My new venture is sending me broke. Am I doomed?

Hey Aunty B,

Well, I’m 12 months into a new business (my first true attempt, though I have worked for myself before, contracting).

It is based from home, though it should really be in an industrial area (I live in the country, and I’m very fortunate the local council let things slip, to a point).

The business is based around my passion for automotive refurbishment, though I have had to drop paid work to concentrate on developing a range of specialty tools, which aren’t readily available in Australia. The incoming work was also minimised to avoid any complaints about noise, etc.

The problem I have is the cost of developing these tools has almost broken me (I’m very fortunate that I have a wife with a wonderful full-time job and that helps).

I need the income from my other work to fund this and keep things going, but can’t afford to shift into an industrial shed to do so. I’m not interested in taking on any partners, and certainly can’t afford to get a loan, as I wouldn’t get one anyway, with little or no income.

I have tried for government funding, but found this to be a total waste of time, effort and resources.

Do you have any ‘REAL’ suggestions, or am I doomed as one of those statistics of a failed business.

I have had such GREAT feed back from what I’m attempting to do, especially as they are AUSTRALIAN MADE products.

Launch date is to be the end of the year, and time and money is running out fast (R&D is a very costly business )

Feel free to visit my website to get an idea of what my small business is all about (www.rodsandrelics.com.au).

I would appreciate any ‘POSITIVE’ feedback, as I want to move forward, not backwards as I seem to be doing now.

Yours faithfully,

Rod

Hey Rod,

Mate!! A law breaking, rev head! (Loved the cars on your site by the way but please get the words edited. Just find someone over 50 who actually learnt to spell and write at school to give it the twice over for you.)

Now down to business. Great start. You seem to have found a niche and you have a working wife bringing in the income and being highly supportive.

But Rod, your local council and friendly neighbours are only going to look the other way for so long, so already we have a problem going forward. You must move the business into other premises but are cash-strapped and are fast running out of money.

Rod, you are stuck and the solution is clear. You must change your attitude! Why are you not interested in taking in partners? You know the cliché: far better to have a smaller share of a big pie than a big share of no pie. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and failed small businesses comes down to a capacity to work with others. That’s it!

Australians are great at coming up with big ideas but fail when it comes to developing teams and commercialising the products. Once you make that mindshift, a whole lot of areas open up.

Take on a partner who can help you with premises, expertise, money, marketing and distribution. Uncle Colin wants to know, Rod, if you have seen one of the Federal Government’s 62 advisers who roam the country giving out free advice and assistance. He advises you to then meet with the team of regional managers who can help approach the business sections of a bank with fully developed business and marketing plans.

Rod, there is no silver bullet. You need partners and you need a solid investment team behind you. Otherwise you will struggle on alone and will indeed become another statistic.

Good luck,
Your ever-lovin’
Aunty B