When to admit defeat and call it a day...

mccristo

Hi All,

I'm just really after some opinions/advice. First I think it useful that you know a bit of background. My Primary occupation is a musician/teacher. I left school during my A levels as I really wanted to start my own teaching practice. It took me years (literally, 10 Years) until I managed a decent income from it. However, even now i don't earn enough to pay a mortgage and move away from home. I'm 28, married, have 1 child and I'm sick to the teeth of living at home. My partner doesn't work, so as a bread winner, I feel I need to bring home more than a meager 10k a year.

Over the years we've scraped together around 30k in ISA's. Having managed £500 a year from the 30k I thought surely there is a way I can keep my teaching going and launch a start up. I've been debating a sandwich shop for years or some kind of service as I'm very much a people person and here is where it all goes in a weird direction. I spoke to a friend one evening at great length and we decided the best thing for me to do would be to buy and sell used cars. Buy cheap, sell for a couple of hundred quid more. Easy. 3 cars sold and I've earned more than my ISA would in a year.

Wrong.

After Traders Insurance, Plates, Auction Fees and Auction Criteria making; I'm currently 3k down after 2 months and currently stuck with 3 cars that aren't selling and worse still when they do, I stand to AT BEST lose £300 on each meaning I'll have lost nearly 4.2k~ on this little venture over the course of 2 months.

I should have listened to Lord Sugar: Stick to a business you know. I just thought I had the brain power and resourcefulness to manage to research and make this work.

It could be that I've just been unlucky, trialled the wrong corners of the market, picked a few "lemons" but I really don't want to sink deeper into my savings, this idea was supposed to earn money.

My question is; What would you do? Stick at it, try some more areas of the market, try to find a niche in an incredibly saturated market? Or, cut losses, move on to something that I know more about? I'm finding it hard to accept failure, but I think considering my lack of expertise and contacts in the car trade I seriously think I should sell the stock I have and try to find a less crowded industry.

Thanks for reading my plight! Any comments/pearls of wisdom are sincerely most welcome.

DigForVictory

Get yourself to an accountant, ideally one with other car dealers as clients, get the books & records spot on, and then see if the accountant thinks the business could possibly be sold. Or whether an orderly winding up will spare everyone pain. At least you'll have an expert overview, as well as a hand explaining to HMRC what's going on.
Three cars might possibly be superb promotional assets if donated to music related charities as raffle prizes or something - ruthlessly promoted & advertised to get yourself better known where you want to be?
Sorry it all sounds so uncomfortable & unhappy, & all the best moving towards where you have solid ground under your feet emotionally & financially?!

mccristo

It's a clean break if i did decide to wind it up. I'm only a sole trader at the moment, however, my friend did make me a really flashy website for the business. I highly doubt the business is worth anything to anyone mind Hopefully HMRC won't give me a hard time either way, I could do without the extra work :S

Thanks for your kind wishes Dig

fc123

Why do you offer free sax lessons when you have a child to support and want to get your own place?

Surely you could offer the 1st free and do a package on a further block of ten say?

Wipe the car thing out and put it down to experience. The money is lost so don't try to chase the losses, sell the 3 in stock, record all the expenses and sales and keep them for when you do your next end of year.

If music is your thing, try to look more creatively around that.

Does your partner work? Maybe she could get something part time, you cover the childcare those days and then you teach lessons in the evenings.

Instead of people coming to your place, you could offer to teach in their own houses?
Many parents would prefer this and book you over another teacher as they don't have to drop off and collect (when they may have other children to consider).

I am guessing you could teach other brass intruments as well?

I know it;s hard to pick up enough customers but the old fashioned way of local leaflets, cards in newsagenst, ads in local rag and so on backed up with your website should get you some more work.

paddyrg

Also, is there any odd session work you can do? At a local rehearsal studio maybe you can do some cheapish spots for upcoming local bands, then if they do get to touring size you would have some decent extra cash. I worked with a band where the sax player would get £2800/week when touring - he'd got in years earlier and was a regular paid fixture as he knew the whole set, had been on the recordings, etc.

As for the business, unless you really loved used cars, just did it and get what you can for the assets. You took a chance, didn't pan out, oh well try again. Fact is you have it a go and are not lying back regretting 'what if...'. Takes courage to do it, takes courage to admit it isn't working, you can hold your head high.

Brassedoff

Just do extra lessons in Schools, at their homes, stick to what you know unless you have the money to lose. Your only other option is to get a Daddy (a Business Consultant), that knows a wide market, but can also introduce you to the right contacts. I have done this for years, but you have to ensure thy come with the right references to avoid the Walter mitty's.

I know of three car dealers, all were "born into it", their Dads were traders. All are "Bourcies", but not millionaires!

Takeaway_Addict

To me it sounds like you should market yourself in a similar way to a personal trainer.

Single bookings but more importantly group bookings so the cost to the user is less per session but for you you could make twice what a single payer makes.

I'm a great believer in doing something you enjoy but as you are aware its not easy. I would suggest you start afresh in the music business but you have to be willing to work long hours, lots of travelling etc

paddyrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5IWCl0XfbQ

A moment of sheer 80's awesomeness - but a bit of baby oil and you've got a tribute act on your hands...

Lagoon

Takeaway_Addict wrote: »

To me it sounds like you should market yourself in a similar way to a personal trainer.

Single bookings but more importantly group bookings so the cost to the user is less per session but for you you could make twice what a single payer makes.

I'm a great believer in doing something you enjoy but as you are aware its not easy. I would suggest you start afresh in the music business but you have to be willing to work long hours, lots of travelling etc

I agree. I'm not totally understanding the car thing.

It sounds like you had a perfectly good business teaching music, though it wasn't making as much as you'd like. Instead of looking into why that was, and how you could market your business better, you spoke with a friend and suddenly, randomly decided that you should get into buying and selling cars? How did that come about? Why not focus on what you know and love?

I can't imagine a reason for anyone to suddenly try and move onto something new, without the skills or expertise, when they have a business going that they could improve on. Flitting from one thing to another seems careless.

I would do as others have said - cut your losses on this car 'business', and move on. Get focused on the music again.

Is there a reason that your partner doesn't work?

mccristo

Great comments, I really appreciate you guys taking the time to respond. It's really helping me mill things over.

My music business is fine, I could earn way more if I wanted to. You're all right, I have a subscription based, sax website nearing completion my freebie lessons on my website only take people so far, it's by no means a complete how to play saxophone course.

I could work for the partnerships, I did it before, I just found teaching pairs of Clarinet/Sax students for 20 mins tiresome and unrewarding for everyone. I'm running at pretty much full capacity in the evenings for private lessons, I started the Car business as something to do during the day. Thinking long term, I don't want to teach all evening and not see my son and wife, I'm concerned about that in a big way.

Is there a reason that your partner doesn't work?

That's a long story. Currently, she's looking after a new born (13 weeks) but she has a 1st Class Maths Degree, she was going to be a teacher but hated schools. She was placed into 3 terrible schools and they severely knocked her confidence. Since then, she hasn't had the courage/eagerness to try something new. I'm constantly looking for things for her to try her hand at. Infact, the car business was supposed to be a joint venture but once I took her to her first auction she hated it from that moment on.

I've done a lot of performing over the years, bands, ensembles, orchestras. It's a lot of stress for me, I don't cope well with performing even though people seem to love it. I enjoy the challenge of hard music but hate performing :S I do the odd wedding gig for friends but even those i find incredibly stressful. I turn down far more weddings than I do lol.

paddyrg

Any good at repairs/restoration? You could offer a subscription-based service for a small regular payment you will keep an instrument in tiptop condition, polished, new reeds, replaced pads, oil or silicone on the right bits, etc? I have no idea how much love and attention wind and brass instruments need, but I'll bet someone would sign up at the right price. I probably would in exchange for a hassle-free life. And for you it's regular cash for something you can do quickly and easily during daytimes. If you can spend a little time learning how to panel beat and solder maybe you could do major repairs too? If not, act as an agent for repairs and deal with the repairer for people, the postage, the description if the problems, the checking on return, etc.

A few sidelines like this will make a big difference - sounds like you have plenty of contacts so now you need to start selling them stuff, whether accessories, recording sessions, services, personalised scores, doing your own arrangements, I really have no idea what is appropriate or possible but these spring to an uneducated mind. Perhaps you can think of more.

Sidelines are where many companies make their money. For instance Curry's probably make more from seeking you a laptop bag than selling you the laptop itself.