Im not having a go...

Lifeisbutadream

Hello all - I really did not expect to see this post back at the top I thought it had run its course, but will use this opportunity to give you an update.

Since I put the post on here a few weeks ago, I have popped back to read the bankruptcy threads a few times and some of them have actually got me in tears. I have also 'chatted' with people who bankruptcy has effected and I know for a fact that 99% of people are not abusing the system.

I think that I have been very unlucky. In two years of trading this is the only person that we have had a problem with and I really do believe that he deliberately did this, so even if we had taken a deposit, we would have been stung for the rest of it.

It has taught us a huge lesson. We are a very new business and as we are putting most of what we make straight back into the business, we are only making minimal profit at the moment, which was why this loss seemed so huge to us, but we will be OK. I certainly hope that I will never have to come on here and say that I am about to go bankrupt, but at least if I do, I know that there will be lots of friendly advice!

We each have our own problems and at the time of writing the first post on here, mine felt like the biggest problem in the world!

Thanks for all the advice given to me on here. I dont need anyone to justify their positions to me or anyone else. What is done is done. I wish everyone who is in the terrible position of going through bankruptcy or severe money problems the very best of luck.

OnTheEdge

I understand how you must of felt, i myself worked for a building company for 10 years.

The company became insolvent because we were owed in excess of £40,000.00 because of major insurance and loss adjusters bumped the company and left it to die.

I'm not comparing the business to yours in any shape of form, as the loss is just as great but on a smaller scale...being a family business.

Cruel World

Good Luck in the future.

Toto

And I wish you and your business the best of luck, sometimes these things are sent so we can learn from them, believe me, we have had our fair share of those... the main one which springs to mind was a last minute gig we did at Brixton Academy when we were a tiny baby company, which actually cost us over £3000 to do, that was with myself and my partner doing the entire thing ourselves. It was all to do with a very cheap supplier of ours bailing out on us 5 minutes after I had confirmed a price with the client and received the purchase order. So we then had to find an alternative supplier, but of course they were all twice the price. It was all a huge nightmare but the gig happened and we learnt valuable lessons from it and totally changed our business practice. If the event had been a large scale tour or something similar we would have gone out of business there and then. Then one day I found a massive mistake our book keeper had made with the VAT last January which meant we owed the VAT man 6k, so that had to be paid within 7 days of us discovering it (January is our worst cash flow month, December is manic but we never get paid until Feb. /march, however our crew and engineers won't wait until then so we need to pay them in January out of our cash... unexpected 6k vat bill in January = massive headache)

You sound as if you are on the right road now and I doubt you will ever need to declare bankruptcy. There is nothing wrong at all in plowing the profits back into the business, we have done that since day one, only taking expenses and what we need to survive. This is how we have built up a warehouse full of equipment and now have not a penny in finance.

Do make sure you have a steady cash flow or a contingency fund just in case work dries up for a bit or you have any more bad debtors, I know only too well how easy it is to want to put every last penny back in leaving nothing for emergencies and the like.

I hope I don't sound as if I am preaching, just passing on some of my business !!!! up stories so you can see it isn’t just you, we all go through these things at one point, some of us are lucky and can get through, some of us get hit really hard and that’s when things go wrong. There are many people on this board who have my fullest respect, they have gone through the worst situations imaginable with their businesses, they are all highly skilled and competent people who have had a ton of crap thrown at them but they all came out fighting and wanting to help others. Mike St Helens, Richard, Jock, Rog (did we ever find him? I miss our Rog) to name a handful. I read their stories and thank god that the sh** that hit our fan was of a smaller scale and we are still standing, this week, but who knows what tomorrow might bring?

definitelydrowning

I know this post should be dead and burried, but I just wanted to say that I would much rather my husband had never had the accident causing him to become disabled than for me to be "getting away with theft". I had only just started to loose the guilt I was feeling and begin to see that maybe I could keep going but after reading some of the comments made on here I feel sick. If I could afford to pay for life insurance my hubby would be making a claim tomorrow.

bizzylizzy

Some of the comments on this thread made me feel exactly the same way, it is only a very few people who think in that way but sometimes that's all it takes to bring back all those old feelings of guilt.
When I realised what was happening I decided not to re-read those comments and to try not to dwell on them either.
There were some replies defending us too! (Thank you)
My OH is disabled too and that is the reason for my BR so I sympathise with your situation. Put those ignorant comments out of your mind and try to get back to the place where you could see where you were going. You don't need to feel guilty, because you're not.

Toto

You guys need to stop with this guilt thing. Guilt about what? So you ran up some debt, welcome to the club, there are millions of people in the UK who have done exactly the same, you took a route which worked for you, the only viable option. You don't make the laws of this land, and the law says that you can declare yourself bankrupt and live with all of the associated problems that brings, in exchange for having your debt wiped out. Many of you have monthly payments still being made to the creditors, so even though you are bankrupt the creditors are still getting their monthly pint of blood.

You didn't ask for the life changes which caused you to struggle financially, you didn't ask for the creditors to load interest and charges backing you into a corner. The creditors know very well who is up to their necks in debt and who needs some help, do they assist you at all? No they just look to profit more from your heartache. So be proud that you have taken control and have dealt with your debt problems because I am proud of you all.