Sole trader owe 25k & can't cope with business anymore...

You can improve your luck by putting together a solid marketing plan which details exactly what action you are going to take to make this work. Don't just wait in your shop for business to come to you - be proactive about attracting it and forging relationships with other businesses that can help you.

€20k can be burned through pretty fast so be careful!

Good luck!

Matt

www.betterbusinessresults.com
 
Thank you all!

Thanks Matt, I understand. What I'm going to do is pay off suppliers that I won't be using anymore a small amount per month. Clear my debts with the others, and sort out a decent advertising campaign. I'm hoping to still keep 6-8k back up in the bank. I also want to look into a website aswell, the start-up costs seem fairly small, and I was hoping I could run it from here in the shop during business hours, or hopefully I'll be too busy and run from home in the evenings!

Any info on this is appreciated, but I will look through previous threads.
 
Idea of website is lovely but aspirational and can be timeconsuming to make it work for you. Listen to Better Biz use your resources by taking really practial steps to get people into your shop. Think about approching your enterprise board or some enterprise support agency and ask for a mentor who will help you focus on making the best use of your loan to trade out of your current difficulties.
Tangerine
 
I'm with Tangerine. Would forget about doing and running a website yourself. As it can eat up you time and resources. Not least end up being a serius drain on your time, and take a while to get any results.

If you could get someone to sell your stock through their own website on for commission on sales only basis then maybe explore that. Or a on a fixed fee basis but only if they meet a sales target. Like any business, you'd need to verify the website company had a track record and demonstrable sales for other sites. Lots of sites don't generate signifcant income, or worse lose money and consume resources.

But I wouldn't let that distract you from your core objective in putting the bricks and mortar store on a profitable basis. As Better Biz said you need to set out a business plan and marketing plan. Stick to it as long as its working. If its not stop and revaluate.

Like all good CNN movies. Fire and Movement.
 
I've been following this thread for what seems like a long time and the advice given was good enough that I had nothing else to add.
Good luck and please be careful with this new chance. I dont want to be negative or pull you down but if your loan is in lieu of child maintenance then if you lose this money the kids could also suffer because of it and your stress levels because of your responsibilities towards them will also be high.
Dont take risks you cant deal with the consequences of if something negative happens. Look at what would happen in a worst case and have a plan for what you will do in this eventuality.
Sure its not positive entrepreneurial talk but even going forward and believing in yourself and your plan , theres no harm in having a positive plan as a response for an event out of your control. This way even if the world ends you'll still be a winner psychologically.
 
Thank you guys for the info on the website, I need to know as much as possible and will continue to research this as a sideline.

Sign, thank you, I understand. As regards the maintenance, I have considered the worst case scenario and while it might not be the most moral of solutions, I would be given a means tested Family Income Supplement. This would mean that although I have been paid the maintenance in a lump sum, if that sum is gone, then I will be given an allowance to cover a proportion of this. I have signed an agreement with my ex which will cover him also, he has paid the maintenance for X many years and will not be liable for extra.

I had a newspaper sales rep in here for the morning and I got a good deal for the coming four weeks (Got it reduced by half!). So this week is being used to get the deliveries in and merchandise stock. I'm also printing up some flyers to be dropped door-to-door over the next week. Looking at local radio, but its pricey and I don't think my customer would listen to local radio, so I'll give that a miss.

Any other suggestions would be appreciated, and thanks again.
 
Did you do a survey of the customers that come in your door? Where do they see adverts? Ask them do they want to on a email list of special offers.
 
I havn't done a survey Aircobra, it would be quite awkward to do in the shop. The paper I'm advertising in a new free paper. It is in most shops/restaurants/bars etc. They deliver door to door aswell. Its everywhere. They have quite a bit of editorial on local news, so I felt it was the right one to use. Weekly e-mails are a brilliant idea (why didn't I think of it!). I will put text into ads and flyers to e-mail me to register for weekly "Specials E-mails". Thanks!
 
man1 said:
Hi stressed11
I think I should be stressed12 as I have exactly the same situation as you.
It is weird as I thought I was reading about myself when i read your post.
I am having huge financial difficulties at the moment and have a homewares and gift shop, like you it is not working out and we have come to the decision of closing up, we knew since christmas that it wasnt working out but we kept fooling ourselves into believeing that it would work, we kept saying next week will be better but it never was.
I dont know your full story but I think you should give up now rather than borrow more. If it didnt work for the last 2 years it wont now.
We are also in business for nearly 2 years.
Like you we made €78 euro yesterday so I know where you are coming from. We were averaging about 300-400 euro per day but it wasnt enough, we should have been doing at least 600 euro per day.
Now we are lucky to make 200 euro as we hardly have any stock at all and suppliers wont supplie us which is good in a way as it will only lead to more debt.
We have huge rates to pay and a even huger (is that a word) rent. we have a 25 year lease which we are trying to get out of at the moment. My parents went gaurantor on the lease which made it worse, I am so worried about them losing their house. I didnt even want them to be guarntor but they wanted to help and believed in me.
Now we cant even sell the lease as it is too expensive so we have to negotiate with the landlord. We are making some progress there which is good, I didnt think they would listen but we explained the situation and he is willing to listen.
I havent slept properly since last year and havent had a day off since christmas (7 days a week not 6) till recently as I decided to close one day a week so I could take a breather and sit back to look at the business properly.
If you want pm me and I can help some more. I bet we even sell the same type of stock.
Click to expand...

How can she give up now after all the efort that has gone into getting it the shop back up again. New location, always a good start! Especially if it's in the middle of the town!! :> Stressed11 - Keep up the great work you are doing, you seem to have a passion for running your own shop, It's not easy to give up after leaving everything behind to work for yourself. It's like every author will write in all those Startup business books and mags.... The first 2 years or so are always the hardest. So, once you have the hardest part done, which is where you are now... The rest is all down hill.

Don't listen to any negitive words. Keep positive.

Eoin
;-)
 
Just stumbled across this thread - glad you got the money, but as other posters have already said, be careful it can burn away very quickly. The County Enterprise Boards are a very useful resource for all small businesses. In particular they offer start your own business and business planning training (which you might not have the time for but if you do it would be well worth the effort (cost €50 to €100)). They also offer a mentor service for small business people. For around €200 they will appoint someone to help you with your business (around 5 visits). This is usually a very experienced person.


I am not an employee of the CEB's but I do provide some of the courses and some mentoring on their behalf in the South East (disclaimer ;)).
 
Bank Draft?

Hi all,

Didn't want to bump up my old thread - "Sole Trader, owes 25k, can't cope etc.."

Got Sterling Bank Draft today for 13k. The bank are saying it will take about a month to clear?! What is that about, its a draft? The cash is gone from the account it was drawn on. I need this money today. I've asked to see the manager, but I need as much info as possible. Anyone know anything about this?

I'll be leaving in about an hour, please help!
 
Re: Bank Draft?

stessed11 said:
Didn't want to bump up my old thread - "Sole Trader, owes 25k, can't cope etc.."
Click to expand...
In this case bumping with additional follow up information is preferable to duplicating the original thread so I have merged this into the original.
 
Cashing a Sterling Bank Draft

I've been told today it will take a month to for a sterling draft to clear. Is this right? I thought a draft was like cash. I need this money yesterday! Any advice? I've made an appointment with the bank manager today and any advice would be appreciated.
 
Re: Cashing a Sterling Bank Draft

You'll want to check if any charges (e.g. foreign exchange margins etc.) apply to this too.
 
Re: Cashing a Sterling Bank Draft

Thanks Clubman. At this moment I'd give my right arm, never mind bank charges. I've written cheques based on this being cashed immediately. I'm in big trouble.
 
Re: Cashing a Sterling Bank Draft

Maybe you should contact the cheque payees and inform them that you need time to clear funds to cover the cheques? Otherwise they will bounce and you will be hit with charges.
 
Update -

I have to get DHL to collect the draft tomorrow, send it back to UK, get it lodged back into senders account and get sender to "Wire Transfer" funds to my account. Normally a draft would take 7/10 days to clear, but apparently because of the amount and the fact that its sterling is causing the long delay. GOD.

Anyone see any potential problems with this?

Sorry mods if this is dragging on a bit, but I really appreciate any information from you lot - wish I'd found this site a couple of years ago!
 
stessed11 said:
Update -

I have to get DHL to collect the draft tomorrow, send it back to UK, get it lodged back into senders account and get sender to "Wire Transfer" funds to my account. Normally a draft would take 7/10 days to clear, but apparently because of the amount and the fact that its sterling is causing the long delay. GOD.

Anyone see any potential problems with this?

Sorry mods if this is dragging on a bit, but I really appreciate any information from you lot - wish I'd found this site a couple of years ago!
Click to expand...

give them the IBAN and BIC of your bank account to speed up the transfer. You should find the info on your bank statement.
 
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