Sunday, March 21, 2021

Into every business a Cortina must fall © by adrian

I’ve owned studios and photo-finishing operations for almost forty-five years of my life’s career and as I look around in this maddening Covid world I can’t imagine for a moment how small businesses survive these days. Reminiscing about how I managed to stay afloat in a non-Covid world leads me to share this story.

I think people mostly feel that being good at what you do is what's needed to stay in business, but it’s much more than that. Anybody who’s ever worked for themselves quickly learns there are a myriad of factors and in my case having some extremely flexible landlords, bank managers and a Cortina are what kept me going.  We’ll get to each in due course, but just for the record I’m referring to the last car made in Brittan by the Ford Motor Company called the “Cortina”.

I realize that in my profession knowing how to focus a camera is vaguely important but great landlords are first on my list of assets. I've been blessed with some wonderful landlords who more or less understood that not bending to the seasonal sway of my economy wouldn't help their bottom line and they were mostly agreeable to a more flexible rental arrangement than they were used to. The last studio I had before retiring lasted over fifteen years thanks in no small part to the landlord I had who was a very patient saint indeed. Prior to him, serendipity gave me a good run thanks to many members of the black community in Toronto. Their patronage fed, clothed and housed me for many years (see my story "Accidentally black").

Next in line were bank managers who nowadays are a very different breed than they were 45 years ago. Back then "small business" meant just that. I worked mostly on my own but at times had a small staff of three or four people. The biggest financial shortage a bank needed to help cover for me was maybe $1,500 for a month every once in awhile, usually in hunks of 300 to 400 dollars at a time. The way it used to work was that if the manager was really mad at you he would send cheques back NSF but there was a mid point that if he (sorry, but it was always a he back then) wanted to just remind you who was in charge he would send it back "Not Arranged" which really meant I didn't have enough to cover it and had failed to go see him and arrange for him to cash it. A Not Arranged cheque could be presented again once I "arranged" for him to cash it. It was all very individual and machinery was not involved. Banks also used to rotate managers fairly often, I assumed so they wouldn't get too chummy with the clientele. That always meant setting up a meeting with the new manager and hoping you could convince him of your viability as a successful business investment. Like all things human, some managers were difficult and others more flexible. Unfortunately, it seemed to have little to do with your business but mostly depended on whether they liked you or not.

One of my earliest bank managers drove race cars as a hobby and for some unknown reason while I was young I thought I might try my hand at the wheel. That's funnier than it sounds because my knowledge of cars is mostly based on what colour they are. My bride's car is red, mine is blue and it's always been a mystery how they could both claim to be made by the same manufacturer seeing as they are different colours. Anyway, I would always sound enthused and animated about his hobby whenever I went to beg him for money. He loved my show and rarely turned me down.

My next bank manager lasted more than six wonderful years. He and my Cortina hit it off and although it was up on blocks and I couldn't drive it, they had an intimate relationship which kept me going for years. I owned about $15,000 worth of studio equipment, lights, large format cameras and professional darkroom equipment but I could never get a bank to touch it as collateral. None of them ever saw the possibility of being able to sell any of it if my business went south.

The Cortina, as mentioned, was made in Britain and one of the mysteries of British cars is that they were never able to start in damp weather. Odd really, considering how damp it is in Britain. It could be 100 degrees and sunny but if I got near that sucker with a glass of water, it simply wouldn't start. Earlier in my life I had an MGA which worked fine, but with that car you could always hop out and slip a crank in it and start it up that way. You did risk the chance of kickback and possibly breaking an arm, but you got to wave at everybody else who owned one (as long as your arm was intact). My first wife and I drove from Toronto to California in the MGA without a problem. However the Cortina turned out to be useless to drive but a real gift for my business.

The first time I needed more cash flow with this manager he wrote the car up as collateral and I was set. When I finally gave up on continuing to try to use the Cortina as a vehicle, I rented a garage for $8 a month and parked it. From then on anytime I needed a financial bump there would be a one minute conversation which consisted of the manager asking if I still had the Cortina and as soon as I said yes, no problem, money flowed my way. During that time, including the cost of the garage rental, it was probably worth $50 but somehow he consistently loaned me thousands of dollars on it.

One day he was gone and I had to start over. The new manager could not for the life of him understand how anyone could earn a living taking provocative pictures of strangers. Worse than that, I did photofinishing for other professional photographers and he refused to grasp why photographers would bring film to me when all they had to do was drop their rolls off at the local drugstore as far as he was concerned. For the first few months I had a rough time with him, but one magic day everything changed.

I don't know about your god, but mine has a fine sense of humour. She sometimes goes too far, as in " A pandemic, really? You think this is funny?" Generally speaking though, I have to say she's often good for a laugh. This time she gave me a very unexpected gift.

I was having dinner in a darkly lit off the beaten track restaurant with my girlfriend of the time and in walked my new and difficult bank manager closely followed by one of his female tellers. He didn't notice me and after being led to a table proceeded to gently caress her shoulders as he helped her out of her coat. Walking to the coat rack he almost passed out when he noticed me and we nodded to each other. Fortunately my companion and I had finished our dinner so we left, allowing him to go back to his rendezvous without us watching.

A few days later he gave me a call out of the blue and wanted to know if I would mind giving him some time so he could come over to check out my studio. I assumed he was actually hoping to check out whether I would be a problem to him or not. Well, having spent my life photographing people in compromising positions, discretion is hardly a stretch for me. As he toured my place and pretended to listen to my answers to pertinent financial business questions, I asked if he would like his portrait taken and wondered that if I got a good shot would he mind if I put it in my window as a sample. He agreed and I was sure I heard my god giggling in the sidelines. Of course I said nothing about seeing him and his employee the other night. It was a great coup to have a picture of the local bank manager in my studio window and for some strange reason he now understood I had a viable business and I always got whatever I asked for in the way of credit lines. Stranger still, he never thought to ask for any collateral.

If you're planning on opening a business soon, it would certainly be good if you have some close friends who can financially help you out on occasion. Forget about trying to find your bank manager in a compromising position, forget about spread sheets or financial business plans and get to a wreckers to find yourself a Cortina. You'll need to get it towed to your place because you won't be able to drive it, but you never could anyway. Let your bank know right away you have one. They are worth their weight in gold.