Joined Nov 2001
17K Posts | 773+
Ely, England
I intend to get my accounts for the year 2020 in hand and then I'm looking to sell Taffmeisters and retire. I'm 60 in April, the Mortgage is paid, the business is now working and making a profit, I now have rental streams. It's always been my ambition to go to Australia Seriously though, I travelled a lot as a kid and completely lost that hunger which I'm glad I did. Motorcycle Road Racing was the next 'I'm not waisting my life'.
I reckon though that Europe is the right place for it. Branches in Australia and the USA would make it one helluva business but can you trust staff and people? No. Family maybe.
If you have a small business you can be a mechanic and sell parts but you have to get people off the phone and be rude. For me, I could only relax when I closed the workshop and just concentrated on people and parts and the last 4 years have been mostly enjoyable. My staff, whoever they were always managed make me feel that I was lucky to have them, it was me who said 'please' and it was they that said 'maybe I might?'.
I started with my last £20, I had nothing left. It was Christmas 2007 and I'd just been laid off by Trailtours UK. I asked 'can I sign on the dole'. "you're joking. it's not the same now, you get nothing!". So that was out, what else could I do?
So I walked out to my garage and and had a look around; 'something I can turn to money, something I can turn to money' I thought what can I do today on the 15th of December? Nobody wants me a week before Christmas?
30 days before while in my job, I had stopped by a house in Nuneaton and bought a 650 engine that needed work for £100. Building that engine was the only thing I could do. So i stripped it, had a gasket or two, bought a cam chain and one or two bits with my £20 and built it. I then put it on ebay with the description; "I know my Husabergs. This is a good engine!".
Bidding started and got to £300 before slowing. One of the bidders called me and said; "wey eye mun! (that's Geordie speak) I need that engine what'll ya taek?". I had doubts about the auction going much higher so we agreed on £600 and he and his wife drove a long, long way from one end of England down to the other (4 hours-250 miles....Australia eat your heart out!!!) "whey yareally nae yar stuff mun!" so he went off with it.
All my money paid off bills, I had red letters all over the table by now threatening me with court orders etc.
I wrote to the two who'd been bidding on the engine and said that the engine was sold but that "I knew my stuff and would build theirs if they wanted?" what else was I going to do?
So BOTH of them said yes! I then started sorting the workshop, took the engines and deposits and started work on them but the deposits were gobbled up so i had to ask for even more money, then some from Mum and then finally I got paid for them. Then I got a call from the Geordie saying he was pleased with the engine but didn't want to change the registration document to reflect the new engine number - would I rebuild his original? So he drove down twice more once to deliver and once to collect (250 miles; a proper journey that!) and that was another job.
In the meantime I mentioned this curious story of the "unwilling businessman" on UHE and lots of people said; 'do mine!' and I had a business going.
I was continually running out of money, even deposits didn't help, and sometimes engines just wanted for £20-£30 of parts and couldn't go out because I just had no money so I started advertising on ebay; specifically the Gel-Cel batteries which I understood and had a headstart on. The £20 and £30 were to help me to finish the engines, not profit for its own sake. This gave me a little tweak of funds to finish the jobs. But although the red letters stopped, the pot was always empty!
Anyway, we have probably between £40-£100,000 of spares now and even as I write, I have rocker bushes being made, 2 styles of decal, kickstart shafts and want most of all plastics. So it is always happening here. Knowledge as a Mechanic though is absolutely paramount.
Taffy
I reckon though that Europe is the right place for it. Branches in Australia and the USA would make it one helluva business but can you trust staff and people? No. Family maybe.
If you have a small business you can be a mechanic and sell parts but you have to get people off the phone and be rude. For me, I could only relax when I closed the workshop and just concentrated on people and parts and the last 4 years have been mostly enjoyable. My staff, whoever they were always managed make me feel that I was lucky to have them, it was me who said 'please' and it was they that said 'maybe I might?'.
I started with my last £20, I had nothing left. It was Christmas 2007 and I'd just been laid off by Trailtours UK. I asked 'can I sign on the dole'. "you're joking. it's not the same now, you get nothing!". So that was out, what else could I do?
So I walked out to my garage and and had a look around; 'something I can turn to money, something I can turn to money' I thought what can I do today on the 15th of December? Nobody wants me a week before Christmas?
30 days before while in my job, I had stopped by a house in Nuneaton and bought a 650 engine that needed work for £100. Building that engine was the only thing I could do. So i stripped it, had a gasket or two, bought a cam chain and one or two bits with my £20 and built it. I then put it on ebay with the description; "I know my Husabergs. This is a good engine!".
Bidding started and got to £300 before slowing. One of the bidders called me and said; "wey eye mun! (that's Geordie speak) I need that engine what'll ya taek?". I had doubts about the auction going much higher so we agreed on £600 and he and his wife drove a long, long way from one end of England down to the other (4 hours-250 miles....Australia eat your heart out!!!) "whey yareally nae yar stuff mun!" so he went off with it.
All my money paid off bills, I had red letters all over the table by now threatening me with court orders etc.
I wrote to the two who'd been bidding on the engine and said that the engine was sold but that "I knew my stuff and would build theirs if they wanted?" what else was I going to do?
So BOTH of them said yes! I then started sorting the workshop, took the engines and deposits and started work on them but the deposits were gobbled up so i had to ask for even more money, then some from Mum and then finally I got paid for them. Then I got a call from the Geordie saying he was pleased with the engine but didn't want to change the registration document to reflect the new engine number - would I rebuild his original? So he drove down twice more once to deliver and once to collect (250 miles; a proper journey that!) and that was another job.
In the meantime I mentioned this curious story of the "unwilling businessman" on UHE and lots of people said; 'do mine!' and I had a business going.
I was continually running out of money, even deposits didn't help, and sometimes engines just wanted for £20-£30 of parts and couldn't go out because I just had no money so I started advertising on ebay; specifically the Gel-Cel batteries which I understood and had a headstart on. The £20 and £30 were to help me to finish the engines, not profit for its own sake. This gave me a little tweak of funds to finish the jobs. But although the red letters stopped, the pot was always empty!
Anyway, we have probably between £40-£100,000 of spares now and even as I write, I have rocker bushes being made, 2 styles of decal, kickstart shafts and want most of all plastics. So it is always happening here. Knowledge as a Mechanic though is absolutely paramount.
Taffy
