Being Shafted

[Maha]

Never a good thing, even for a Honda owner.

Work has not been abundant for a while now, We contract to the one and only shop here in town, and sometimes, to a shop in Wellsford. Last year around May, our employee of about 6 years left for Christchurch with his girlfriend, she had a great job offer in the South Island. They got engaged, purchased a house, then a few months ago, all feel apart. I was told last Friday by the Flooring shop owner that they have employed a Vinyl layer who is starting in September. My reaction? For Fucks sake, really? you dont have enough to keep me going! Yeah and the real kicker is, its Tim, our ex employee. They assured me that they will be using him and me and nobody else, but the reality is, Tim will get the work first then me. So he will doing all the floor prep and vinyl installs plus smaller carpet jobs. So we are in a bit of a spot really, theres a couple of things that I can chase up but its not a good feeling. I know its business but, ya kinda feel a tad slapped.
The shop in Wellsford said they will feed me more work, they are as shocked as I am about what our main work supplier has done.

[MSTRS:Me]

That sucks, mate. Leaves a nasty taste. Do you know someone who 'knows someone' ??

[Mully]

Gutted. You wanna give that Tim a slap.

[Maha]

That sucks, mate. Leaves a nasty taste. Do you know someone who 'knows someone' ??

I have 'people' yes.....

Seriously though, now we know where we stand, its time to make ourselves more avaliable to others rather than just hanging on in the hope that its all going get better. We have a call to make (outside of the area) about an oppotunity.

[Maha]

Gutted. You wanna give that Tim a slap.

I think Mom does but hes 6'5''......

[Rodney007]

sorry to hear man,

[MSTRS:Me]

I have 'people' yes.....

Seriously though, now we know where we stand, its time to make ourselves more avaliable to others rather than just hanging on in the hope that its all going get better. We have a call to make (outside of the area) about an oppotunity.

Sometimes a 'push' can be a good thing. Fingers crossed for you

I think Mom does but hes 6'5''......

The perfect height, then...

[cs363]

I have 'people' yes.....

Seriously though, now we know where we stand, its time to make ourselves more avaliable to others rather than just hanging on in the hope that its all going get better. We have a call to make (outside of the area) about an oppotunity.

Yep, that's the way - onwards and upwards.
It's never a good idea (especially with 20/20 hindsight...) to have all your eggs in one basket as your experience shows.
Hope you can get some work elsewhere Maha, best of luck

[Quasievil]

Start a mobile sales service in addition to your install business and contract to no one but yourself, take care of the sales process and the install, do the lot and in doing so undercut them because being mobile and self employed you will have less costs running your business.

Whats to loose????

Possibly you will need different suppliers, but does that matter? there must be loads of flooring suppliers?

Go to the bank, see if they will back you and go for it mate !!

Also another idea, get into industrial roof top laying...you know the black stuff that provides the waterproofness to flat top buildings and decks?

[James Deuce]

That's "business". Anyone who doesn't roll around on the floor laughing when they hear the phrase "business ethics" is a very, very successful "businessman" with at least 2 bankrupt episodes to boast about.

[Maha]

sorry to hear man,

When Tim and I worked together for a number of years, it was great, I was not overly happy when he left but, thats life, get on with it. As it has turned out, we would have had to let him go anyway because of the downturn in work. There maybe times when he and I can work together in the future, some install jobs need more than one man, who knows? not giving that senario to much credence right now, need to look after our own arses first.

[cs363]

Start a mobile sales service in addition to your install business and contract to no one but yourself, take care of the sales process and the install, do the lot and in doing so undercut them because being mobile and self employed you will have less costs running your business.

Whats to loose????

Possibly you will need different suppliers, but does that matter? there must be loads of flooring suppliers?

Go to the bank, see if they will back you and go for it mate !!

Also another idea, get into industrial roof top laying...you know the black stuff that provides the waterproofness to flat top buildings and decks?

Good thinking right there, new company motto could be 'profit from adversity'........probably sounds fancier in latin but I can't remember properly, something like 'ususfructus ex adversum'

[R6_kid:Me]

Go take a piss on all their carpet samples, or better still - get a cat to do it.

[Boob Johnson]

When Tim and I worked together for a number of years, it was great, I was not overly happy when he left but, thats life, get on with it. As it has turned out, we would have had to let him go anyway because of the downturn in work. There maybe times when he and I can work together in the future, some install jobs need more than one man, who knows? not giving that senario to much credence right now, need to look after our own arses first.

Keep ya friends closer & your enemies even closer

[Mom]

That sucks, mate. Leaves a nasty taste. Do you know someone who 'knows someone' ??

Well the flooring industry is a small one really.

For me the thing that really takes the biscuit is the fact that I paid to put this person through his trade, I paid for him to get his full licence, I paid him full wages while he attended block courses, I sometimes even paid his board while he was away. It was a happy working relationship. He has a personal crisis and the first thing he does is come back here and offer himself to the shop, he never approached us at all. Mark was the first person that rang him when his engagement went splat, he was a mess and Mark supported him. Dont think that sort of thing is liked by anyone.

The shop has been very quiet about all this, every time we have talked to them it has been all positive, this has been in the pipeline for a while now, the only reason they said anything was they have made a couple of their other staff redundant as part of the restructuring.

I went and had a head to head this morning as I knew we were being fed a line of bullshit, and was reassured that it sould all come right in 3 or 4 months, or Feb next year! I had to tell them our business did not have 3 or 4 months let alone 7 with no work, we would be pushing it to last 2 or 3 weeks at this stage.