S
Sinking
Guest
Hello All,
Here’s my story and I’m just looking for a bit of guidance, my business is sinking and I think I’m just prolonging the inevitable but to be honest if I could even get there in one piece I’d be happy. I own a small business in a small town, and during the years up to 08 we were doing alright, not making much but we had a few employees and we were able to pay all our suppliers and bills on time, but then in 08 there was a big slowdown but we though it was just things levelling off and continued as normal absorbing any losses then in 09 things got worse again. We made a lot of cutbacks and regrettably now we pumped a lot of money via loans and an overdraft into the business which we able to pay back at the time but we just needed the business to pick up a bit as we (my wife and my self ) have little to fall back on if our business fails.
Now here I am in May and to be honest life has been pure hell for the last year and a half, I haven’t slept much and dreams have been turned into nightmares about whose going to ring looking for money tomorrow. It’s been a real grind getting up for work everyday 6 or 7 days a week knowing there’s not enough money coming through the door to justify been open but I can’t really afford to close because of my borrowings.
I owe the bank €10,000 overdraft and about €13,000 in a short term loan my account is nearly always at the 10,000 mark and there is no leeway I had a cheque returned yesterday because it was €4 over my limit even though I made a lodgement the next day of €1,100. I have personal loans of about €20,000 all down to the business just to keep things afloat (or prolong the agony) all of these are personal guarantees. Then I owe suppliers about €40,000. I have stock with a retail value of about €70,000 (cost €40,000) and assets and equipment of about €10,000 but at the moment sales are so low at the moment I barely have enough to cover the ESB bill and make a few repayments and the VAT cheque every 2 months is a nightmare. Even if things picked up a few thousand it would make a great difference to me, but I’m saying that for the last year and a half and no sign of improvement.
Things I feel are going to come to a head soon my company accounts need to be filed by the end of this month and as I still owe my accountant money from last year which I just can’t gather together to pay him. I do my own books and know there’s nothing due in corporation tax but maybe a little in vat. I’ve talked to liquidators but they would cost between €6,000 and €10,000 which I haven’t got but even if that happens I still owe my private borrowings but then with absolutely no way of paying them back. I’ve tried looking for a job but with little success even though I have qualifications and plenty of experience in business.
At this stage life is just hell and there’s been plenty of tears over this but if anyone has any advice as the best way to steer our way out of this, anything would be appreciated as we just can’t see any hope with interest rates going up and the next budget looking to suck more money from people we just can’t see the business improving no matter what type of sales we have or amount of advertising we use.
Thanks
Here’s my story and I’m just looking for a bit of guidance, my business is sinking and I think I’m just prolonging the inevitable but to be honest if I could even get there in one piece I’d be happy. I own a small business in a small town, and during the years up to 08 we were doing alright, not making much but we had a few employees and we were able to pay all our suppliers and bills on time, but then in 08 there was a big slowdown but we though it was just things levelling off and continued as normal absorbing any losses then in 09 things got worse again. We made a lot of cutbacks and regrettably now we pumped a lot of money via loans and an overdraft into the business which we able to pay back at the time but we just needed the business to pick up a bit as we (my wife and my self ) have little to fall back on if our business fails.
Now here I am in May and to be honest life has been pure hell for the last year and a half, I haven’t slept much and dreams have been turned into nightmares about whose going to ring looking for money tomorrow. It’s been a real grind getting up for work everyday 6 or 7 days a week knowing there’s not enough money coming through the door to justify been open but I can’t really afford to close because of my borrowings.
I owe the bank €10,000 overdraft and about €13,000 in a short term loan my account is nearly always at the 10,000 mark and there is no leeway I had a cheque returned yesterday because it was €4 over my limit even though I made a lodgement the next day of €1,100. I have personal loans of about €20,000 all down to the business just to keep things afloat (or prolong the agony) all of these are personal guarantees. Then I owe suppliers about €40,000. I have stock with a retail value of about €70,000 (cost €40,000) and assets and equipment of about €10,000 but at the moment sales are so low at the moment I barely have enough to cover the ESB bill and make a few repayments and the VAT cheque every 2 months is a nightmare. Even if things picked up a few thousand it would make a great difference to me, but I’m saying that for the last year and a half and no sign of improvement.
Things I feel are going to come to a head soon my company accounts need to be filed by the end of this month and as I still owe my accountant money from last year which I just can’t gather together to pay him. I do my own books and know there’s nothing due in corporation tax but maybe a little in vat. I’ve talked to liquidators but they would cost between €6,000 and €10,000 which I haven’t got but even if that happens I still owe my private borrowings but then with absolutely no way of paying them back. I’ve tried looking for a job but with little success even though I have qualifications and plenty of experience in business.
At this stage life is just hell and there’s been plenty of tears over this but if anyone has any advice as the best way to steer our way out of this, anything would be appreciated as we just can’t see any hope with interest rates going up and the next budget looking to suck more money from people we just can’t see the business improving no matter what type of sales we have or amount of advertising we use.
Thanks