Better to find out sooner rather than later what the previous company had been up to or involved with. I had been waiting to come across certain things and this was the first today. the previous manufacturer used to wet the material inside the punch bags to make them heavier until the material dried out. If they were that dodgy and desperate they had to be up to other stuff.
The worst thing anyone can do in life is to destroy relationships through burned bridges because you just never now when you may need them. Karma has a funny way of playing out and you just never know when you might need that person or that company's help again. I need this particular company and someone previously has put a major spanner in the works.
I have been doing some work preparing for the start up of the punching bag business and stumbled upon some troubling information. Whoever was manufacturing the bags before still owes money to one of the service providers and I need their services. I am not sure who this is yet that owes the money as I was not part of this so I need to go and pay this business a visit and to get the lie of the land. They handle all the stuffing inside the bag and you cannot compete with their prices.
I may be a new client and a new face, but the item and job required is still the same so if you are owed money having done this before there is no reason to do it again. If I was in their shoes I wouldn't and why I now need to check what happened and to fix this speed bump quickly. When you take over a failing business it is amazing what you come across with many skeletons lurking in the lockers. I am not surprised because if I know who it is behind this I am more disappointed than being angry because they can afford to pay this bill.
The monthly consignment order requires around 35 tons of stuffing and I have been searching with no luck and not even coming close to sourcing this figure. This company has a deal with customs and excise and gets the material all for free from confiscated counterfeit clothing that they then shred. You cannot compete against free and why whoever failed on their obligations was shortsighted and stupid.
I luckily have dealt with situations like this before and facing this head on is the only way to get this resolved. The end result possibly could help by forging a stronger business relationship due to helping fix the problem. Trust is everything in business and when that is broken for whatever reason you are on a downhill trajectory. Morals and your word are what counts the most and all I am hoping for is this is not a huge amount.
I am in the belief that you pay what you owe before you pay yourself and there is no exceptions. The last company I was helping out went into business rescue and I was the one juggling the payments having redirected the suppliers to another business account on the basis of my word they would all be paid. The only person who got left out of what was owed was myself and those promises of payments have worn thin after 6 years of waiting. The total owed thankfully was not a fortune and was in the region of $10K, but $10K is still $10K. This has by no means been written off and the topic will be raised again.
This was a lesson well learned and why you face financials head on because the ones who owe the money never do this and they tend to repeat this over and over again.