few years you’ll avoid in a split second issues that right now will cost thousands and waste hours of time. Whereas right now, you’re having to learn the hard way.
Only advice I’d give would be to get an experienced person or two as an advisory Board, and as previously suggested, join some kind of networking/social group for similar entrepreneurs. Both shortcut a lot of learning and give much needed support and encouragement.
And don’t dwell on it too much. These things happen, and getting through it and the whole episode behind you is what matters. Good luck with the business!
Edited by 67Dino on Saturday 21st July 22:53
UPDATE: Spoke to our big customer who was very understanding and although we have to do some new paperwork we do not have to pay anything back and have to hold off on some invoices for now but we can submit them later. I was totally upfront with them and explained the confusion and that we had no intentions of doing anything wrong/underhand/etc. and luckily they accepted that. It's a big relief....phew.
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