‘On this exact date, my Ocean St business will fail’

A Sunshine Coast business owner has revealed the exact date his restaurant will fail and he fears there may be nothing he can do to stop it.

Chris Pyatt from Pum's Kitchen says his small business is doomed to fail and there’s nothing he can do.

ON TUESDAY, May 25, 2021, Chris Pyatt's Ocean St business will crash, and there's little he can do to stop it.

The owner of Maroochydore restaurant Pum's Kitchen has just over 18 months to save his business.

For the past four years, Chris and his wife Pum have worked on the smell of an oil rag, their day starting before the school drop-off, and continuing long into the evening.

It's a small business that increased its profit margins by 40 per cent in its second year, and now sits pretty with the lofty rating on No. 1 as the Sunshine Coast's best Thai restaurant, according to TripAdvisor.

Mr Pyatt says he is never late on his rent, never late on his lease, and always pays his four casual staff on time.

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So why is this business success story going to fail?

"The banks don't want to know us," Mr Pyatt said.

"We can't get a home loan."

"They tell us 'even though we know you can afford it, we can't help you'.

"We've tried everyone too, Westpac, ANZ, everyone."

The Pyatts, and their two young children, are currently housed in a small two-bedroom flat paying $510 rent per week.

They're living "in stress", unable to afford luxury items, their children are banned from owning pens or pencils in case they draw on walls, prompting a sudden eviction.

In 2017 the couple could have bought a home in the Harmony Estate in 2017 for $315,000. Now that home is now selling for $360,000.

"We can save money, but we are working desperately poor," he said.

Chris Pyatt from Pum's Kitchen says running a small business is a struggle.

"The home we are after, we're talking absolute bottom rung. A three-bed close to

Maroochydore for work. But at the moment we are pushed to the limit.

"We put down an $80,000 investment to start up the business, why aren't we treated the same as if that was a house deposit? Setting up a small business has been detrimental.

"If we were able to borrow against the house, we'd be able to grow our business, thus creating more employment.

"But right now, our employees can buy a house and we can't."

Pum's Kitchen, a 22sq m, hole-in-the-wall fit-out is found opposite the Strike bowling alley in the Big Top Shopping complex.

The lunch rush might die down, but the work is ongoing, where the pair are seen sweating up a storm prepping meals for the evening trade.

The dedicated family desperately want the business to succeed - they harbour plans of expansion and increasing their workforce - but what cost will it come at?

"We've had to move five times in five years. Mentally my wife is at breaking point. It's affecting our kids too.

"The fact remains, our business will die at the end of our lease if we can't get enough equity.

"We are surviving, just.

"But we are at the mercy of the banks, we need some sort of legislative concessions."

Mr Pyatt said most small business owners who don't own equity, were also struggling.

He called for better tax concessions to the GST his business generates.

"Investment properties do not generate GST, nor do they generate payroll tax or employment.

"Yet the tax concessions investors get for their property far outweighs the tax concession small business owners get from producing employment.

"This needs to change."

Originally published as ‘On this exact date, my Ocean St business will fail’