I'll try and keep this as short as possible. Anyway here goes...
Due to some poor decisions on my part my old company went into liquidation in December 2018 after 15 years trading. I had UK tax liability, Overdrawn Directors loan account of £103,000, UK VAT due and also two personal guarantees outstanding on the business - £50,000 HSBC overdraft was one and £150,000 loan for the other. As I was a LTD company i'm personally liable for the £150,000 loan and £50,000 overdraft. Everything else has died with the company.
I started a new company (doing what my previous one did) but without the shackles of big loan payments and i went from having a shop based premises to 3PL and customer services done in the phillipines to save cost. After 12 months or so it's becoming evidently clear this type of business isn't going to provide me with a suitable income. I have zero interest in what i'm doing and after 15 years i'm physically and mentally drained by the type of products I sell and having nothing to show for it except debt, stress and worry.
I've decided on launching a new brand (online physical products business as before - just different niche) and this time i'm concentrating primarily on sales via my shopify site rather than Ebay and Amazon as i do now. It's a premium product compared to other Ebay and Amazon sellers although i may test the water at some point with those platforms. Ideally i wanted to sell all my current stock approx (£25,000) and also sell my Ebay store which has (80,000 feedback) to my competitor for around £50,000 in total. Then put everything into the new brand whilst also giving me some capital to pay myself a low but liveable income for the next 3-6 months. My competitor wasn't interested.
So now i'm having to try and turnaround the current stock and replace with the new products but its obviously not an overnight event. I've made $5000 deposit on my new products (total order $16500) and i'm hoping i'll have sold enough of the old stock to pay for the order in full once it's ready. I also then need to have a budget for product photography (likely to be $2000-2500) and marketing/giveaways etc. I've missed a UK vat payment due last week to try and get things moving which isn't ideal.
I'm also having to deal with the other personal guarantees from my old company which is probably going to result in me filing for bankruptcy as i'm currently not in any position to pay them back. The only asset i have is my house which is jointly owned with my Wife and there's nowhere near enough equity to cover what i owe and probably not even enough to chase after in regards to it.
However the stress is taking it's toll at the moment. I'm really struggling with it. In reality this has to work otherwise i'm going to have to get a job and i'm nearly 40 and i've never worked for anybody in my life and i'm certainly not the type of person who's going to be comfortable being an employee (although i do know i'd have to suck it up). Don't even know what i'd do.
If anyone's got any other ideas on moving forward that i haven't thought off feel free. I think being stressed is limiting my thinking process. Or even suggestions on dealing with stress and anxiety over it. I feel physically sick day and night and have aged 10 years in the last 12 months.
Due to some poor decisions on my part my old company went into liquidation in December 2018 after 15 years trading. I had UK tax liability, Overdrawn Directors loan account of £103,000, UK VAT due and also two personal guarantees outstanding on the business - £50,000 HSBC overdraft was one and £150,000 loan for the other. As I was a LTD company i'm personally liable for the £150,000 loan and £50,000 overdraft. Everything else has died with the company.
I started a new company (doing what my previous one did) but without the shackles of big loan payments and i went from having a shop based premises to 3PL and customer services done in the phillipines to save cost. After 12 months or so it's becoming evidently clear this type of business isn't going to provide me with a suitable income. I have zero interest in what i'm doing and after 15 years i'm physically and mentally drained by the type of products I sell and having nothing to show for it except debt, stress and worry.
I've decided on launching a new brand (online physical products business as before - just different niche) and this time i'm concentrating primarily on sales via my shopify site rather than Ebay and Amazon as i do now. It's a premium product compared to other Ebay and Amazon sellers although i may test the water at some point with those platforms. Ideally i wanted to sell all my current stock approx (£25,000) and also sell my Ebay store which has (80,000 feedback) to my competitor for around £50,000 in total. Then put everything into the new brand whilst also giving me some capital to pay myself a low but liveable income for the next 3-6 months. My competitor wasn't interested.
So now i'm having to try and turnaround the current stock and replace with the new products but its obviously not an overnight event. I've made $5000 deposit on my new products (total order $16500) and i'm hoping i'll have sold enough of the old stock to pay for the order in full once it's ready. I also then need to have a budget for product photography (likely to be $2000-2500) and marketing/giveaways etc. I've missed a UK vat payment due last week to try and get things moving which isn't ideal.
I'm also having to deal with the other personal guarantees from my old company which is probably going to result in me filing for bankruptcy as i'm currently not in any position to pay them back. The only asset i have is my house which is jointly owned with my Wife and there's nowhere near enough equity to cover what i owe and probably not even enough to chase after in regards to it.
However the stress is taking it's toll at the moment. I'm really struggling with it. In reality this has to work otherwise i'm going to have to get a job and i'm nearly 40 and i've never worked for anybody in my life and i'm certainly not the type of person who's going to be comfortable being an employee (although i do know i'd have to suck it up). Don't even know what i'd do.
If anyone's got any other ideas on moving forward that i haven't thought off feel free. I think being stressed is limiting my thinking process. Or even suggestions on dealing with stress and anxiety over it. I feel physically sick day and night and have aged 10 years in the last 12 months.
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