I’m in the process of preparing to go bankrupt, court date is Monday 23rd August and by providing this submission, I think it’ll be as cathartic for me as I hope it will be useful to others.
Firstly, I have to say a massive thank you to Mark for setting up this site and to Ann Marie, who is helping me through the process.
I find myself in this situation for 2 reasons: 1) Over borrowing and too many credit cards when income was good and the payments were manageable 2) The impact of the recession on my training business.
I feel the important thing more me to recognize is the part I have played in reaching this situation and although I can look to a significant downturn in business being largely responsible for my circumstances, I am also responsible for not managing my finances as well as I could and by not preparing for a possible loss of income, I was, in effect, always planning to fail. The good news is I will hopefully learn from this.
The most difficult part of this process is that I have a relatively high profile in the local business community and the thought of my bankruptcy being reported in the press is a concern.
Also, in the past 12 months, I set up another business with a couple of partners, which is beginning to do well but due to my impending bankruptcy, I have had to resign from the company to become a paid employee. I must admit that this is a bit of blow to my ego also.
Fortunately, for many years, my work has involved coaching others in how to deal with difficult and challenging situations and by applying much of what I have shared with others, I have managed to manage my emotional state reasonably well. I’d be lying though if I didn’t say there are one or two evenings, when dark moments take over.
Although I am single and live on my own, I do have a lot of good friends and these have been a huge amount of support to me.
I continue to work extremely hard for the new business and although I do feel the pressure of the amount of hard work I’m putting in, combined with the challenge of trying to fend off my creditors and manage an extremely precarious financial situation, I ultimately know that this new business is my route to financial stability again, once I have been discharged from my bankruptcy obligations.
My advice for anyone in this situation is when you have dark moments, change your state, get out, do some exercise (I cycle a lot), occupy your mind with something to replace the negative, self-debilitating thoughts you might be having.
Thanks for reading my ramblings, I hope they help and good luck to everyone.
