Tax!

[Highland Forestry]

 

i am talking about buying kit, if you buy something for 10k plus vat, you can pay the 10k, claim back the 1500 quid back first within your vat quarter then pay it to the seller. so you arent out of pocket.:001_cool:never spend your vat money or tax money, false econonmy, you think the money is yours and dont address situations when you need to because you have the little security blanket. dont wait till you are owed thousands before you start to panick, i never had arbtalk to give me priceless advice from folk who knew better than me from experience, and i suffered badly in business when i got out of my depth, you guys do have arbtalk, take it from us, unless you are as ruthless a boss as the customer you work for then keep away from it:001_smile:

 

 

I didnt realise it was possible to do that..... sounds a damned good idea to me..

The problem I come across alot is being too busy to chase up debtors and invoices..... you get into a routine with work, ploughing through it all and you;re so busy with that and so concentrated, before you know it a month has gone by and you're still owed money.

I called in alot of my outstanding invoices at the end of april, and so had alot of money come in quite quickly, which has resulted in a whopping VAT bill.. however.. bought the new truck in May, so thats the next quarter and have a good ammount to cliam back.

 

The big bosses and the big companies are getting harder and harsher all the time... I think when they feel the pinch everyone under them is made to suffer.

[Stephen Blair]

is all this sounding very familiar mat to our discussion over 2 years ago, if so take note and sort it out before the biggest thing in your life happens in a few months. you are going to become a father, try dealing with all the stress and worry of parenthood and run a business that looks like it is going down the pan. forget turn over and concentrate on profit my friend.

[Mark Bolam]

Turnover is vanity.

Profit is sanity.

But cash is king!

[Highland Forestry]

is all this sounding very familiar mat to our discussion over 2 years ago, if so take note and sort it out before the biggest thing in your life happens in a few months. you are going to become a father, try dealing with all the stress and worry of parenthood and run a business that looks like it is going down the pan. forget turn over and concentrate on profit my friend.

 

Well..... erm...... that is precisley what I'm tryng to do stevie!!

[Stephen Blair]

Well..... erm...... that is precisley what I'm tryng to do stevie!!

 

good man, even if the plan you have to make goes against all your desire to take over the highlands in the world of tree surgery, stick with it. if i were you i would stop everything. get on the phone tomorrow and chase your money, if anyone is over the agreed payment term then get a lawyer onto it, if you want a good one give me a call. go through your phone and take out all the bad payers and crap customers, focus on the good ones. what takes the least effort for the biggest return. learn to say NO mate. dont think what a job might lead to, because all that mental weeling and dealing goes unheard in business...

[woodplans]

Stevie, the above post is a very good bit of advice, especially the bit about mental wheeling and dealing. When i first started out I would never say no to anything, always taking on the little pain in the ass jobs for the big contractors etc, thinking they will lead to bigger and better jobs, some did, most did not.

One particular job was done when we were really pushed for time, but we mananged to squeeze it in. The company said it will lead to lots of land clearance work for there new developments, I got one more job out of them, had to fight for the money,I hear that now they are in administration. The hard work and mental anguish was not worth it.

Choose your customers, don't let them dictate terms, walk away from it if your not satisfied. And always remember if you are unlucky enough to loose 5k from a non paying customer, working on 20% profit margin you need to turn over 25k just to be back where you started, worth remembering when you feel guilty about turning down work.

[woodplans]

Highland,

 

The most important job you have as a business owner is sending out invoices and chasing late payers. Make time to do it, even if it means missing a day out on the tools once a week. I used to be lax about this part, I got burnt once. so I am speaking from experience learnt the hard way.

[Highland Forestry]

Thanks for the advice guys.... I do take it all on board, and I really appreciate that folk talk from thier own experiences.

 

As far as invoicing goes, the invoices go out like clockwork every sunday night/monday morning and most of the payments come in the following week... however, the ones that havent paid up have been chased and I realise that you cant let it pile up ontop of you.... did that in april and now paying the price for it.

 

Regarding small pain in the arse jobs... I have turned some away unless they are

en-route or i'm at a loose end.

 

The mental wheeling and dealing is a very valid point... I did a job for a very very big forestry management company months ago now, hoping i'd geta shout for bigger jobs and take it from there kinda thing...... still not been paid although i've been told it's on the way, still...... its not paid till it's in the bank.

 

Stevie - I dont want to take over the tree surgery world in the highlands, I want to offer commercial services and take on big contracts. I love it up here and I enjoy the fact that I can go to work, earn good money, keep the boys going and see plenty of people all around me that cant be bothered to work - their loss my gain.

It's like stepping stones I guess..... gotta keep climbing those steps.

[Stephen Blair]

 

 

 

Stevie - I dont want to take over the tree surgery world in the highlands, I want to offer commercial services and take on big contracts. I love it up here and I enjoy the fact that I can go to work, earn good money, keep the boys going and see plenty of people all around me that cant be bothered to work - their loss my gain.

It's like stepping stones I guess..... gotta keep climbing those steps.

 

out of all that which part is really true, do you earn good money? no

do you keep the boys going? yes. how much of the pound is yours mat?

as i said before, there is what you want to do, and what you have to do. do you have a figure written in black and white that when you hit in outstanding bills that you are going to stop or have to stop. what have you implemented for non payers, are you just going to keep phoning them with empty threats or do something about it? what do you have to show for your last 12 months work that is yours, bought and paid for money in the bank?then subtract all your finance and money owed. be honest with yourself and look at that figure, now think if you had to go and show your boss that figure in the morning, do you think he would be happy, would he keep you on in a job??

[Highland Forestry]

out of all that which part is really true, do you earn good money? no

do you keep the boys going? yes. how much of the pound is yours mat?

as i said before, there is what you want to do, and what you have to do. do you have a figure written in black and white that when you hit in outstanding bills that you are going to stop or have to stop. what have you implemented for non payers, are you just going to keep phoning them with empty threats or do something about it? what do you have to show for your last 12 months work that is yours, bought and paid for money in the bank?then subtract all your finance and money owed. be honest with yourself and look at that figure, now think if you had to go and show your boss that figure in the morning, do you think he would be happy, would he keep you on in a job??

 

 

 

I earn good money compared to alot of people I know... I work fucking hard for it too!

I keep the boys going because I believe it is important to provide local jobs wherever possible and because I enjoy the fact that there are not many contractors about that can do what we can and provide the services we provide.

As far as how much of the coin is mine, I would take this opportunity to point out that I spent an absolute bomb on training, have continued to get more quals and more training, I have bought all of my kit, all my climbing gear, paid off my mitsubishi which was a 5k loss and bought myself a new vehicle..

I have fully furnished a house from scratch and put a roof over our heads.

All of my bills have been paid. I only owe money to the tax man..which will be paid.

I've built my business up as best I can and I do the very best I can.

In the last 12 months I have been working through all of this whilst still recovering from glandular fever and pneumonia in the last few weeks.

There are limits to what I can charge for a days work - it's not the most affluent area here...

I've made mistakes along the way to where I am now, and no doubt will make more as time goes on, but I am out there day after day working my nuts off to get to where we need to be...

 

All this would be different in so many ways if we could get bigger contracts, if the forest industry was more stable, if the grant schemes were up and running properly, if we werent getting screwed on training costs, assessments, kit, the works..

 

I am a man trying to make a living in hard times, and it's not easy...

Sorry if any of the above sounds nasty, I dont mean it to, but that's how it is for me.. I wish it was different.