Mate's business under pressure

kevin99

A friend phoned me last week and spent over an hour talking to me about how his business is under pressure and he may have to close it down.
I advised him on a number of levels.
He was pretty down about it.
Said he has no spare cash.
I set up a meeting for him with a business advisor who said he will meet him at no cost.
Today, I was due to meet my friend to discuss his finances and business plan. I texted him at 10am to see were we still on to meet as he didn't confirm a definate time when we spoke last week.
He responded by saying he was attending some freebie lunche in town and would instead meet Wed or Thurs.
I simply texted him back telling him to prioritise his business committments.
I've no intention of facilitating him later this week.
But I am so annoyed with him.
He took two hours out of my morning last week and I then went to the trouble of speaking to a business advisor on his behalf so that is a further hour.
Are people these days so dim, thick, self-sbsorbed or what?
This guy's business is on the verge of collapse and he prefers to attend a lunch instead of meeting me as was provisionally planned to discuss his financial situation on my detail.
I would welcome any comments.

Boskowski

I have no advice really, only noticed myself that the recession apparently has not changed some "business people's" attitude one yota. They're bloody hopeless mostly.

I've had traders messin' around with me for months, not showing up before 11, leaving at 4, doing harlf-arsed jobs and whatnot.

At this stage I'm actually convinced it would be dead easy in Ireland to run a business like a plumbing shop or electrician or something like that.

All you gotta do is show up on time, work proper hours, when you're not going to make an appointment or something's up give the custumer a call, when you say you gonna ring the customer then bloody well ring the customer... don't wait 'til the customer rings you and come up with a stupid lame excuse like the van broke down. Basically just do the very basics right.

I'm convinced if you did just those few things you'd blow away probably 75% of all trades businesses in this country.

On the other hand the customers may find this beaviour suspicious. I'm actually at my wits end with trades to be honest. You're friend seems to be one of those...

iguana

Is there any chance that this freebie lunch will have some of his business contacts at it? Could it be a genuine networking opportunity?

Staplor

There's alot of talk I hear from self employed friends about not being able to get paid from other self employed people with no cash who are out in Spain for a fortnight. People priortise in very strange ways depending on who they are and how they're feeling, maybe he just didn't want to face you at that time.

mikemac

The recession continues to shut a lot of good companies and excellent businessmen.

But there are some absolute fools out there being self employed and you wonder how they manage.

I'm sure many of us have been let down by tradesmen who don't show up and never call. The plumber who drops you for a bigger job down the road.
The electrician who takes weeks to get a part yet you could get it couriered in a day or two

You can still call a company looking for a quote yet now they have a good chance of a sale and they never bother to call you back
Car dealerships are fiends for this!!

As a friend, give this guy one last chance. If he can make the next meeting great. If not, cut him loose. He can sink or swim and it'll be up to him