It was Friday 22 October 2010 when I got a phone call about a bathroom showroom, Diamond Bathrooms that had some cash flow problems. Could I help the directors out?
It sounded like a chance to do something interesting so the next day which was a Saturday I drove across to Dudley and found my way to the trading estate where there was a bathroom showroom. I had a long chat with the couple of guys, Fred and Bill, who ran the showroom. It turned out that they were doing great business online but the expense of the showroom was killing them. In fact to be even more precise they had cornered the market in reduced height shower doors. If you wanted to put a shower in a restricted space such as a boat or under the stairs then Jewel Bathrooms were number one, and Diamond Bathrooms their agent. The website and showroom were there just to allow them to do these shower doors. So very rapidly we agreed that we would continue the online business from my offices in Green Lane as an online only business. I would bail them out with the bank and we rapidly agreed on a payment share.
And so it was that on the Monday morning, these guys turned up at my offices. We gave them an office, they plugged in their computers and we were in business. An hour or so later Fred came across to my office and said there was a problem. There were only 2 companies who made reduced height shower doors and both had refused to supply them without a showroom. We sat down amicably and discussed the situation and we concluded it wouldn’t work.
At that point, they loaded up their computers, shook hands with me and drove away. We had been in business for about 2 hours.
A couple of months later I bumped into them again. They had a new showroom within a builders merchants premises, they were still only selling reduced height shower doors, but business was now booming.
So it was the shortest business adventure ever but one that ended in a friendly way with no loss.