Big Business with Brittney SaundersROBBERY!!! That is the topic on today's bonus episode of Big Business. What a week it has been dealing with police, broken doors and stolen goods at Fayts brand new Parramatta store. How do you move forward after something like this happens to your business, well Britt is giving you the full scoop.
LINKS
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- Instagram @brittney_saunders
- TikTok @brittney_saunders
- Check out FAYT The Label HERE.
CREDITS
Host: Brittney Saunders.
Senior Producer: Xander Cross
Managing Producer: Elle Beattie
Find more great podcasts like this at novapodcasts.com.au and follow Nova Podcast's Instagram @novapodcastsofficial
Hi, I'm Britney Saunders and welcome to Big Business Today. You are listening to one of my bonus episodes. And you know what, I always say that I spilled the tea on this podcast, and that's what I'm doing today. Although it's not really tea, it's.
Actually really real. But I've had an absolute week last week.
Last week was like a year for me in business, like so many things happened.
Well actually even going back to like.
The week prior, so the week prior we launched Glazy and that was huge, and then the week after that we opened our Paramatta store and within that first week.
Being open, we got broken into. Then we had our Black Friday sale and we had our Christmas party.
So all these things happened within the space of two weeks. A lot fucking happened, and a lot happened like just last week. And what was crazy was it happened on well, we got broken into on like the Sunday night, So we opened the store on the Wednesday and got broken into on the Sunday night, So we hadn't even been open for a fucking week and that happened. And by the end of last Monday, I said to aj, it's only fucking Monday, like, and I feel like this has been a week already. Business isn't easy, Like you can't have everything go amazingly every single week of the year. Like shit is gonna come your way and really test you. Uh, and it's something that you simply can't avoid. And I think it's just I don't want to say it's like really good character building to be broken into, but like when shit hits the fan in your business, it's all about like how you respond and react to it and how you move forward. And I think if anyone out there listening is inspired to make a business or they've been thinking about it, just like no in your mind that like it's going to test you like nothing else, and you have to be ready to have shit happen, and shit literally hit the fan, and you have to be prepared to move forward after it happens. Us getting broken into like it's a messed up thing and I'm obviously not gonna let it break me, but I could see like a lot of people being in that position and having something like that completely break you in saying that it could have been a million times worse. I'm going to tell you a bit about the break in and how it all happened and everything, Like someone did a post in our Fate Society community group like the day that it happened, because we obviously announced it on social media like first thing in the morning, just to say like we're being broken into unfortunately wear clothes until we can figure this out.
And someone said, you know, like oh, everyone was really lovely. Like people just been like so sorry this happened.
Fuck, you haven't even been open for a week, Like people were saying, we write at dawn for Fate, Like it was so nice, like even though it was a shit situation, it reminded me like how wonderful of a community we are surrounded by. And someone said, like, I hope Calma gets those people that did it, And I wrote back to that person, I said, honestly, like, in a way, I feel like I think the people that did what they did, I think Krma's already got them because they're spending their time at one am on a Sunday slash Monday morning breaking into local businesses, like CARMA's already fucking got them, Like they don't need to get be got by Karma because look at what they're doing like, why do I almost feel fucking bad? Anyway, this is in our first time getting broken into. This is the second time this year. And I think I've aready spoken about this on the pod when our cafe got broken into. Maybe it was on High Scroll as my other podcast that I spoke about it, but yeah, our cafe got broken into again, like breaking the door earlier this year, and again I was like, I feel kind of sorry for the guy because when our cafe got broken into, like he just took the till which might have like a hundred bucks in it or whatever, and he took like a drink out of the fridge. I'm like, just fucking ask me for a drink and I'll bloody give you one, you know, if you're that desperate. But yeah, we absolutely weren't being We weren't expecting obviously getting fucking broken into less than a week in opening our store. And I think the thing that I was worried about the most is how this would make our brand new team feel like we've got eleven new employees in our PARAMOUNTA store and it's their first week of working in this brand new job, in this brand new store, and like my number one concern is how it made them feel, like I don't want my staff to feel unsafe. It just I don't know, it makes you feel kind of sick in that way, and then I worry that, you know, the team feel a little unsettled. And literally every night since then, so today's Monday that I'm recording this, it happened last Monday, so a week ago. Every night since then, I wake up like two to three times in the night and I jump on our cameras like every night because I'm just so like scared it's gonna happen again. Not that it will, because like the door is fucking fixed and even more secure, but it's just, I guess given me a little bit of like a worry in that way where I'm waking up two to three times every night, going to the toilet, checking the fucking cameras, like okay, everything is all good. But yeah, that was my big concerned to come out of it was the way that they feel. And someone commented on our posts like when we announced that we were closed, and they were like, I'd love for you to talk about this on Big Business, and I'm like, well, you know what, I've actually had that thought too. But let me fucking deal with this store first, and then I'll talk about it on the pod. When it comes to the security of your store and your business, that you can do all the right things. Like even for the first whole week of Paramounta being open, we paid a security guard company to come and like be in our store so that we had a security guard there just for safety measures. And it's a brand new store and it's on a busy street where lots of different walks of life walk past. We obviously have our security cameras all throughout the store that are taping twenty four hours a day kind of thing. But like when it comes down to it, when you have a physical shop, doesn't matter what kind of shop it is, if you've got a shop front, if someone wants to smash a business's window, they're gonna.
Smash a business's window. Like it's just that's the way it is.
And like you see all the time, like I'm in heaps of like Newcastle Community Facebook grind and stuff, and you see all the time like business is being smashed into and stuff being stolen, and it's just like really disappointing at the end of the day. So it definitely like threw us all at the start of next week, and I was coming down to Sydney anyway to do my podcasts like I do every Monday, and then I'm messaging the Nova team like I can't come to Nova. I've got to go to Paramatter and sort this shit out. But we sorted it all. The door was fixed, and the good thing is, like they could have done a lot worse damage, Like they could have actually damaged the whole fit out, which costs so much money. So they didn't damage any of our fit out, thank goodness, because then that would have resulted in us having to actually be shut for a long time until it got fixed.
So I'm so.
Glad, Like we've got all those beautiful curtains like in the entryway and the change rooms, I'm so glad no one like swung on them and ripped them down because they're like custom made. So what they ended up getting away with was thirty something pieces of clothing.
Going is that all?
Well, they were only in there for four minutes, so thirty something pieces of clothing, and they had a trolley out the front, so they were just like fucking loading that shit up. So we keep our glazies, Like our glazy stock isn't on the floor, it's like in draws behind the counter kind of thing. So they went through all the draws behind the counter and took a heap of like glazy stock, and then we thought they had like ripped out and taken our point of sale. But because it's all like connected, like, they didn't end up getting any pieces of it, which is so good because AJ was like watching it on the camera kind of thing and thought they'd taken the point of sale. So when we announced it we were closed, we were like, our point of sale is gone. Then I had like shop a firing and me going, do you need another point of sale? But by the time I got there, I was like, oh, the pause is still there. It was just kind of all thrown all over the place. They took an iPad and our till other than that, like that's pretty much it. And it's like that's still fucked like thirty something pieces of bloody clothing. If all those things are eighty dollars each, like that's still thousands of dollars. But it could have been a whole lot worse. And I'm so thankful that it wasn't. And I'm just thankful that like no one was there and it was in the middle of the night because we called the police and whatever, like we weren't allowed to touch anything, so like going into the store and just seeing everything like everywhere, it's like not a really nice feeling. So we like, you create a police report online these days. So like we called and then they said, like, create a report online and then we'll have people come there today. They didn't actually end up getting there until like maybe one o'clock.
So I just waiting there all day.
Yeah, like come on, because I thought I was going to be able to be there in the morning and then sort it out and then come to do the podcast.
But I was like, I can't make it to do the podcast.
So we had like builders and everything, like the real estate agent come down. We had to get all new keys cut and like changed all the key locks kind of thing.
And then the.
Builder came and he was just working on the door. And then the first person to come was forensick, so she came and just like put all that. It was actually kind of fascinating really, like all the powder that they brush all over everything and then all the fingerprints show up and so there was clear fingerprints like all over the point of sale, even like all over the glass door where.
They like touched it. Yeah it is.
And on the footage, the person had a plastic bag on as a dress with their arms like.
Poking at sand, just pissing himself.
And they had a plastic bag only on one hand though, like and it was a plastic bag just like I don't know, wear some gloves or something.
I don't know.
Anyway, they left fingerprints all over like a lot of stuff. So the forensic came, did all the dusting, put all the stickers everywhere, and like took all the.
Photos kind of thing.
And then two police officers came in the afternoon, and then I just basically had to screen record like the five minutes that the person was in there, like and I literally air dropped them the videos. It's so casual because they just got their like work iPhones.
Like you just air dropped me that footage.
I'm like sure, Like you don't want me to like put into Google Drive and send to an official email, just air dropping it to your phone. So I air dropped all those videos to them and just like walk them through what happened kind of thing. And all the stuff that they stole and pretty much from there, like not much is really gonna happen that this is like I don't know. I think it would depend on the severity of break ins, Like I don't know case to case, but they said essentially what they do is just obviously take the fingerprints away, run it through their system kind of thing. They take the footage, like you can clearly see who the person was that like did the break in because the camera's really good night vision.
They didn't cover their face. I know, their face is just in full view.
So they basically like take all the footage and stuff and it goes through their whole system. They try and match it like they ask everyone kind of thing. And they kind of just said, like you might hear from us, like you could hear from us in like twelve months kind of thing, like if something pops up and like connects two things together in their system. And that was like pretty much like then we put the shop back together. We could touch everything after the forensic had been so we just put the shop back together. The door got fixed by the end of the day, and then I just was so scared to leave, so I left all the lights on, so it was like broad daylight in there overnight and then yeah, I literally drove back home to Newcastle and like it's one of those scenarios where like it's so fucked up and it makes you feel sick that like someone has just come in and ripped through like your business that you've worked so hard on.
They don't give a fuck about that.
But it's one of those things where like there's actually nothing you can do about it, like it's done. Like when you've been broken into, it's done, Like the same when our cafe got broken into. There's it's out of your control, the breaking has happened, the stuff has been stolen, Like there's nothing you can really do.
We probably could go like through our insurance.
And stuff like, which I haven't done, you know, because I'm like, oh, we've got an fucking going on, like take the bloody thirty buttery teas.
I don't know, Like it's just one of those things.
It's not a nice feeling and it's one of those things that you obviously never want to fucking experience. But I guess I'm always talking about like risk in business, and like being in business is a risk every single day and I guess this is a risk that I choose to take when we open physical stores. Like it's one thing to have an online business and you've got your warehouse. Like, sure people can break into a warehouse as well, but if you're opening up shops where people are looking at them and you know, they can see the stock through the window, it doesn't matter what business it is. Like, that's a risk that you take when you open a store, is that maybe one day someone's going to break into it. And in terms of my advice for people, like obviously make sure that your business is fully fucking locked and like that the door can't be broken into. This whole thing kind of falls back on the person that installs the door in the first place.
Not that the landlord and real.
Estate agent would want to take blame for that, and there was a bit of that on the day, but just ensure that like everything is locked and safe. It's really hard, like especially with our store, like our clothes are just out in the open. It's not like at the end of the day we can lock all of our clothes the way out the back, you know. So that's just one of those things where people are walking past and looking through the window, they're going to see that our stock is there. But definitely keep all of your valuables like in a safe out the back, like we have safes out the back of every single one of our stores, like big heavy things that no one can bloody.
Lift and they're locked.
But you know, I guess us being really relaxed with all about other stores, like the iPad was at the counter, you know, just little things like that.
So now it's been.
A good reminder, like we've done a massive send out to all of our stores, like you need to put the iPad in the bloody safe every single day. But other than that, like have good cameras. I know I've spoken about security cameras before. I don't know if I've spoken about them on here, but just like paying that money to have good security cameras. If you ever, like are in a situation where you need that footage, it's going to help you a lot.
And yeah, like do everything that you can.
But like I said at the start of this episode, like if you've got a physical store whatever it's cafe, a restaurant, a shop, whatever it is, and if people can see it from outside, like it's we're never going to be able to stop them from smashing in a window or you know, breaking and entering. But you can definitely do little things to make your business more safe. So I guess I can add this to the bucket list of things that I've experienced in my business, getting broken into not even a week into a store opening, and I had so many people commenting and saying, I hope this hasn't put a bad taste in your mouth about Western Sydney. I'm like not at all, Like this shit could happen no matter where you are. Our Cafe Newcastle's being broken into, like it doesn't matter geographically, Like people do bad stuff all the time, and it sucks that it happened. I feel really terrible for the team that they may have felt like invaded in a way.
But it's all about how you.
Pick yourself up and move forward, and it's all about how you display yourself to your team as well. So I made sure when I went in there on the Monday that I wasn't like freaking out and screaming and running around, like you know, remain cool, calm and collected and do all the things that you need to do to keep the thing moving forward. So that's a little update on my paramatter break in and touch wood that I never have to experience it again because it's just not a nice feeling. And thank you so much to everyone that sent lovely comments our way. And the good thing is we were open the next day, so it's back to business as usual,
