Closing down the business

Morning folks

Got back from holidays on Sunday afternoon, Cyprus was brilliant, Egypt was superb, except the driving in Central Cairo was insanely scary even from my vantage point on the coach !!

We actually had a convoy of 8 tourist coaches in our group, led and followed the full 197km from Port Said to Cairo by Armed Police in open top Jeeps, with an armed bodyguard on every coach. Insane.

My main point of this post is on a more sad note though. After 6 years of business and a few months of struggling recently, my dad has decided to pack in Diamond Valet reluctantly. Its down to a few reasons, the most prominent being the fact that there just isnt enough work materialising at the moment. The financial belt has been tightened twice now, but its just getting worse.

Sadly it was the previously (before current premises) forced upon us move to ridiculous sized premises that has kind of crippled us, and now even after finding exceptionally good premises, the client base we lost not being open for 12 weeks in between has never returned. The phone doesnt ring for days on end and winter is fast approaching. Anyways we have decided that its not viable to throw abother 8-10k of personal money at the business over the winter months with no guarantee of a pick-up in business afterwards.

I myself am totally gutted, i knew things were slow before i went away, but sat down and discussed it with him the other night on my return home just to find out the above. There are a few reasons / factors which have contributed to his decision, but they range from poor business income, to a rather depressed period of business across Aberdeen. But the less said the better.

I am as said though, totally gutted and now face the prospect of being out of work until i find another job. I know how slow it has been and the old man has been keeping the business going himself for a long time now. Just not a great thing to come home from holiday to hear.

Anyways we intend to cease trading as soon as this thursday at 5pm. The lease has been terminated on the building already and most of the stuff inside the building has gone. Sold off or thrown out. He just has the power washer to sell and the office desk etc. All the products and consumables etc we still have and i will keep hold of these until i decide what to do. I will probably still do homers myself until i find other work.

The idea of keeping the van and filling it with products and a 240dc outlet is there though and i fully intend to do some homers at peoples doors within time if i can find any of our customers who would like this done.

The one thing that has been most obvious of late though, is that we have been getting a SERIOUSLY high amount of people booking in cars, and not turning up with them, not phoning, and not answering phones. One week last month we had this 11 times. So we are seriously wondering if someone has been sticking the knife in in order to try and see us fold. If i find out that someone / people have been doing this up around here, be it rivals or just folk who dont like us then lets just say i will be giving a few fat lips

Anyways its a great shame its come to this, as i firmly believe we were the best at what we did in the area, and sadly the business just isnt there and hasnt been for a while. But we really dont understand why this is.

Just a real shame as when we are busy we are insanely busy......but its just going downhill in the world of valeting just now. Just need to think about what i do for a crust now though !!

Speak to you all soon.

Michael

Sorry to hear this and hope all works out ok for you !!!

Really sorry to hear your news Michael and I wish you all the success in whatever you choose to do next.

I returned from Honeymoon last week to find that I am out of a job unless we relocate to Ireland, so I face some serious decision making over the coming weeks as well. I was gutted and I fully understand how you feel. It must be even harder to except when you have worked so hard to build a business.

Take it easy mate

Michael I'm sorry to hear about this. Its always sad when small businesses stop trading.

My own mother runs a small sandwich shop down in Brighton and I sense that in a few months time she will be making a similar decision.

Best of luck with everything, and i'm sure everything else will work out for you

Sorry to read this Michael, I've first hand experience of this and it is heartbreaking, after putting in years of effort to build up a buisness, to have to call it a day. Try to keep positive and think about the future rather than the past, other opportunities have a way of finding you when you most need them.

Good luck, I hope things turn around for you and your Dad very soon.

Sorry about your business dude. Good luck with everything and I hope it all goes well for ya.

Sorry to hear this. I've never dealt with you but it sounds like you really cared about the business, and about the service that you provided.

As said above, another opportunity will come along soon. It's been proven that those who had run businesses and had them fold, are more successful if/when they have another go. I guess it's down to all the experience you've picked up.

Steve

Sorry to here this Michael, hope everything works out fine.

Not good news

I would seriously consider operating as a mobile service as, IMHO, this does offer more opportunities and is more customer focused than having a unit.

Are there any major employers in your area? If so, why not approach them to advertise a valeting service for their staff that can be run at their premises? What about local garages and car sales outlets?

Got to be worth a try eh?

Sorry to hear about this mate

I hope things pick up for you, a chap round here jacked in his job recently, set himself up with van and all the gear, and is coining it in, so maybe doing the home type jobs is where its at now

Try business premises, offices etc we have two guys who turn up every friday here at the office, an email goes round and they are snowed under, as well as cleaning all our pool cars

Target the businesses perhaps at their sites

Not sure if they do this in the UK now, but over here in every multi storey car park, there's a space set a side for a car valeting company. So you park your car whilst at work or shopping leave the keys with the place and come back to a shiney clean car. The service usually takes a couple of hours for interior and exterior clean and polish.

A mobile operation, setup such as the above or office car park, which makes it very convenient for the customer I think is the way to go. It also means less overheads and some sort of gauranteed daily business once everything is established.

Not good news to hear I've been in a similar situation before, you keep hoping and trying to drum up business but in the end you have to call it quits and get out before you start to rack up some serious debts trying to save the business. It must have been very hard for your Dad to come to his decision.

It might be worth you setting up on your own with minimal overheads and see if you can make a go of it as a mobile setup. I don't know if your diamond-brite process needs a unit to work from or can be done just out the back of a van. Just an idea.

What ever you or your dad decided to do I wish you the best of luck.

Not sure if they do this in the UK now, but over here in every multi storey car park, there's a space set a side for a car valeting company. So you park your car whilst at work or shopping leave the keys with the place and come back to a shiney clean car. The service usually takes a couple of hours for interior and exterior clean and polish.

 

A mobile operation, setup such as the above or office car park, which makes it very convenient for the customer I think is the way to go. It also means less overheads and some sort of gauranteed daily business once everything is established.

Now thats a bloody good idea! You have the north Michael, I'll take the midlands, who's up for the south then? We could all be sitting on our yachts like the owner of NCP car parks

Sorry to hear that, When i was 18 i used to run some Burger vans, Doing events like Crail and various other things, Then kept loosing contracts and sites i had fell through and i Sold it on, Was a hard thing do do as i had pumped every penny of my savings into them and lost a fortune on it all.

Everyone said things like that happened for a reason, I still havnt figured out where it went so wrong.

Im 23 now and still hunting for the right buisness venture to start as i hate working for someone else, Even as much as i enjoy my job.

2 of my friends run Mobile valeting vans and do really well, One does yellow pages adverts and gets work that way, The other parks up at a big retail park as a perminant pitch, The one with the pitch seems to do a lot more trade than the mobile guy, But where hes doing 100 washes at £4 a time , the other guys doing 10 valets at £60 so i guess its swings and roundabouts...

There seems to big a big demand for it now, And if people know your good and your reputation is known to be good then i cant see how you wouldnt do well at it.

K.

Now thats a bloody good idea! You have the north Michael, I'll take the midlands, who's up for the south then? We could all be sitting on our yachts like the owner of NCP car parks

There are a few companies here that have valetting chains in lots of different car parks. You can either pay each time you visit or buy coupons at a discount, you can then use the coupons at any of the companies banches. Could work well as a franchise, ie. you set up the company and then individuals manage their own local valetting frachise.

Bad news... Hope everything works out for you in this unsettling time.

Pete

Thanks very much for all the supportive comments guys, i am very grateful to all of you who have replied already.

CJ - I know you and i have had our stupid differences once on here, but your comments were very much appreciated, Thanks mate.

Its a hard time due to the fact that like 99% of others in the world we all have bills to pay and i am no different, i still have the use of my company van and products though, and i am trying to scramble together as many of my customers email addresses / phone numbers before we close at the end of the week and i have no more contact with them.

If i can build a small client base from our existing customers for an initial homer business to keep me going that would work out well.

I have also had the offer of help from a very very good friend on here, to set up and initialise a website which would allow me to sell onlie the cleaning products etc that i have been selling on here recently. This could be a very good idea which i will be discussing with him this week also.

Judging by past sales of Sonax etc i am quite hopeful that some of you would be interested in continued group buys for Sonax and the likes ?

I have worked very hard with my dad to build up good contracts with suppliers etc, for Auto Glym, Sonax, etc etc and i am not prepared to let them go. If i can keep my current pricing etc with all my suppliers i would be and am more than happy to remain in the position i am in to supply good etc to all you guys. Every little helps and the supplier accounts i have built up have taken me a LONG time to establish and show myself as reliable. And i am not going to just chuck that away for someone else to pick up on.

Once again thanks very much indeed for all the comments, suggestions / ideas etc. Some of them have got my brain ticking at a massive rate already, but this week i just need to concentrate on closing down and getting everything sorted out, phones cut off, customers informed etc etc. Theres more to do than i realised.

Again as mentioned, i will be organising another Sonax group buy in 6-8 weeks or so, and this would undoubtedly help me until i find further employment, as it keeps the old head above water, so i will keep you all posted.

Thanks again guys, and anyone who wants any free advice i am still always on hand here (albeit supraless now lol) to offer free valeting advice to anyone who needs it. That goes without saying, its a pleasure helping and offering my experience.

Thanks again everyone.

Michael

Thanks very much for all the supportive comments guys, i am very grateful to all of you who have replied already.

 

CJ - I know you and i have had our stupid differences once on here, but your comments were very much appreciated, Thanks mate.

I dont do grudges I hope everything works out for you

Really sorry to hear this Michael, hope it all works out for you in the end, and the very best wishes with whatever avenue you choose to pursue.

I for one will continue to use Sonax as long as you offer it, great product.

Sorry to hear about this. I think the venture of going in to mobile valeting is the way ahead..... i'd rather get my car valeted whilst i'm at work, or have someone come round the house to do it.

I think a lot of ppl would rather it be this way! Another positive for the customer is being in the knowledge their car isn't getting used for the sandwich run at dinnertime e.t.c. whilst in the hands of a static valet garage, (must cross some ppl's minds!)

With your contacts and customers you've built up it's well worth a mulling over, it'd be nice to close down the static business and to pass on your new mobile static venture to current customers.

Best of luck

What a complete pisser.Very sorry to hear about this, infact it saddens me to see so many people losing their jobs and livelehoods at the moment.

It's like "recession, what recession" line from the Gov at the mo. I hope you find something else soon.

I may do a shite job but at least its recession proof.

hi michael , sorry to hear that .

do you want a job

Trying not to sound like an echo, but... I'm sorry to hear about this Michael

I for one will deffo have more sonax goods from you in the future.

Good luck with wherever events take you:)

Happened to me too recently, been a shitty year all round for me.

keep your chin up Michael, something better is just around the corner I promise you that !! :dir: off Sales !!