Been made redundant - thinking of starting a business, advice on Bankruptcy

Uncle_Jam

Hi all,

I'm very worried about my future - I have quite a large debt and have been in a debt management plan for about a year now and all was going well I managed to pay off £7000+ from my debt which I was really proud of then come the end of January I was made redundant....... I thought that I would be able to get a job but it is looking increasingly bleak [I'm not a pessimist but each day you here of another company laying off x amount of staff... worrying].

My Debt Management company have started paying token payments to my creditors to buy me some time to find employment.... I am not sure of how this will pan waiting to see how the creditors will take this.

The only thing I can think of doing is starting a small business [I am a good photographer and think I can make a living out of weddings and portraits etc] but I will need to buy some equipment and pay for some leaflets and business cards etc

Thing is I may not start getting enough orders and getting paid quick enough to stave off bankruptcy. The questions I wanted to ask are as follows:

1. If I buy equipment [computer items etc] with my very small redundancy pay off, will I be able to 'keep' them as tools of the trade if when applying for bankruptcy I only have orders for future... [currently only 1 wedding "booked"]. If I need the equipment they wont be able to take it will they?

2. How do I 'prove' that I need the equipment for self employed earning - again worried that I may not have had any paying customers by the time I may have to go bankrupt

3. I am ok to start a business as bankrupt aren't I?, [I will not need credit as I can run this from my home, if I upgrade some equipment with my redundancy payoff]

Ideally I don't want to go bankrupt but I have to think of it as a possibility and prepare myself in terms of my long term future...

Please help

Regards

Paul

fiveyearplan

Hi Paul

When are you thinking of going BR and have you taken advice? You could also give business debtline a call. I would have thought if you were a self employed photographer they wouldn't take your tools of the trade.

Yes, you can be self employed while bankrupt.

Uncle_Jam

fiveyearplan wrote: »

Hi Paul

When are you thinking of going BR and have you taken advice? You could also give business debtline a call. I would have thought if you were a self employed photographer they wouldn't take your tools of the trade.

Yes, you can be self employed while bankrupt.

I have not taken any advice yet I was thinking of calling the CCCS but I just wanted to get a feeling for it, basically I am going to do what I can to avoid bankruptcy as I'd like to pay my debts off myself if I can and didn't want to call someone before I had to [always worried that I'll make a snap decision that I'll regret...]

The thing that worries me is that I may have only done a couple of Job by then and only have a few future orders, when if I have to I apply for bankruptcy I am scared that they won't consider my venture as a source of income and take my tools, meaning I would lose any ability to source income...

... I'm not enjoying this there seems so much uncertainty and ambiguity about what would happen - this credit crunch / recession is very scary - 1000's of more jobs on the line in the car industry / tax revenue down by billions.... not a great place to be at the moment

Thanks

fiveyearplan

Uncle_Jam wrote: »

... I'm not enjoying this there seems so much uncertainty and ambiguity about what would happen - this credit crunch / recession is very scary - 1000's of more jobs on the line in the car industry / tax revenue down by billions.... not a great place to be at the moment

Thanks

That would worry me starting a new business in this climate.

tigerfeet2006

As FYP says have a chat with Businesness Debtline a ring and have a chat with them, see link and no. in my sig. Unfortunatly we cannot predict what an individual OR is going to say. What one thinks is fine another might say no too.

Also have a chat with Business Link about setting up a business and what it involves. If you can show you have been responsible and you are getting proper advice about running a business it can only be good.

http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home?domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk&target=http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/

Uncle_Jam

tigerfeet2006 wrote: »

Also have a chat with Business Link about setting up a business and what it involves. If you can show you have been responsible and you are getting proper advice about running a business it can only be good.

Sounds Like good advice, in General how harsh are OR's..... And if it meant that I had to sell items that I needed to gain an income, can I appeal against the decision?

Thanks for everything so far.

Paul