Just a Hi from a failed businessman!

[H8GNN]

Came across this website by accident and spent hours reading lots of topics on here.

I’m Jack been interested in business since as long as I can remember and I’m at my happiest when I’m earning my own money and developing.

Had a few failed businesses

Had a business doing hydrographic dipping mainly did car parts was going well for the first 12 months or so then someone came along at a much bigger scale and took half our clients sold the remaining clientele to the bigger business and that was all she wrote for that.

Had a business importing American pre workout and protein supplements, everything sold like hotcakes, profits were pretty thin but very consistent then the US export rules changed for anything with a trace of animal product so we were getting taxed at the much higher import rate nothing we could do to fix this legally so that wrote that off good run while it lasted.

That brings me to today with a car sales business that’s slow and just scraping by, been involved in the motor trade for as long as I can remember, currently buying cars that local dealers have taken in part exchange, along with struggling to get stock I have taken a job 2 days a week in car sales with a small local business and as a bonus I buy most of the part ex that come through the door but bills are just about getting paid and that’s less than ideal for me trying to support a family and keep my head above water.

I know something has got to change and I’m not sure what to do yet I feel like a child who’s lost there parents in a super market and is totally lost strange analogy but best I can come up with lol, I won’t give up not in my nature there’s something inside me that’s just different.

Looking forward to learning a few bits and maybe connecting with some people on here.

So yeah Hi everyone

Jack !

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Welcome to the forum Jack
Your problem, too many feelings and getting involved in markets where you will fall on your ass within months
Your in the motor business now and I have off loaded a few vehicles in my time and I always laugh to myself thinking what a mugs game
Who would sell a product that is on its last legs and could have a warranty claim exceeding the actual value of the product
Its not you its the game

 

[Novevan]

Hi welcome to the forum
Enjoy your stay here.

 

[Porky]

@H8GNN Jack, welcome to the forum

Stay positive my good man, many of us know exactly how you feel. We are probably in the midst of what I consider to be the worst possible trading climate in the last 20 years.

Conditions really dire, raising cash for equity dire other than at massive discount if you can get it, loan capital at high rates, low demand, businesses reducing staff numbers I could go on.

But we battle on, we have to. We got through Covid, we will get through this economic down turn, you will come out the other side of this stronger.

Keep at it, as I say, you are not on your own.

Take care

Pork’s

 

[H8GNN]

Welcome to the forum Jack
Your problem, too many feelings and getting involved in markets where you will fall on your ass within months
Your in the motor business now and I have off loaded a few vehicles in my time and I always laugh to myself thinking what a mugs game
Who would sell a product that is on its last legs and could have a warranty claim exceeding the actual value of the product
Its not you its the game

Hi Jeremy thanks for the message !, just been having a look at your website and what you do, I have friends in various businesses and when they needed anything moving I used to sub out to courier exchange, I did it as a little side hustle more than anything but I presume that’s what your doing as a full time job I could be wrong but looks that way ?, I have recently stopped due to unreliable drivers and the courier exchange fees for shippers so now I just sell the contracts and cut my self a small middle man fee, just sold a regular London-Manchester job twice a week for the next 6 months paying £1.80 a mile for a lwb van paying empty miles back and not fussy if co loading etc, I’ll bear you in mind if you want as I probably get 5-6 similar jobs a year.

Jack

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Hi Jeremy thanks for the message !, just been having a look at your website and what you do, I have friends in various businesses and when they needed anything moving I used to sub out to courier exchange, I did it as a little side hustle more than anything but I presume that’s what your doing as a full time job I could be wrong but looks that way ?, I have recently stopped due to unreliable drivers and the courier exchange fees for shippers so now I just sell the contracts and cut my self a small middle man fee, just sold a regular London-Manchester job twice a week for the next 6 months paying £1.80 a mile for a lwb van paying empty miles back and not fussy if co loading etc, I’ll bear you in mind if you want as I probably get 5-6 similar jobs a year.

Jack

We don't really get involved with that type of thing its all about customer satisfaction and providing a bespoke to service to large companies and high end customers
I have my own vehicles on the major freight routes and many of the jobs are covered in house
We are part of a much smaller network where people are vetted a lot more than CX and you know that quality people will be going into your customers
We also built a basic buckshee in house load board that emails loads to our owner drivers that we ahve added to the list

 

[Shopclicks]

That brings me to today with a car sales business that’s slow and just scraping by, been involved in the motor trade for as long as I can remember, currently buying cars that local dealers have taken in part exchange, along with struggling to get stock I have taken a job 2 days a week in car sales with a small local business and as a bonus I buy most of the part ex that come through the door but bills are just about getting paid and that’s less than ideal for me trying to support a family and keep my head above water.

All business is based on adding value to a product or service. How are you adding value?

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Hiya! And welcome!

I'm in video production which is often described as a mugs game because there are a zillion competitors. My little video production business is smack bang between huge competitors with massive markups and small players fighting on price.

I know several videographers who've won business because they think it sounds cool and have family money and incredible connections. They can afford to make a loss for many years on the trot because it's more of a hobby.

So it's not easy. In fact, it's incredibly hard. But there are solutions.

So good luck and hope you find solutions to your challenges!

 

[SBC Marketing]

Jack, in my view, you're not a failure. Instead, you're an experienced entrepreneur who's encountered setbacks along the way. The key question is, what valuable lessons have you gleaned from these setbacks, and can you leverage that knowledge to assist others and earn an income from your expertise?

It's worth noting that the majority of small businesses are facing challenges, and even larger established brands are grappling with difficulties, as evidenced by Wilko's recent decline. If there's a local networking group available, I recommend attending to gain insights into the local business landscape.

In this post-COVID-19 era, future growth will be driven by collaboration, partnerships, and strategic acquisitions. Therefore, the crucial question is: who else can you team up with to foster the growth of your ventures?

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Jack, in my view, you're not a failure. Instead, you're an experienced entrepreneur who's encountered setbacks along the way. The key question is, what valuable lessons have you gleaned from these setbacks, and can you leverage that knowledge to assist others and earn an income from your expertise?

It's worth noting that the majority of small businesses are facing challenges, and even larger established brands are grappling with difficulties, as evidenced by Wilko's recent decline. If there's a local networking group available, I recommend attending to gain insights into the local business landscape.

In this post-COVID-19 era, future growth will be driven by collaboration, partnerships, and strategic acquisitions. Therefore, the crucial question is: who else can you team up with to foster the growth of your ventures?

Also, a very good point. What do we learn from our failures? All of us who've started businesses grapple with failure because we fail a lot, learn from it and use that failure to shape our business.

You've made my day! Feeling better already!

 

[BillyB]

Hi Jack, welcome to the forum!

I feel like I'm pretty much in the same boat as you, I started my first business at 21 which ended up with me going bankrupt at 22, then I decided to venture into eBay, Amazon etc when the lockdown came but struggled to find stock and compete with other sellers. Which then lead me on to opening a gourmet takeaway which lasted just over 1 year and £35k down the drain.

But after all that I'm still hopeful and great to hear that you are too, sometimes people just give up and they end up stuck behind a checkout at ASDA until they retire.

I always say failure isn't the end it's just another hurdle in life.

 

[pentel]

If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

Sometime there is a degree of luck however I have found that the harder I work the luckier I am.

 

[Pviegas]

Hello Jack,

I too have experienced ups and downs in past businesses, and like you, I'm still pushing forward. If you need any assistance in the technology realm, feel free to reach out. Best of luck with the car sales and any future endeavours!

Warm regards,

 

[Mark T Jones]

A couple more failures and you'll qualify as a serial entrepreneur!

Seriously though, the past is behind you- the important part is that you learn from mistakes and move on.

The motor trade is a tough gig - my understanding is that the toughest part at this moment is sourcing stock, which you seen to have covered, so time to stand back and question what is going wrong.

Over-paying?
Under-selling?
Or something else (multiple little things)

Anyway, best of luck!

 

[Fagin2021]

If you've treated your customers/employees/suppliers fairly and honestly you haven't failed as a businessman or a person - you've just hit a bump in a very long road.