Thread: Sad when good businesses become otherwise

As a matter of course - Dad and I built a business up from a $10k starting capital.
Went on to own the premises, expanded, new premises....
Turned it into a 7 figure business and had a great time...
Sold it for a nice amount too!

And then the corporate mentality of the new owner kicked in.. since then 2 start ups in the same industry are going leaps and bounds...

My BIL was complaining recently that his local rural supplies store had gone from great to useless after a change of ownership from an individual to a chain.
Previously he could drive in, grab bags and other stuff he needed and throw in the ute, pay the bill and drive home.
Now the shelves are half empty, the knowledgeable staff were sacked and everything takes a week to order in.
He now drives further to another town to shop at a different store.

Hello Jonesfarm,

The adoption of corporate uniforms was done to present a "professional" look. It is still a local company.

Are there any gas lift pistons for office chairs made in Australia? Most likely I would I be buying the same overseas manufactured product advertised elsewhere for $19 and I would be paying $90 for the privilege of buying the very same item locally.

I have an issue with bolt off - throw away - bolt on. I would have liked to have the gas piston regenerated. I found a mob in Melbourne who do re-gassing of office struts. However, I could not find a price mentioned in their description. Then add postage for two trips between Queensland and Victoria.

At one stage Pedders offered an exchange system for gas struts for things like station wagons and hatchback doors. Which I have used in the past.

Kind Regards
Lionel

The problem is labour costs - to regass a strut takes 30 min... a new strut costs $30

Originally Posted by Tombie

That's the kicker - they sold the business...
So there's an overhead to recover for the new owners..
............

And quite possibly paid more for it than it was worth, taking into account that it now needed to provide income for the bank as well as the owners. And the bank may well have been interfering a lot in the running of it.

John

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

My BIL was complaining recently that his local rural supplies store had gone from great to useless after a change of ownership from an individual to a chain.
Previously he could drive in, grab bags and other stuff he needed and throw in the ute, pay the bill and drive home.
Now the shelves are half empty, the knowledgeable staff were sacked and everything takes a week to order in.
He now drives further to another town to shop at a different store.

Happens all the time,once the big mob takes over from the owner operator,the'care factor' seems to disappear.

Originally Posted by scarry

Happens all the time,once the big mob takes over from the owner operator,the'care factor' seems to disappear.

The accountants prioritize keeping overheads down over customer service. But it was having what customers wanted which built the business up in the first place, by serving customers. Take away customer service and the customer has no reason to shop there.
So the accountants end up managing a shrinking revenue stream, which they do by cutting costs even further, meaning there is even less reason to shop there and the business just spirals downwards.
An accountant once told me that accountants are great at telling you about what happened in the past, but usually hopeless at building a better future.

Originally Posted by scarry

Happens all the time,once the big mob takes over from the owner operator,the'care factor' seems to disappear.

This is a real problem for small businesses. The large organisation can handle all the overheads that a business needs today (everything from payroll to red tape to IT) by being able to spread it over a number of sites. But to do this they need to make the operation of the various sites pretty uniform, losing the "local" that "made" the business.

John