Saying no to new business owners . . .

0
1229
Terry Sage of Trades Coaching New Zealand

You have probably just read in the previous pages about an outstanding vehicle — or at least looked at the pictures.

 

So you are now either bored, dripping from the chin or looking for your shoes as you dash out the door heading for the nearest dealership.

 

Sorry, car sales people, but I’m going to say “NO, DON’T DO IT” — not to everybody but definably a certain group. Let me explain myself.

 

Seven weeks ago I met a young man, aged 25, living with his girlfriend, renting a small house, working for a decent builder, earning a reasonable wage for a tradesmen, and driving a Subaru Legacy station wagon (GT model no less).

 

Familiar and very cosy

All sounds familiar and very cosy. A couple of days later the boss called a staff meeting during which he announced that all his employees were going to be laid off — “I don’t want to employ people any more, and I am only going to use contractors from now on,” he said. So off they all went.

 

Now don’t anybody go out and use the line above. You can do what the boss did, and it’s legit, but to do it properly there’s three or four pages that need saying, not a one liner.

 

Now we have cleared that up, just before the lads left, the boss said, “if anybody wants to be a contractor come and have a chat”.

 

That all being seven weeks ago, I come across the same young man three days ago — still with his girl, in the same house but now a business owner.

 

He is the proud owner of Young Man’s Construction Ltd — OK, I made that bit up as I can’t remember what he called it.

 

He’d gone to have a chat with the ex-boss, got offered a huge contract worth $300,000, employed two of his mates who were also laid off and he was on his way to making millions.

Familiar and not very cosy

Then he did something else, something very familiar and not very cosy. Gone is the trusty Subaru Legacy station wagon (GT model no less) that has carried his tools for the past five years and has a tow bar for a trailer and, hello, he jumps out of a 2015 Ford Ranger — wheels big and black, a snorkel (why?), the ugly angry mesh front and cream leather seats (really, cream leather for a builder?).

 

But it wasn’t the GT model, thankfully. Is there a GT model? On top of all this, actually behind it was a rather large, very shiny, twin-axel trailer filled with nearly shiny tools. We are talking upwards of $70,000 worth in total.

 

“So what,” the shout goes out. Well, I will tell you so what. He spent nearly 25% of the contract price in the first week.

 

Question: Who makes 25% profit on a construction job these days anyway, and who spends the profit before it’s earned?

 

Answer: Way too many people.

OK, so he didn’t actually spend the money up front, he ticked it all up on the never never. If he actually worked it out first he may have thought twice about it (yeah right!). He had to work for two days a week just to make the repayments.  

 

Back to the beginning, the reason I say no to new business owners is get established first and make sure the work is sustainable — and the list goes on and on.

 

You may think it’s common sense and, of course, it is, but that big shiny, just sign on the bottom line sir, flash-as ute makes you feel and look like a real business owner.

Previous articleMaterial quality
Next articleThe zero dust solution is here