What we do
We help businesses carry on doing business.
It really is as simple as that.
After many years of running businesses, it has become increasingly apparent to us that there are very few people who are genuinely on the side of the business owners or directors, and the business itself.
When times are tough, as they are for many people, what do you do? Your accountant may suggest talking to your bank – who in many cases don’t want to lend you any money and are rarely as supportive as their advertising would suggest. If you speak to an insolvency practitioner then you soon find you have an external business – doing their job – by poring through your every action and decision, looking for anything they can use to claw back money, working as they do on behalf of the creditors.
However, there is an alternative. One that allows you to stay in business, park your ‘troubled’ business, do the best you can for your employees, your suppliers, and yourselves as the owners and directors.
We are a commercial consultancy following standard practices to offer solutions that give you time to reduce issues, minimise exposure and continue in business – still employing people, earning income, and paying taxes.
There is no risk in giving us a call. Our initial consultation is free, we charge no fees or interest, so you can only be better off.
It’s true that our approach is not suitable for everyone, but unless you call us, you won’t know.
Why do we do it?
There has to be something wrong with a system where good, viable businesses go under. Not because they’ve done anything particularly wrong, but because conditions are against them, or an unexpected event creates a situation completely beyond their control.
Something wrong with a system where the kind of advice that can help is reserved for multinationals, yet normal businesses that are the backbone of the economy are faced with a few, unpalatable options.
Where, in the end, the only people who win are those charging fees.
So we want to do it differently. We don’t charge fees, we don’t charge interest, but we do make money – fairly, honestly and transparently.
My Story
Like most people I went about my business on a daily basis. Borrowed money from the Bank, paid my accountant for advice, had good times and bad. That’s business.
My company was bought, and 6 months later the new owners closed it, having loaded it with debt from their other companies. They appointed a liquidator, someone they knew (who they described as ‘their boys’) and somehow either lost or destroyed all the company records.
I then got tied up in 3 years of liquidation for a company I thought I had sold. The worst moment being when the liquidator demanded over £140,000 back from me, which included my salary for 12 months, my wife’s salary, the money I had been paid for the company and all my expenses.
Because the records were ‘lost’ this money was deemed to be ‘directors’ loans’. Now I know the liquidator was only doing their job, but having appointed a solicitor I soon realised that the only people who were going to win out of the situation were the liquidators and the solicitors themselves. The bottomless pit of fees was astonishing and the number of times my solicitor said ‘they don’t have a case’ were too many to mention.
In the end, sitting in court, many tens of thousands of pounds out of pocket, knowing I had done nothing wrong was no real consolation.
I wouldn’t wish those three years on anyone, and I wish I’d had some idea that there may have been an alternative.