Page 27 - PWM2025_SEPTEMBER EBOOK

BETTER BUSINESS

earth. We owned all the shops we on the business’ 20th birthday.” But
traded from and had around £1.4m if there’s a positive to be spun out of
in unencumbered assets. We had an the story, it’s the ethics of Mason’s
overdraft of £250,000. The bank had team. They were “exceptional… bet-
a floating charge and standard secu- ter than I ever realised”.
rity over all properties.” With hind- He tells how the administrators
sight, he says that keeping the were slow to close the website leav-
properties in the business was bad ing hundreds of orders able to be
advice. placed. “The team were assembled,
But, by 2013, the business had and in front of my wife and I, were
turned around and was “back in the advised the business was finished.
black... those incredibly tough trad- They were all told to go home, the
ing years had paid off”. business was closed.”
However, Mason points out that The response from the staff was
the business had run out of cash: “We emphatic. “‘That’s not how it works
had cash reserves in excess of half a here’ one of them shouted, and they
million in the good days. It was gone. all went back to work, unpaid, to
We were asset rich, cash poor, at the ensure that our customers were not
maximum overdraft.” let down. That haunts me and will
Given that ‘cash is king’, it’s nota- until the day I die.”
ble that the bank wouldn’t re-mort- Given his experience, not unsur-
gage or release the secu-rity to allow prisingly, Mason has clear view of
the firm to go to another lender. how business failure is considered in
“Anyone with a limited company the UK.
knows the fine line around solvent He worries that “the education sys-
trading. My hand had been forced.” tem from the get-go teaches us that
He claims that the bank knew they failure is bad and has to be avoided at
could get out without loss and so sent all costs. But ask any entrepreneur
in the administra-tors because, as and they’ll tell you that failure is an
Mason comments, “even after their es-sential part of the journey. The key
fees there was still a dividend paid to is fail fast, learn quick, get back up
creditors”. and make damn sure you learn from
Mason could have fought the those mistakes.”
banks, but he “was done, drained and If he were to advise someone run-
an emotional wreck”. ning a business, where times are cur-
And this is why he didn’t attempt rently good, he would say to plan.
bounce back.” to get the business back from the “Prepare for the storm and get
In essence, as he tells it, his “arrogance allowed competitors to not just administrators. your five-year vision clear in your
catch up, but to overtake”. Beyond his mental state was, he head. If you don’t know the planned
Of the weaknesses that caused the collapse, Mason thinks he was the says, his own moral compass. He destination, how the hell can you
greatest: “I went from being the biggest asset to becoming its biggest liabil- cites comments in Printweek around plan the journey? Be prepared for
ity.” 2008-2011 where he proffered dis- change. The economy will change,
And this was because he says he was “accountable to no one. That’s okay tinct views about pre-packs and the market will change, business will
when 95% of the decisions and strategies are working well, not so much phoe-nix companies. change, so the plan must change to
when the tide starts to turn”. “The industry was rife with it. I be able to adapt.”
Success masked the errors being made, a point driven home – pun was done. I was seriously damaged To this he adds, “know your num-
intended – when Mason details that he had an Aston Martin sitting in the goods and just wanted the pain to go bers and always check and know
driveway of a large country home. away.” what ‘advisors’ are doing for you. You
But bank reserves were dwindling. Yet, as he says, “the arrogance was that Consequently, he lost everything: don’t need to understand it, but you
‘everything would bounce back’. When the stress piles on, the creative spark the business, his home, everything. bloody well need to know it and ask
gets smothered. The more stressed I got the less creative I got, the less crea- But as he comments, “by not pre- ques-tions.”
tive I got, the more stressed I became”. packing or creating a phoenix, at Mason has written a book on his
The bank stuck the knife inMason’s situation was made worse, in his least I kept my self-respect”. experience How To Wreck Your
view, by the attitude of the banks. “Shocking, im-moral and illegal” are how And as if to stick the knife in fur- Business. Sure, it’s a source of
he describes them. ther, Mason says “the administrators income for him, but he’s keen that
“We had struggled from 2009 to 2013, really struggled, it was hell on pointed out that they were appointed others don’t fail as he did.

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