Home interior design.
Chapter 2 How I got there.
Music has influenced me forever but even more so now I practice as a Home interior designer.
I did mention in the previous chapter that I started a building company, well that’s a little understated, after being a self employed sub contractor for many years I become a bit frustrated having more experience and know how than the contractors I was employed by. I was working for a medium size Home refurbishment / decoration company at the time in a regular paying comfortable position. It was Christmas 2002 when I looked at myself and wondered where I was going, my wife and I had just moved out of my parents house in to an apartment that I had just refurbished in my spare time. The property was intended to be rented out, providing income to pay the mortgage, so moving in to the property we lost that revenue. I had spent a lot on credit refurbishing, so our monthly outgoings where quite high, with all this taken into consideration I chose to hand in my notice with my current employer and start a building company at the worst time of the year January 2003.
With no customers and no van, what was I doing? I traded in my beautiful BMW car for a white transit van gathered all the tools I had and put out some local adds. Some how and somewhere enquires for home refurbishment started to come in, that year I employed my cousin to come and help me full time.
We specialised in Home interiors, kitchen bathrooms and structural changes along with all the general building you expect from a small builder. Year after year from then on I doubled the turnover and staff, pushing and pushing on the advertising with big yellow pages and Internet campaigns.
Home refurbishment had always been a struggle competing with cowboy builders and managing tradesmen, I remember coming back from my wedding and having no cash flow left at all. Some how I survived those first critical three years of business until 2005/2006 “the golden years’ where I just seemed to be in the zone. The business struck gold and the balance sheets looked impressive.
We widened our scope from home interior refurbishment to refurbishing hotel’s, cash flow was still and underlining problem especially investing in larger projects, I was close then to turning over 750k having the facility of only a 20k overdraft. I still managed it, running the business on my own doing all the quoting, estimating and managing. Working 16hrs a day, six days a week.
At the end of 2006 I was owed somewhere in the region of 90k, with no real employment commitments only subcontractors. We didn’t have any contracts lined up and it was Christmas, so I embarked on a home interior project knowing that it would be a loss in order to keep all my self employed contractors on until after Christmas when the work usually picks up. Big mistake, this mistake I believe changed my future.
This chapter explains how I reached my peak, in the next instalment I tell you how I lost it all and how music saved me and bought me back not just in Home interior refurbishment but as the Interior Designer!
http://www.mattandglossinteriors.com
To be continued…………..
Chapter 2 How I got there.
Music has influenced me forever but even more so now I practice as a Home interior designer.
I did mention in the previous chapter that I started a building company, well that’s a little understated, after being a self employed sub contractor for many years I become a bit frustrated having more experience and know how than the contractors I was employed by. I was working for a medium size Home refurbishment / decoration company at the time in a regular paying comfortable position. It was Christmas 2002 when I looked at myself and wondered where I was going, my wife and I had just moved out of my parents house in to an apartment that I had just refurbished in my spare time. The property was intended to be rented out, providing income to pay the mortgage, so moving in to the property we lost that revenue. I had spent a lot on credit refurbishing, so our monthly outgoings where quite high, with all this taken into consideration I chose to hand in my notice with my current employer and start a building company at the worst time of the year January 2003.
With no customers and no van, what was I doing? I traded in my beautiful BMW car for a white transit van gathered all the tools I had and put out some local adds. Some how and somewhere enquires for home refurbishment started to come in, that year I employed my cousin to come and help me full time.
We specialised in Home interiors, kitchen bathrooms and structural changes along with all the general building you expect from a small builder. Year after year from then on I doubled the turnover and staff, pushing and pushing on the advertising with big yellow pages and Internet campaigns.
Home refurbishment had always been a struggle competing with cowboy builders and managing tradesmen, I remember coming back from my wedding and having no cash flow left at all. Some how I survived those first critical three years of business until 2005/2006 “the golden years’ where I just seemed to be in the zone. The business struck gold and the balance sheets looked impressive.
We widened our scope from home interior refurbishment to refurbishing hotel’s, cash flow was still and underlining problem especially investing in larger projects, I was close then to turning over 750k having the facility of only a 20k overdraft. I still managed it, running the business on my own doing all the quoting, estimating and managing. Working 16hrs a day, six days a week.
At the end of 2006 I was owed somewhere in the region of 90k, with no real employment commitments only subcontractors. We didn’t have any contracts lined up and it was Christmas, so I embarked on a home interior project knowing that it would be a loss in order to keep all my self employed contractors on until after Christmas when the work usually picks up. Big mistake, this mistake I believe changed my future.
This chapter explains how I reached my peak, in the next instalment I tell you how I lost it all and how music saved me and bought me back not just in Home interior refurbishment but as the Interior Designer!
http://www.mattandglossinteriors.com
To be continued…………..
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