Why I’m not rich

I’ve owned a business for quite a few years ….I should be rich….yet I’m not about to retire, and I don’t have hundreds of thousands in the bank as a fund to fall back on?

Why is this?

Where did it all go wrong?

Well let’s look at the issues.

The first mistake that I probably made, was imagining that I could run a business in the first place.

What was I thinking? I had no funding and no backing, just me and an idea that I could make it work.

1988 – I had a pregnant fiancé, I had bought a house and I was due to get married …hopefully before the baby got too visible in the wedding pictures. So I thought, ‘Why not set up a new business?’ What could possibly go wrong.

I feel that I’ve been on the back foot since these early decisions – never quite getting ahead of the game – never quite hitting that peak of financial wizardry that others manage.

The second mistake that I made was going into the construction industry. Somebody needs to write a situation comedy based on the payment terms that main contractors used to get away with. It’s still bad… but not quite as bad as it used to be.

We used to get payment’s in so long after we’d finished… that I couldn’t work out what the payment was for. 60 or 120 days was normal and this was ‘after’ the QS had signed off on the application. Suppliers wanted paid on 30 days, so there were always going to be timing issues on larger projects.

So again, you’re on the back foot as a business working as a sub-contractor.

My third error of judgement was having to have a business overdraft. Boy do they make you work for every penny that they lend. Talk about having to beg… and that’s whilst they have your balls in a drawer in their office just available for them to squeeze if they feel inclined.

Mind you, that was in the good old days when you actually had a bank manager. Nowadays, they just employ AI to say ‘No’ before you’ve even explained what it is that you need.

Fourth mistake was thinking having a business partner might help out with some of the financial issues, bit more collateral behind the company – plus somebody to share the burden. This relies on picking the right person to be your business partner – not some public schoolboy, golfing wannabe who struggles to keep his d**k in his pants.

Soooo….

By now I have two children, a healthy mortgage, a business overdraft, no business partner, two company cars (because I had to buy his off him to get rid of him…) …and twenty plus people relying on me to make their lives productive and viable.

Mistake number 5.

I’m too soft.

The team come to me with their issues and I help out where I can.

I’m pretty sure Richard Branson or Elon didn’t get where they are by paying people in full when they’re sick, or stressed, or the cats poorly, or the children have (fill in the illness) and they need to be at home.

Mistake number 6.

I’m way too honest.

We have a culture here of playing a straight bat.

We don’t tell untruths and we don’t rip people off.

Our business mantra is that we are honest and tell it as it is, with no need for embellishment. We just tell you what the problems are and what you need to do to resolve them as painlessly as possible.

If somebody massively undercuts us price wise – they’re either not offering the same service, or they’re lying.

Sooooo…

There you go.

 

Mike Clough – sleeps well at night not retiring any time soon.

 

 

 

 

Mike C