What’s occurin… part 2.
The importance of being resilient in the face of absurdity !
Its been a while since we all last caught up. Back then I was going on about wholesale models and brands. What I didn’t really touch on was the impact that starting a business from scratch has on a person.
So I wanted to bring you all up to speed about where we are at the present moment with the business. Firstly and most importantly, I’ve registered the business as an officially thing, doing so required me to find an accountant, so I now have one of those too. No one tells you that the path to businessdom is a tricky one, I didn’t realise it at the time but in my search for an accountant this was just the nursery slopes of the mountain in the slippery slope that is business. Trying to even find an accountancy firm to ring me back was as difficult tying your shoe laces while juggling. I don’t know whether these accountants were like some kind of super accountant and their time was full of lively business or whether I’d stumbled on the rubbish accountant that no one wants to work with. I don’t believe any of that’s the case, I just happened to call the only accountants in the world that were to shit at returning calls, as the guys I’m currently on board with have given me some sound advice and expedited the company registration.
But the nursery slope on the mountain slowly, and with actually no warning signs at all suddenly becomes a red slope, Look, I don’t even know why I’m reference ski slope grading here either, let's just go along with it.
My business advisor (yep, got one of them too) reckons that the best way to move forward is to find a property first before applying for funding (need funding, a whole story in itself), and going on that advice I go off into the wilderness to find a place to call something a shop, Now you may remember, I was hunting around the Merthyr Tydfil area for a place. So similar to the accountants, I discovered that every tom, dick and landlord there Also doesn’t like returning calls and when they do they’re bewildered into believing their property is worth way, way……way more that it actually is, and to boot, they’ll also be an utter incoherent pillock. If you think not returning calls or contact forms is frustrating, I can tell you, chasing up a landlord in Merthyr is far worse.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the town is great, I do, but it seems to me that no one there has any really interest or experience in attracting new business to the area. The council properties I looked at came with a reasonable rent, as advertised, but then they’ll whack on a service charge that literally doubles the rent price, and then you have to factor in rates too. What that does is take a building built, I would imagine in the sixties, in an area where there seems to be very little commerce, and clad internally in UPVC (fire risk anyone?!) because they don’t want to replaster and paint the place, from an affordable property to a comparable city centre space in Cardiff or Newport. You could even get a similar sized place in Bermondsey or Battersea in London! Totally mental!
The private landlords in Merthyr aren’t any better, some places are being held together as if they’d been built on a Blue Peter episode, with the belief that their shop is the best thing in town. Or a newly refurbished place I viewed was again as expensive as somewhere in one of the bigger towns or cities, complete with a paranoid landlord, double checking business plans and critiquing my own background. They knew clearly that they were asking too much and were in way over their heads, and wanted someone that could afford their lease, sorry mate, Boots and Argos have already taken up shop in the outer town drive thru shopping thingy the council allowed to be built a few years ago, contributing to the demise of the town centre. You'll have to reconsider your options.
I’m reminded of one of my dads sayings, “you can’t polish a turd mate” and while I do think towns and cities have an ebb and flow over time, becoming better or worse, I feel that Merthyr is getting in the way of itself here.
Build a Community bike Shop : It's a journey of discovery, business.
So that brings me to where we are today. Cardiff…. I discovered that for the same cost as opening a shop in a town with a small footfall and rubbish buildings (sorry Merthyr), I could open a shop in a city with a million people walking around in it. Funny old world eh?
Last week I went to see a few properties in Cardiff, and thankfully there’s a level of professionalism that one expects in business, communication being one key component. But let's quickly remind ourselves of the ski slope difficulty grade analogy again, we’ve veered of the red run and now we’re barreling down a black run, it’s step, bumpy and fast, or as I’d like to describe it, terrifyingly uncomfortable.
I’ve never done anything like this before in my life, opening a shop, and not just any old shop but a community hub in an industry that I love, but I see it is also struggling. And crikey, it can be a difficult, over whelming journey. I can see why a lot of people fantasise about running their own business but the reality of it all when you do becomes stark and bleak, no wonder business people are always serious.
And it’s also really bloody lonely too. All the people you’ve relied on in the past suddenly disappear and go quiet, just when you need them the most. Even worse, you’ll have friends simply just walk away from you, never to be seen again. I suppose that’s the reality of doing something like this, you become a different person, and some of those around you don’t want you to change.
Back to shops in Cardiff. So I’ve seen a few really good places. One is a shell of a shop, it’s a new build and the landlords have left the shop premises completely unfinished, standard practice. Putting deposits and other things aside, just to get in with security shutters and a floor that you can walk on, that’ll be £27,000 please…. That’s not even paying a penny to the landlord, no purchase of workshop stuff, no security alarm, lights, no stock or a coffee machine. Whoa!
The other property I saw is an absolute gem of a place. Ideally situated in Cardiff city centre, but it’s a grade 2 listed building that’s basically been left empty since 2007… 2007!!!! It needs so much work, and I can’t even begin to think where to start with either of these places.
So now it’s almost Christmas as I’m writing this, I was made redundant in November and my savings are due to dry out late January. I’ve applied for nearly 300 jobs over this period and nothing….! As is always the case of the Christmas period everything slows down alarmingly, which makes me anxious, I’ve never been a fan of sitting about for 2 weeks waiting for the world to start up again, but this year it’s even more annoying than normal for me because no job, and nothing coming together for the business as yet. This blog wrap up is a bit short and unfulfilling I know, you'll have to subscribe to find out more.
Nevertheless, I will persist, this project will happen.
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