Monthly Archives: August 2010

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.

I guess my financial issues began several years ago following a divorce. I was left in a 5 bedroom house with no job and had lost me two young boys but I was adamant not to lose the house. I eventually began a new career in a business coaching franchise, which cost money to enter, so my financial problems became larger – I felt at the time that this could be me last ditched effort to make the money I needed (circa £7k pm) to keep the boat afloat.

I remarried and have a beautiful daughter but at the beginning of 2008 recruitment into the franchise began to slow down and my franchisees were not making the income they could have so my income began falling. Still being stubborn and ignoring the inevitable outcome I tried to keep trading, borrowing funds against the house, to try to keep going. I did not see that I had any option. Eventually in June 2008 I ceased trading as a limited company and eventually filed for bankruptcy in December 2009 with debts of just over £100k.

I took advice from the CAB but felt that as they had not been through the process themselves I would have to face the process alone. I didn’t find your site until it was too late.

The day in court was harrowing (I don’t even have any driving points!) but decided to attend myself and take responsibility for my predicament. The hearing took about 5 minutes and the judge was fine. Then the official Receiver took over and all the months of harassing phone calls from creditors stopped. I am just about coming to terms, emotionally, with the stigma of bankruptcy and hope to avoid family breakdown by talking to my wife. I still have no job/career at the age of 48 and still a bankrupt. I don’t know what the future holds but I will keep going.

As I write this I am preparing to move out of my home of 9 years and hand the keys bank to the bank and move, with family financial help, to a rented property. I am doing car boot sales, eBay etc to get as much cash as possible but feel that this move may allow me to move on. I believe most things happen for a reason but haven’t figured the reason for this just yet!

There is more life during and after bankruptcy than before and I feel it is vital to seek some sort of discussion forum from those trustworthy people who have been through the process. Best wishes to all of you who need to go through bankruptcy you will make it through but do try to seek support from family, friends etc.