Dan Muir put his life savings and well-paying job on the line to chase his dream of owning his own business.
But just 18 months later, his wife, a new mum, was so strapped for cash she found herself counting groceries at the checkout.
Sometimes she would have to ask awkwardly to put things back and most bare necessities became instantly unaffordable despite Dan working 80-hour weeks.
The 40-year-old shop fitter’s mental heath began to slip. Then he watched as his first business went into administration as he realised the big companies who had been promising to pay long overdue invoices were never going to cough up a cent.
Speaking to FEMAIL, he admitted losing his first business was ‘crippling’ and ‘sent him down a dark path’.
‘I had never suffered mental health issues before that. We had got through the first two years of business. Then we hit a hard six-month period and about three months after that we realised we weren’t going to get paid. We were left with debt to the tune of $120,000 and had to go into voluntary administration,’ he said.
And he’s not the only tradie to go out on their own and suffer – not because of their quality of work or staff, but because people don’t pay invoices on time – or at all. And chasing them up with lawyers is too costly an endeavour.
In fact, so many tradies struggle to get money out of clients that Shaun Jones, who has a business hiring out sub-contractors, started an invoicing business backed by a legal team to help.
Grunt Invoice Protection has only been going a few weeks but already signed on dozens of small businesses and helped them recoup funds.
San Muir, 40, headed down a dark road when his first business failed
His wife Larissa, pictured here with their daughter Matilda and son Hamish, remembers the hard times acutely – because she had to count the groceries at the checkout. This was when her daughter was a newborn
Shaun, 42, who lives on the Gold Coast was sick of dealing with bad debt. He would organise the tradies for jobs, get promised payment, get strung along and then realise the people he had been dealing with had sold up and left town without paying anyone.
‘You would chase them, legally, spend thousands on lawyers then find out they have no money,’ he said.
‘They usually star by paying on time or catch up the first time they are overdue but once they have the relationship with you they stop.’
He now has his business set up so Grunt Invoice Protection follows up late invoices and makes legal threats on his behalf.
Most businesses he’s dealt with have started paying on time since he started using Grunt Invoice Protection to chase up bills.
‘At the end of the day I have a wife and three boys to support and we would be in a lot better position if we got paid on time, or at all,’ he said.
‘Lots of these guys never have any intention of paying up. Which leave me having to juggle school fees and personal bills, because I pay everything else first.’
Shaun has known Dan for over a decade, and knew his story. So when he launched Grunt he was one of the first people who signed on.
Dan was earning $150k per year when he decided to roll the dice on his own business, and lost everything
When Dan decided to leave his job and go out on his own he was taking home $150,000 a year and had money in the bank. He was also about to become a dad.
After the collapse of his first business he was $120,000 behind, depressed and his relationship felt stretched.
He poured $250,000 into his business in the first two years, buying machinery, and was excited to be heading towards a lower-stress, ultra-flexible future.
Instead he was left with life-long what-ifs.
‘It still affects me today. I think what if people don’t pay and it all comes crashing down again.’
He’s now running a successful business in Tasmania. The couple relocated to the southern state so that his wife could have the support of her family, the next time they went into business.
Shaun Jones, 42, started Grunt Invoice Protection because he was sick of making up for bad debt by cutting his own income
The ‘bad debt’ cycle is ongoing.
He revealed that he has spent $10,000 recently chasing a $40,000 account.
‘Everything runs down hill, when you are at the bottom you don’t get paid,’ he said.
He’s taken a harder approach on businesses who don’t pay up on time and even signed up to Grunt Invoice Protection for a few big clients.
Businesses pay Grunt per invoice – but businesses don’t need to sign every client up.
Dan’s finally able to provide a good life for his family, which has grown by one since his first disastrous attempt.
‘I wont say I’m living the fairytale, business is just as hard as always been but I am in a much more stable position than ever,’ he said.
‘The majority of my clients are repeat – I think the fairy tale is exactly that a pipe dream sold to young entrepreneurs.
‘But having this business succeed is definitely a bit of redemption.’
Shaun hopes businesses like his and Dan’s will stop suffering with the help of his second venture.
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