Enough is enough!
This weekend a friend came to see me at home. He was hesitant about explaining why he needed to come over, but said it was both important and private.
So we sat down in the lounge on Saturday morning and the first few minutes I thought to myself, “He’s trying to be very positive, but there’s something at the back of all this and I think I know where this is going!”
I asked him what the real matter was and why he had come over. It all began to come out. He was behind with his credit cards. The utility bills were mounting up. He had lost out on a work contract recently and found himself earning less in recent months than at any other time in his adult working life. All in all he was in a real financial mess, and was about to become a mess emotionally too.
But he had come to see me because he knew about my own bankruptcy and that I was willing to talk about the subject and wondered if I might help him. This friend was sensible enough to have picked up the phone with the full awareness of his situation and the understanding that no matter how hard he had tried to better his situation and to enhance his circumstances, he was by now trying to push mud uphill! No matter what he had done to get to this stage, things were only going to get worse.
I respect him for the decision to come and see me and to talk about the mess he is in. By talking about the problem the size of that same problem begins to diminish. I know that I waited too long before having to deal with the situation through someone making me bankrupt, when it would have been better to have placed myself in that situation several months before. The delaying process is one that rarely helps and I could see that my friend - in acknowledging the desperation of his situation and dealing with it from a practical perspective - will make great positive strides forward.
We discussed the need to involve the Citizens Advice Bureau, to have them deal with his Creditors immediately, and the need for him to look at the available options. Just for the knowledge that he is now able to limit the amount of disturbing and sometimes threatening calls he has been receiving from creditors was enough to make his face soften and relax. He knows what his next steps are in the process of dealing with his debt, and creating a payment programme, and is also aware of the damaging impact that declaring himself insolvent will have. But in being aware of these issues the problem is reduced and the stress is also halved, leaving him free to get on with his life and to rebuild the circumstances that do work for him.
In coming to see me he reminded me of the importance of seeking counsel from those who have been through the frightening places before us - and survived to be of help.
Nick Sturgeon is a small business owner who has benefitted from the experiences of success, failure and financial recovery. The author of “Small Business BIG Profit” published by FT Prentice Hall, Nick writes and speaks from the heart about Risk, Reward and the Power of Personal Enterprise. nick@smallbusinessbigprofit.co.uk
