Vitaly Tormazov's handyman business hit $1M revenue but nearly collapsed after embezzlement left it $600K in debt. To survive, leadership stopped cashing their paychecks. One employee, Tim, had $15K in unpaid checks while the company rehired and brought on seven Ukrainian refugees.
Over $1,000,000
22 employees
Over $600,000
40 people
Seven
To be in business, you have to be either crazy or stupid. My main guy embezzled. 40 people lost their jobs in one day, and it took me six months losing everything. I had this.
Handyman service does over a million dollars in annual revenue, but has 22 employees and has over $600,000 in debt and liabilities.
My name is Vitaly Tormazov, and as a company, we fill the gap between handyman and contractors. We had a whole bunch of this influx of Ukrainian refugees and we ended up bringing on seven. Some of the people from last year, they could not ad. So we ended up with 15 brand new people this year.
Was it kind of like a one time, like you had to kind of clear house, or was it a matter of like just massive amounts of churn happening consistently?
It was clear house type, really.
Okay. Okay.
Yeah. Every time we would bring a new person on, it would be a drop in our efficiency or revenue. About 60 to 80 grand. During some of the really lows I had, my leaders say not cash their checks for a couple of months. Tim, I think he had like 15 grand in checks piled up, just not cashing them. They just stepped up. They just stepped up. It's one of those you just say, lord, thank you.
Well, let's make some more money so.
They don't have to do that. Exactly.
