New ventures and new struggles

New venture is really exciting, if done right.

Starting a new venture is really exciting, the thought of it should absolutely invigorate your motivation to create something that’s going to make you money and let alone make you rich.

What you need to realize is that starting up any new venture comes a risk, This isn’t just a financial risk, it is a family risk, it is a relationship rest and also it can literally risk if you haven’t done so your very own livelihood.

Let me tell you about the time when I had my first business as a owner driver contractor for one of the big delivery organisations here in New Zealand.

I was excited about the opportunity to make that money from my new venture, I was approached by a huge organisation here in New Zealand to contract my services out as a courier delivery driver.

Back in those days we made a lot of money, let’s just say I was making $400 a day and things were really good.

I had to sit myself up properly as a Limited Liability Company and bring on board and accountant as well as start learning how to conduct my own goods and services tax as well as any other taxation obligations that I have incurred.

I treated my new business, my new venture as a job, sooner or later this was going to become one of my greatest mistakes and it would cost me big time.

Go forward two years I had six people on the books and sure enough I was making a lot of money, however my contract was up for renewal and the organisation I was with sought to take opportunity to save costs where they can.

My confidence was shattered, I was very depressed simply because I couldn’t provide for my family. Sure enough my new job provided quite a bit of security. But in the back of my mind I really wanted to make something on my own.

I said I needed to take on another residential area, without any pay increase. They stated that because I will be delivering to a higher volume I would start making a lot more money and I would lose my $400 daily pay rate minimum.

This was just due to the cost saving efforts throughout the entire organisation, and unfortunately people like me was going to take a huge hit, my new venture was turning into my worst nightmare.

Fast forward to one month, my accountant just gave me a phone call and tells me that the rate I am spending money on repairs, staff, office supplies, tax and fuel, I was sure on the fast track to bankruptcy.

I had three months to sort this and I need to act fast. I started stressing because I didn’t know how to make any extra money, my employees were paid minimum rates and the repairs needed increased as my area of responsibility increased and petrol was a huge burden on me.

I put in my resignation because I knew that the way I was going I was going to go bankrupt and unintentionally bankrupt my entire family as well, so I cut my losses and terminated my contract as well as putting my tail between my legs and running back to the previous organisation that I used to work with.

In my first venture I lost $30,000, and I don’t blame the organisation that I worked for. To be realistic I blame myself for treating would I head like a job, not having much business sense and also not doing any marketing in sales but just expecting the money to keep coming into my pocket.

It took me 5 to 6 months to get employed and a decent job, however I had a lot of savings to fall back on but still I spent a lot of money trying to keep afloat.

My confidence was shattered, I was very depressed simply because I couldn’t provide for my family. Sure enough my new job provided quite a bit of security. But in the back of my mind I really wanted to make something on my own.

Four years later, my wife finally encourage me to take another little faith into our second business called Romantic Gestures NZ. Having learnt from the mistakes that I made, I was able to put certain processes in place and be more careful on how I conduct business on a daily basis. Natasha is absolutely amazing, she is the creative license to do marriage proposals, wedding coordination, flash mob surprises and we even have 67 romantic it always nationwide on our books.

I personally don’t have the confidence at first but seeing how we can put certain things into action really inspired my confidence to come out of the darkness.

We’ve learnt a lot along the way, I decided to study the New Zealand Diploma in Business and Marketing, I have even decided to take on the Bachelor of Business majoring in Marketing also.

We have put on a lot of hats on our journey, The accountant, manager, project manager and also social media marketing extraordinaire.

I even went to the extreme of developing websites from scratch which I thought I couldn’t do but I did it and I can do it in style.

So right now we have two nationwide businesses, and starting to make more money than what we’ve seen in the last six years. We are here featured in the New Idea magazine, Woman’s Weekly and also numerous stuff articles for running a unique business. But you don’t always get to have the sunlight on your journey to starting up, you have to go through hell first.

When you do start up you are going to make mistakes, you have to be careful to not make too many mistakes all in one go. What I mean by this is that you have to have patience, you have to test and adjust in small amounts. If you are a risk taker and you like to make a big gamble, my advice to you is simple, make calculated risks and also insure that those risks are in your favour.

You have to realize that this shit is not easy, it is going to test you and it’s going to test your family and friends. This will also affect your relationship with your wife, your husband or your partner.

You need to invest in time management, and sometimes even your calendar isn’t always gonna be correct. However if you’re not careful, you will lose relationships.

Why am I telling you like this? It’s simple, You are building a business from scratch and when you build a business from scratch it takes time, effort, blood sweat and tears.

I’m not saying that it is going to be the end of all things that are good, all I’m trying to say is that you have to be willing to do the hard work, to suffer a bit, In order to get the reward at the end.