Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Mission Monitor Board Every 10 Years Forum The end of a LONG six months !

hi everyone !

i haven't really been a big poster around here in quite a long time now, my work keeps me pretty busy, with not a great deal of spare time [ for anyone who doesn't know me, my partner PAUL owns an ESSENSUALS / TONI&GUY salon in the city centre of Manchester, and i am the salon manager ! ]

to drive the business forward to be a success, we work pretty long hours each day, and from the start of January of this year, we took ownership of a 2nd salon in the city of YORK [ which is an hour and half trip each way, on the days that we work there, which were between 2 and 3 days each week, along with working 3 days in MANCHESTER still !! ]

that pace of work has steadly taken it's toll on us, and along with the fact that the business over in YORK is still not performing how we wanted it to, we have decided to call it a day with that salon, and hopefully SELL it back to the main TONI&GUY company/headoffice !?

we're both really pleased with what we have achieved so far in YORK [ before we took over it in Jan 06, it had been open for a year, and had been performing very badly, and in the 6 months we have been there, we have DOUBLED it's profits, created a much stronger client base and reputation !

but it's just not enough at the moment, we had hoped that 6 months in, we would have got it to a much stronger position in the city of YORK, but from going over the figures with our accountants, we are starting to build up some depts, and we don't know that a further 6 months would rapidly turn things around ??

so we have decided to take a gamble and pull out now, before the dept may increase !! [ when we took the salon on, we had to decide if it was going to be a gamble, but that's a risk you have to take in business !! ]

we have a meeting with the main company people on TUESDAY to work out what will fianlly happen, but they arn't exactly pleased to have to step back in and take over it !

and from our meetings with the accountants, we may lose our original investment of £15,000.00 !! and maybe some of the loan which was taken out to buy the business in January !!??

hopefully it won't come to this, but it's something that we have to think about at the moment .......

i guess you can say that we've been a little stressed the last 2 weeks or so, and PAUL's had most of the worry on his shoulders, as his name is on the contracts and building lease etc !!

the upshot at the moment is, we can fially re-claim our lives back !! after the last 6 months of travelling and increased work load, and ..... i may even get to return to posting here at LEGION WORLD !!

anyway !! enough about me, i need to get reading ALL those posts, and it may take a while ......

cheers

Matthew.

Good to see you back here, Matt. Sounds like you did really well with the York salon (doubling profits in 6 months!) but there's a lot to be said for dumping debt at this point in time. Even better to be getting rid of the stress!

(I bet Spellbinder would volunteer to massage the tension out of your shoulders...)

So,

this is a bad time to ask for a loan?


So what's the problem with the people in York? Bad fashion sense? Baldness epidemic?

See, what you need to do is take random digital photos of people with bad hairstyles, send them to Dean to have a new hairstyle painted on according to your strict criteria, then post them on the shop front. Then hire a few people to follow the victims, uh, potential clients, and then when they walk in front of the shop comment out loud at how becoming the person in the photo is.

Elaborate, but a respectfully evil plan.

Best wishes on Tuesday.

Everyone knows York is no Manchester.

Tp putit another way, we have 2 or 3 Manchester posters here. And how many from York?

But in all seriousness, Matt, best of luck with the sale.

I am a giver

Matt, sounds like you've been hella-busy! I hope it all works out financially, and I'm glad to see you back here on LW (hopefully more often in the future!).

Matt,

Sorry to hear that the York shop didn't work out. Glad to hear that you'll be in Legion World more.

Best wishes, Matt. I'm sure everything will turn out for the best.

Sorry to hear the business is not going the way you hoped. Fingers crossed you get it worked out soon.

Great to see you back Matthew but unfortunate under the circumstances. I really had hoped you and Paul would be able to turn the York shop around and show corporate what a great team you two make. Maybe you still can. People from anyplace using the word York in their name need all the help they can get, folicilly challenged as they are.

Seriously, Caroline and I wish you and Paul the best in getting it all sorted.

hey guys !!

thanks for all your support, big 's to you all !!

PAUL has his BIG meeting tomorrow, with the Head Office guys, so we'll know the exact details tomorrow !!

we have mixed feeling on the whole venture, part of us wish we'd never decided to step in and takeover the salon in January of this year, but it was an excellent offer/deal and if the takings had been larger by now, and we were gauranteed a good steady income into the salon, we were due a healthy return !!

but even though we haven't got it to where we had thought it was gonna be, we have still made a MASSIVE input on it so far, the 6 months we were there !!

the salon looks visually much better, the staff that were there before and the new ones that have started, feel pride in 'new' salon they are working in, we have have had a doubled the takings and created a much stronger business !!

it has been a total learning experience, and we are stronger for doing it, it's just a shame, we didn't have the time to continue with it !!

it simply needed our FULL TIME effort, to keep growing it, and we felt we were starting to let our Manchester salon suffer some what !!

and something had to give .....

we have made the correct business decision, to cut our loses at this stage [ before they may get any larger, and then we would have some serious worries !! ]

Matthew.

Keep your sunny side up!

I'm glad to hear your back here more and hope everything works out alright. Haircuts for all! I've been watching 'Life On Mars' on BBCAmerica which apparently takes place in Manchester. Haven't see your salon yet but I guess since the show takes place in the 70s, Toni and that other Guy must have just been wee lads

I'll keep my eyes open.

hey MEL !!

i haven't watched actually watched 'LOM' [ and there's a 2nd season coming soon ! ] i'll have to look out for re-runs ....

Matthew.

hey good news !!

PAUL had his meeting yesterday, with the GENERAL MANAGER of the whole ESSENSUALS group in YORK, she hadn't been to the salon since we took over of it in January, and she was SO impressed by what we'd done, she said it would be a shame, to have to 'walk away' from it, and lose our investment !!

so PAUL and her, managed to decide on a great deal for both parties [ it would be pretty hard for the LONDON based headoffice, to try and run from London, without us !! ]

so they want PAUL to 'mentor' one of the members of staff at the salon, to act as the manager, he would just need to go there for maybe half a day, every other week, and the rest of time, speak over the phone !! ]

the deal will mean, H/O will take over the running of the salon, and all the bills etc ... also the current dept [ which was almost £8000 ] they will also take on the LOAN that was taken out to buy the business, the only thing that we will be responsible for is the current overdraft on the account, which we can link into the Manchester account !!

we will still retain 25% of the business [ and still have our £15,000 investment involved in the salon !! ]

we also have the option in 6 months, to get out, and again in a further 6 months, if we don't like how it's going !!

if a new buyer comes along, then we can sell our shares to them, and hopefully gain a good return !!

it's currently a win win situation, without any of the financial stress !!

we are very happy about how it has turned out

Matthew.

happy to hear things are looking up for you guys!

I think you're learning the art of "franchising." At least that sounds like what we call franchising.

Nice to hear of hard work turning out for the best. A lesson to all us little kiddies.


I believe congratulations are in order.

Congratulations.

That's great news, Matt! I'm so happy it's working out so well for you both. That must be quite a relief!

Glad to hear you seem to have got the best of deals Matt. Let us know how things are going on in 6 months.

Matt that is good news. May things keep going in the right direction.

thanks for all the support guys !!

we're feeling much better at the moment on the business front, i'll keep you up to date on the latest developments ....

cheers

from

Matthew.

Hey Matt!

I haven't been around much lately so I've just found this post. I'm glad to here things are working out for you and Paul.

It's nice to see people who work hard and who deserve to get ahead succeeding. I hope this salon works out for you both, you've earned it.

Just, don't be a stranger okay?

Oh no!

Double post!