Saturday, Feb 16, 2019 at 22:09
KevinE, I've been in business all my life, and owned hundreds of items of equipment. I've never gone broke, ever.
Brother and his wife and myself were the biggest privately-owned mining contractors in W.A. in 1994. We competed directly with all the biggies in the mining and contracting world.
We owned 55 earthmoving machines, nearly all between 50 and 100 tonnes in weight. 19 x 50 tonne dumptrucks, multiple numbers of dozers, graders, excavators, water trucks, and all the accumulated equipment.
Up to 102 employees at one time, $15M annual turnover, with a modest profit.
But I'm out of operations that size now, I don't need any of the crap that comes with contracting, and regulations, and fighting for work.
I taught the nephew the ropes (in fact, I helped raise him), he started with us, then went out on his own.
But one thing I never counted on, was the utter bastardry of a bank that demanded repayment of $1M in loans - within 48 hrs - despite there being no arrears, no outstanding payments, and no pressing reason to withdraw funding.
The banks reason to withdraw funding and call in loans? They need no reason other than the one they gave us -
"We have carried out some computer studies and have decided we do not want you as our customer any more".
"We believe if we continue to support you, within 6 to 12 mths, we will be owed money, that we will not be able to recover".
"Accordingly you will pay all outstanding loans within 48 hrs and we will terminate our relationship with you".
Now, you say, "Oh, that's easy, you just go to another bank - or go to a lawyer and sue them for any losses!"
Well, we did both. In fact, we went to 19 different banks, to try and transfer our operations across to them.
Not only was that exercise going to cost us around $120,000 in stamp duties, transfer and mortgage costs - we got the stone wall treatment.
All 19 of those banks said, "But you're with one of the four biggest and most powerful banks in Australia.
If they are foreclosing on you, there must be a hidden reason for that, that you're not revealing to us - so, Thanks, but No Thanks!"
We also went to see a lawyer, who said straight-out, "How much money and how much time do you have, to fight one of the Big Four Banks?"
"I can assure you, it will cost $300,000 to commence a lawsuit, and the banks have unlimited funds."
"I can also assure you, they will adopt every delaying and obstructive legal tactic in the book, to ensure you run out of money, long before they do".
So, we struggled along for another 6 mths with a totally crippled business, while everyone sat back and waited for us to crumble, so they could pick up the crumbs.
Our great business that took 30 years to build up, was utterly destroyed by our banks totally unwarranted foreclosure.
We were forced to sell everything at fire sale prices - but we paid everyone out in full - even though we ended up walking out with just the shirts on our backs.
If we wanted, we could have declared bankrupcty and walked away with a lot of assets - but we aren't that type of people.
It has taken a Royal Commission to just scratch the surface of the bastardry in banking, that has been going on for decades.
I even knew a bloke who was on the receiving end of similar treatment from one of the Big Four not long after - and he stated outright, he actually planned for a long time, how he was going to fly an aircraft into a banking headquarters to "get even" with the bastards (this was long before 9/11) - but the only thing that stopped him, was not being 100% sure he could kill the right people that had destroyed him and his business.
So, don't presume I know nothing about business operations, I have been in business since I was 16, when I bought my first old secondhand dozer, and I'm now over 70, and still working, and I don't expect to be retiring, any time soon.
Cheers, Ron.
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