Sorry, long one here.
So about 5 months ago, the company I was working for went bust and let myself and my team go on two weeks notice.
I had two weeks to get my shit together and find another job, but I had been contemplating starting my own company (concrete) for quite some time as I have years and years of experience in my industry and had been encouraged by alot of Co workers to do so.
So I thought fuck it, I had 500 bucks to my name and registered my business and approached several clients from my previous company about the prospect of work and thankfully, I managed to pick up 3 regular clients as they were very familiar with my work and I cracked into it.
I worked by myself pouring concrete for the first month and managed to secure a good 2 months of work ahead of me so I hired two of my previous co workers and paid them an extra $5 per hour than our frugle old company used to give us.
So things had been going well and one of my regular clients I had been reluctant to work for as they are a huge corporate based operation who are notorious for underpaying their staff and overworking them. Not to mention treating their sub contractors like peasants and trying to claim ownership over them so to speak.
We had been doing some odd jobs for them here and there, my point of contact was a jumped up private school asshole who thought the world was beneath him, he barked orders at us constantly and micro managed our projects as if we were children, severely lacking any hands on experiencein the worl we do. I could see it wearing my guys down and they were losing motivation working for this guy, no appreciation for our long hours trying to deliver these projects to them in a ridiculous short time frame and nit picking our work constantly (I gotta say, we do fantastic work).
So 3 days ago, we were due to start a new project for them in the afternoon so we were organizing our gear and tidying up a private job we had just finished when this 'kyle' called me. He said the job had been postponed for another day or two and demanded that we immediately get over to one of their work sites to assist a crew with an asphalt footpath as they had 10 WORKERS quit within the week due to the company's refusal to give pay rises.
I explained that if our project was not ready yo start that we could better utilize our time working on jobs for other clients as we are not his employed staff and he cannot just delegate us to help one of his in house teams with no notice. He immediately said he wants a meeting, so I asked where and agreed to head over there, I was very prepared to let this guy have it.
We arrived and it was clear pretty quickly he was PISSED. He explained that if a job had been canceled or postponed, we have a responsibility to take on whatever else he has for us, even if it means us going to help one of his teams with their work. I cut him off mid sentence: “Thats not how this works. We are happy to take on jobs for you guys but you cannot call me with no notice, barking orders down the phone as if we are employees of your company, because we are not. We are sub contractors and based off your protocols, we accept jobs via email beforehand and agree on scheduling, we have other clients we need to look after, if you want to continue our relationship, you need to understand that respect goes both ways”
He exploded.
He immediately lost his composure and was shouting that I can't speak to him like that and I need to take some time to think about the situation.
I calmly replied that I had given it plenty of thought and I refuse to roll over on the issue and perhaps it should be him that thinks it over and gets back to me.
He raised his finger to my face and again told me I have no right to speak to him like that, so I told him “it's in your best interest to get your finger the fuck out of my face, right now.”
He turned around and stormed back to his truck and took off.
Needless to say, I received an email a few hours later saying our business relationship had ended lol.
My two guys and I shook hands and celebrated. FUCK that guy and the bullshit company he works for, breaking the backs of hard working people only to pay them less than the livable wage!
We still have two regular clients and just managed to secure a 1500m concrete driveway (Holy shit).
So yeah, not the most exciting story, but I'm so proud of us as a company, maintaining our integrity infront of a guy we would have rolled over and showed our belly to, as employees in the past.
Have a great weekend people.