It is 2:40 a.m. and I wake with a start in a cold sweat. It is another night of grabbing only an hour or two of sleep. I am watching my life fall apart while everything spins out of control. I am dead tired and the next day, after multiple sleepless nights I am like a zombie. I am anxious and not making good decisions due to the lack of sleep, frazzled nerves and on the edge of hopelessness and panic.
Why am I living like this? It is because the business that I started and have built for the past thirteen years is falling apart and I can do nothing to stop it. Three seemingly external forces brought massive problems in quick succession. First, my company had developed an niche with the state for steady work. We were always on time and at budget and beat out other companies that were larger than us time and time again. however we were not allowed to bid on the contract that came up, we were excluded by company profile. Second, the bottom just fell out of the commercial real estate market. Almost overnight the project funding dried up and new projects were shelved. Lastly, the recession hit the manufacturing sector and ad a service provider to manufacturing plants were idled and some went out of business.
These three sectors defined our company and these sectors supplied the majority of our profits. We were desperate to find the cash to retain our employees and stay solvent. what was I going to do? I had a wife, children, a home, a business and employees that depended on me for a living and health care. I couldn’t let everyone down. This was all spiraling out of control.
My business advisor talked me down from the ledge. He and I looked at the business objectively and decided we can make it work. It will be difficult and unpleasant but, it could be done with hard choices and hard work.
We came up with a plan to reduce or control our payables and to bring overdue bills back in line. we also came up with ways to work with our vendors and creditors to give us the working capital we required to keep us afloat. Then we went after all expenses major and minor to preserve cash. We sold under utilized assets, stopped buying equipment and started renting equipment for each job. As soon as the job was over we would return the equipment and pul it off rent. We worked better in logistics to get more done with less equipment and personnel. This is after I and my Vice Presidents stopped drawing a salary for a couple of months.
We were making headway but, we still needed more cash. We realized we neede to downsize our staff. Yes, cut employees, the people who had been with us for years and were like family. Over the next week we halved our staff. Then we reduced it further and cut services that we used. This was a horrible time for me, I hated letting people go.
The people who were left took on all of the other jobs in our company. I left the office and went on the road ina territory selling. We all pitched in with every task in the company to make it work. We had a massive sales push and lived like Spartans.
Then it happened. We started to see daylight again. We were slowly making money and were headed toward a profitable year. We have become more frugal and we still push hard on sales and strive to keep our debts under control. That was ten years ago but, I remember it like it e=was yesterday.
The methods that I have learned and the progra that I have put together worked for our company and others that I have worked with over the years. With this information, drive and the will to make hard choices it will work for you too. I decided this is what I love to do, help small companies realize their profitability dreams and help the ones that need it get back on track.
I am a true believer that as a small business owner you too can do what I did.
Contact us and see what we can do together!
Sincerely, Tom