My Story of Business Struggles

The Hurdles That Turned into Cliff Faces — The Lessons I Learnt

In business, I found there are regular metaphorical hurdles that have to be cleared. You also get those hurdles that aren’t as easy to clear, they take a lot of energy and time, metaphorically more akin to scaling a cliff face than clearing a hurdle. This is the story of those cliff faces I met.

I opened the business when I was 21 years of age. It was the start of 2008 . . . and yeah, from that date, you can probably guess what one of these ‘cliff faces’ turned out to be. I better keep some suspense in this story then. . . So, another ‘cliff face’ just about took my life.

I started a business dismantling motorcycles for spare parts. I would buy abandoned projects, worn out and damaged motorcycles. Harvest them for parts, which I would then sell on eBay. I had some experience with motorcycles, having had my own from the age of 8 years old and also being employed in the workshops of a BMW motorcycle dealership, then later a garage that worked on all sorts of vehicles ranging from bikes to trucks. I loved it, I had always wanted a breakers yard and motorbikes were perfect as they didn’t take up as much room as cars, plus there was a good market for bike parts of any age.

From what I recall, the life threatening event occurred before the 2008 financial crisis.

I was riding back one evening from a business network event when I felt pains in my stomach. I was accustomed to this as I did have stomach issues, which were not as bad as they were in the past thanks to an operation in my late teens. Anyway, come early hours of the morning I awoke in severe pain, I made it to the hallway and slumped against the wall. Thankfully I still stayed with my parents then. My mum had heard me and knew there was something wrong. I was taken into the hospital, within minutes of speaking to an emergency doctor they administered morphine, which had little effect. Over the next 20 minutes I was given more doses, which thankfully alleviated the pain. I had several tests done including an ultrasound. Then a consultant came round and said they would have to do an exploratory operation. They said it was likely my stomach. Coming round from the operation I awoke immediately & was asked some questions to make sure I was compos mentis. I looked down to see a large medical dressing covering my stomach. I had been cut open from just under my sternum to my navel. Later, speaking to the surgeon on his rounds, he informed me that my stomach had twisted round in my chest in such a way, that without the swift operation, it could have proved very damaging at best or fatal at worse. I believe it is called ‘Acute intrathoracic gastric volvulus’. I was told no strenuous work or heavy lifting for a couple of months at least. Great, I had a business where I dismantled bikes, lifting many heavy parts on a daily basis while straining with stuck bolts and such like! Thankfully my overheads were quite low at the time and I had help from friends and family. Eventually, I had to get cash flowing again, so I cautiously returned after about 6 weeks & stuck to doing light work before slowly building up from there.

I was making good headway with recovery, still having to watch what I was doing, but managing to crack on with work. Then in September, the 2008 big financial crisis that was brewing, finally hit. So many people lost their jobs, and there was such a big knock on effect reducing cash flow for many businesses. I had noticed how quickly things turned in my own customer buying habits. The highly profitable aftermarket, performance & upgraded parts, which were making me the most money, took a nose dive in sales. Some people had motorcycles as weekend toys and ended up selling them or storing them away. However, some used parts started to pick up in sales, they were more affordable than buying new. Before, someone would have just bought a new part at say £40, but with money a bit tighter, they were buying it used from myself for £10. That is what I focused on. I listed ever more parts. I started even buying peoples spares, offering them good prices or trading for parts they needed. I seen a market and filled it. I sold a lot of parts online. Face to face sales with local customers also started to grow, coupled with buying, I began to build a good reputation. In the spring of 2009, I moved into a much larger premises. The business continued to grow and build in reputation. People who were in need of money were selling their non-essential items, so I managed to buy lots of motorcycles and parts in this time. I always offered fair prices. Although I could have, it was not in my nature to take advantage of people in financial trouble. That, coupled with my fair pricing, grew my customer base so much. I was known for being fair in buying & selling, which got me even more traffic with people visiting from further afield. As many businesses struggled, mine was growing.

I was always looking for gaps in the market & trying new things. Some more successfully than others. looking at the needs of my customer, that was key. I learnt this lesson the hard way, with a few things that just flopped. A few years in however, I managed to secure an account with one of the largest motorcycle trade suppliers for service & pattern parts in the UK. It was great and the business was quickly becoming more of a one-stop-shop for motorcyclist. A customer could buy a used engine and get the new accompanying service kit in the same place. I was also selling the new parts online, which done really well.

It was going great for a good while, then, you guessed it, I encountered another cliff to climb.

The online market started to get saturated with the same new products I was offering, but their retail price was the same or less than the trade price I was buying them in for. Someone had cut out the middle man, bought straight from factory and sold to retail. My new parts sales were decimated within 6 months. Customers started to ask why my new parts were so expensive, I just had to be straight up and honest with them.

A good chunk of my cash flow now gone, I had to evolve the business or die, like so many others had. With a bit more experience this time, I looked at the market; What was available? What are good sellers? What is the market lacking? Then I seen it. I sold quite a lot of used engine components and noticed a lack of these parts for quite a lot of motorcycle models.

I had a lot of broken engines lying about. One by one they were stripped, harvested for parts, which were then listed online. The sales started to increase. I persisted and it eventually started to pay off. I bought in broken engines, using my trade contacts and close customers to spread the word of what I was looking for. No matter how bad the engines were, I could always salvage parts from them and weigh the rest in to get the scrap value. This kept the business moving forward for the years to come.

The final cliff I encountered, I did not climb.

With what I know now, I would have done things so very differently. The seasonality in the business meant there was a lot less cash flow in the winter. Which here in Scotland can be a little longer of a season. Even with this, my predicted cash flow for the up and coming year would see me exceed the VAT (Value Added Tax) limit at the time, which would mean I would have to pay VAT on what I sold [in today’s rules it would be 16.67% of the profit made on each used part].

That would be 1/6th of my profit gone overnight. I was burnt out from working so many hours, mostly doing 7 days weeks. I done my own accounts and VAT would have just added too much work trying to calculate the cost & profit on each individual part. With the addition of submitting VAT returns, a higher work load and so on, it was just too much for me. . . At the start of 2014, after 6 years, I decided to call it a day. I sold up the parts and equipment and took 3 months off. After I took the time off to gather myself, I worked temporary contracts. Having a business head, I couldn’t stop buying & selling when I spotted good opportunities. The contracts gave me so much experience. I worked in banking, education & examination, recruitment, publishing, and art. I used my experience to go on and help others in business, eventually working alongside other businesses on a variety of projects. I said I would have done thing differently now with what I know, but I am glad I done what I done. The path I took gifted me so much experience, knowledge, contacts, and new friends. I enjoy what I do now with much more free time & variety. I am not only my own boss, I have a lot more choice in life. And on one of the contracts I worked, I met a lovely lady, who is now my beloved partner.

Thanks for taking time to read my experience. Difficulties in business can pop up at any time, but I never see that as a reason not to start. There are difficulties in life all the time, it just depends how you deal with them. Experience & knowledge are wonderful things. I encourage people to grow theirs and seek council from those whom have amassed such.