Small Business My First Experience

"You must be very patient, very persistent. The world isn’t going to shower gold coins on you just because you have a good idea." - Herb Kelleher

Small Business is a challenge.

It’s the early 1970s, and I cringe when I look back on my first business venture. I was a young dad, in my early 20s, married with two young daughters, just toddlers. At the time I worked in a government department, the Post Office with over 30,000 employees. There I got to know another young married dad, also with a child. We both survived on single incomes, while our wives took care of our homes and children. It was possible way back then, to survive, barely, on one income, to be able to pay the mortgage, put food on the table and somehow commute to work via car or public transport. Scratching from week to week, my colleague and I got to the day before payday, hoping there was still some food in the cupboard.

Searching for extra income

The only way I was aware of, to increase my income, was to work overtime, in the mail room of the Post Office. I kept searching for part-time work in the classified sections of the newspapers.

One day my colleague, now a friend due to mutual interests, told me about a takeaway business for sale. He asked me to consider going into business with him, to buy the takeaway. My wife and I had worked in a burger bar when we first met. It seemed to me businesspeople were doing well, so I thought why not.

Red Flags

Due diligence, balance sheet, cashflow, profit and loss, bank statements, tax, work and family life balance, what are those? None of these entered our heads, not even for a micro-second. “You know what you know”, and we knew nothing of financial reports or business. All we wanted was to make more money, so we didn’t have to scratch around from week to week. The work side we could handle, the business side, shocking.

The biggest red flag wasn’t the due diligence or accounting part of the business. When my friend and I, with our wives looked at the takeaway premises, we saw the hotplates, the griller, the potato peeler, the fridge freezers, everything needed to make hamburgers and chips. We also saw the woks, the ingredients and utensils, and the gas fired setup. The woks were the biggest red flag. We didn’t pay attention, we weren’t Chinese, we were white and brown. We just wanted to keep our government jobs and work the takeaway business. Or rather our wives would take on the business during the day and us men would do the evenings and weekends.

It Didn’t Last

I really can’t remember how long that business lasted, but it wasn’t long. What I do remember is that my friend and his wife walked away from the business. For what reasons, I can only surmise and speculate. What I do remember is my wife and I continuing to run the takeaway bar with Chinese woks, it’s hilarious and tearful. Imagine customers coming in, ordering fried rice and chop suey, and seeing these brown faces preparing their Chinese takeaways for them. This is why I cringe when I think about those customers. Burgers and chips, yes sir, yes mam, no problem, coming right up! Ah Chinese food, let me wipe my brow first and see what I can do, as sweat keeps pouring down.

Poignant

What I also remember is the energy and commitment my wife put into that first business venture I got involved with. I also remember my two toddler daughters being put and sat on top of a cabinet or shelf, while my wife and I worked away serving customers. It would have been hours they sat and waited for us to close the business for the night. There was a lot of stress during the tenure of the takeaway business. How it was financed I cannot recall, but somehow, we walked away from it without any debt or monetary impact. Yet, I still see images in my mind of a lady ordering Chinese takeaway and she watching me prepare it, while I cringe. I, to this day, see my young daughters sitting and waiting. Years later my wife became an ex-wife who has now passed on. My daughters are middle aged women with their own families and life experiences. I have not seen my friend for decades. I do know he and his wife at the time divorced within ten years after walking away from the business. Such is life.

Comment if you wish, on your own experience.