You’re the Boss Blog: ‘I’d Be Happy to Share My Thoughts and Experiences as We Go Down’

Staying Alive

The struggles of a business trying to survive.

On Dec. 10, 2009, I was sitting at my desk, reading this blog — I think it was a post by Jay Goltz. My business was not doing well. His was struggling, too, but clearly he wasn’t as close to the edge as I was. I sent the following e-mail to the editor of this blog:

Hey Loren,

Love the blog. Great crew. One thing I’ve noticed: you are missing a blogger whose business is in the process of going under — which, if statistics aren’t lying, is a significant percentage of your target readers. Maybe it’s too much of a bummer, maybe you just haven’t found a willing candidate. Well, I’m here and I’m qualified — I’ve been running a custom furniture manufacturing business for 24 years and this recession is slowly killing us. I’d be happy to share my thoughts and experiences as we go down (or not, there’s still some hope.) How about it?

Paul Downs

Two months later, long after I had forgotten about the e-mail, I received a reply:

Hi Paul,

Sorry for the (very) delayed response. I’m still struggling to catch up with the e-mail — as you can see. But thanks so much for your comments — and also for your intriguing idea. I hope your business is doing better, but if you’re still interested, I would be eager to hear more. What kinds of things would you want to write about?

Loren

I wrote back (in part):

Thanks for getting back to me — I didn’t think I’d hear from you. It’s not a fully fleshed-out idea right now, as the inherent problem is knowing whether we are really going to fail or whether we will pull out of the death spiral. I suppose one way to structure it would be to keep a diary and start telling the story only if the worst happens. Another would be to confess at the outset that we don’t know what’s going to happen, but here’s what’s happening today, and then proceed with posts. …

There are plenty of subjects for posts — here are some of the things I’ve been dealing with in the last two years:

Main Subject: Layoffs

– Do you tell the workers that trouble is brewing, or keep them in the dark in the last minute to keep them from jumping ship? (We went through this in the summer of ’08 when it seemed that jobs were still available). Effects of a keep-them-ignorant policy (which my partner insisted on) were very negative.
– The moment of truth, announcing layoffs, and the odd cheerfulness that everyone felt at finally knowing their fate.
– The day-after-layoff speech to the remaining workers.
– The second and third time around. Becoming hardened to the horror. How the survivors react.

Main Subject: Vendors Debtors

– Getting far, far behind on payments to vendors
– Negotiating a deal to get caught back up, and how that worked out.
– Lines of credit and credit cards — what happened when my partner took most of our cash and paid down our L.O.C. without my permission.
– How I finally got a handle on cash flow.

Main Subject: Customers

– We live and die by the sales cycle. What it consists of in our business.
– How do/should you mask your desperation to your clients?
– Negotiating prices when the alternative to a sale is a zero bank balance.

Main Subject: My Partner

– How hard times changed our relationship. How we act as our interests converge and diverge. Keeping it civil.

Main Subject: Plan B

– The forehead smack: What would I do/have done differently to avoid this situation?
– What’s next for me, and how to set it up?
– When will I know it’s time to pull the plug?
– What are the legal consequences of going out of business? How is it actually done? How long does it take? How much does it cost?

I’d give you some more right now but I have to get a little more work done today. Also, I have to be in New York at some point this week … right now it’s looking like Thursday morning. Want to get a cup of coffee?

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Paul Downs

So that’s how I started writing here. Over the last two years I’ve written about most of the subjects on my list, and a few more. One promise I haven’t kept, though, is to document the actual failure of my business. Fortunately, it has turned around and we are now doing better than ever. We’re about to turn a profit for the second year in a row, I’ve doubled my salary, and I’ll be handing out bonuses to my workers.

I’ve always disliked the emphasis on success that is pervasive in business journalism. It seems that every story has a happy ending, with the implication that failure is unusual, and probably the fault of the failee. Which is nonsense. Starting a business, particularly for the first time, is a leap into the unknown. Mistakes are inevitable and costly. And there are outside forces, beyond anyone’s control, that can be even more destructive. Putting a happy ending on every story paints a distorted picture of what it’s like to run a business. It plays down the unending struggle that owners go through to learn and grow. I have tried to write honestly about the things that I don’t understand, or haven’t done well, and I think it has been very valuable to me to do so. I hope readers have derived some benefit as well.

Now that my business is doing better, it’s tempting to crow a bit about the things that are going well. But I don’t want to bore anyone, and I don’t want this to end up as just another “I struggled, I suffered, and then I succeeded” story. So I’m going to throw out two questions:

1) Have you heard enough?
2) What subjects would you like me to write about?

Please keep in mind that I’m only qualified to write about my own experiences. I’m not a reporter, and I don’t want to be one. But if there’s some aspect of running a small factory that you would like to know more about, let’s hear it.

Paul Downs founded Paul Downs Cabinetmakers in 1986. It is based outside of Philadelphia.

Article source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=de605ab2cdab937ab18797475dad1f8c