Let’s face it. Business is tough. This business is not immune to the similar problems that all businesses suffer with from time to time. Big business or small business, to varying degrees, we are all a lot alike.
The automotive aftermarket, however, I feel is uniquely difficult. We have immense competition, a shrinking independent peer base, customer base and financial pressures that are equally abstract. Overwhelming and daunting are the odds for a newbie to enter into the realm of the automotive parts and service business, yet the sacrificial lambs are required for our way of life to continue and thrive for generations to come. A few will make it.
While our daily operations are obviously different, this article is an example of how the pressure of doing business affects us. It’s a hard, real look at what happens, sometimes, when things get so tough, exit strategies take on a surreal life of their own that make little sense except to those of us who have been there.
Sure, the new guys come and go rather quickly it seems, but what of those of us that have been around for a while, only to have suffered a huge loss of business, or like us a huge loss of property and possessions and business and employees as a result of some life-changing event.
Your accountant will simply explain to you that you are losing or have lost money. Your employees that you keep will struggle with maintaining a good face on things, and your family life will bounce around like a crazed ping-pong ball.
Just when you are at the top of your game, respected by your peers, and entrenched within the community, along comes life, and kicks your ass. How you react to diminished profit and influence that you used to think you had, and handle family affairs should be ultra important. Your own ego is going to take a bigger kick in the ass.
I recently lost two 20-year friends as a result of an economic downturn, and of our coal industry becoming the bastard child of energy. Not just their business gone, but both captains of the ships. I’m talking about suicide. Some of you reading this will not understand how the crushing weight of depression as a result of being in business will lead to this poor exit strategy, but I know a few of you, like myself, have had these thoughts cross our minds. The old saying “if it doesn’t kill you, it’ll make your stronger” is a cliché for those who are not living the horror.
Writing this was difficult because I was struggling with the recent loss of a good friend from suicide. The head of the company was the same company that rebuilt our business after the fire. He was a charismatic man, always smiling, and from the outside, happy as a lark. His company was a fantastic group of folk. Proud of their work, very accomplished and well respected.
During the process of our rebuild, I had several meetings with my friend and began to get the feeling that things were a little murky with his corporate situation. I later learned he was at his wit’s end, had refinanced everything, lost his lines of credit and had to lay-off a large number of employees.
At first, I was in disbelief, and after thinking about things, we were suffering from a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale. In business, it’s business first, and relationships revolving around business are forged only if it’s good for business. In other words, creditors in large part, whether you are friends or not, will operate their business dealings in such a fashion to ensure or guarantee the likelihood of profit.
While they might understand and commiserate with you over the reasons as to why things are the way they are, at the end of the day, they will in a friendly way implore that you to make a payment, or in a very nice way explain that you are no longer fiscally viable, regardless of the years of relationships, serving on various committees together, or going to the same church where you are both in the choir.
I’m telling you this, because it happened to me. Creditors are necessary when in business, but don’t forget they are in the business of issuing credit and making money, or you’ll be upset when you really need them.
I told my friend during many meetings stories about our struggles, and explained that his creditors could not ‘eat’ him. He laughed and agreed. In the end, my words were not enough, and he took his own life for fear of something that I don’t know or just don’t understand. But I have a theory.
Before I explain, I want my explanation in no way to disrespect the memory of my good friends that exited their business this way. They were both good men. The real problem is pride. It gets in the way of everything, whether you are making money selling auto parts, service or donuts. When you reach the top, it’s usually such a long arduous task, that the simple idea of doing it all over again clouds our judgment because we feel it can’t happen to us, and it’s an unjustified penalty of things beyond our control.
People will talk, and we’ll look bad. My friends, this is business, our business, and people talk of us regardless of how well or how poorly we are doing. Business is business. Period. It knocked me down a few pegs when I figured out the truth.
I’m not stronger as a result of our heartache from the fire that destroyed our warehouse and showroom last summer. I’m not happy to have my ego smacked around. It’s not pleasant to have lost a huge sum of money. I am not proud of how it affected my family, my employees or my standing with my friends and peers. I survived, got a little tougher, and set my pride and ego aside. I’ll build that back also.
When I exit this earth, it’ll be from screaming at my warehouse for screwing up my core bank, taking care of my customers, loving my family and friends, and bitching about how hard it is to make a buck selling parts and service. No need for me to take myself out, as an old parts man, I’ll be using paper catalogs to find a way back.
For now, my exit strategy is to return. Keep your eye on the prize. They won’t eat me, I’m mostly fat anyways from wolfing down greasy cheeseburgers while looking up a carb kit and answering three phone lines. I don’t have time to exit. I miss you Chuck and Tim. See you on the other side.
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