Oops - I Sank A Business
July 23, 2008
I have a confession to make - I sank a business. It’s gone - liquidated, bust, dead - it doesn’t exist anymore.
When Did This Happen?
It all happened fairly recently and I made the final decision not to reverse the liquidation only a few weeks ago.
So What Went Wrong?
Lots of things went wrong and I will share some of those mistakes in the near future. But the main problem was me. Before we even started trading, my instinct told me it was a bad move. I had the opportunity to take a year or so off to work full-time on writing projects that I was passionate about.
But I foolishly ignored both my instinct and the chance to follow my passions. In fact, by the time I wrote this post earlier in the year, I knew I’d made the wrong decision: Business - Sometimes You Should Give Up.
How Much Money Did I Lose? Did I Lose Everything But The Shirt On My Back?
I don’t want to give an exact figure, but it was a lot - a high 5 figure sum. I wasn’t actually a Director of the Company (too long and boring a story to explain) but it was my money that was used to fund the business. My husband was a Director but we only lost what we’d already invested, as it was a Limited Company, which means that the Director’s are not personally liable for any of the debts of the Company.
Did The Company Owe A Fortune To Other Businesses?
No, it didn’t. The biggest creditor was me and we hadn’t borrowed from the bank. The amount owing to others was surprisingly small.
Am I Not Devastated By The Experience?
No, I’m not. Naturally, I had a lot of stressful days and sleepless nights leading up to the death of the business. For the last few years, I’ve been the sole breadwinner for my children. I’ve made sacrifices, including time spent with them, in favour of working and they’ve always been really supportive and understanding about that. So of course I was concerned that I would let them down if I could no longer put food on the table, because I’d made a bad choice.
And I don’t like losing money, but I learned a long time ago that it’s pointless to cry over material things that are broken and can’t be fixed. And what I learned from the experience far outweighs the money I lost. If it had been my first business, I’d probably have been gutted. But this was a powerful learning experience for me.
I’d already begun to change as a person. And I realised that it was foolish to ignore my passions. Had I put all my effort into turning the business round, I’d probably still be busy going in the wrong direction and wasting more valuable years.
Wouldn’t It Have Been Smarter To Turn The Business Round And Sell It?
We did consider doing that - although we’d have needed to diversify, as the construction industry in the UK is going through a recession right now. Plus, it would have meant borrowing money and investing more time. As we’d already decided that we’d rather focus on our passions and because we also wanted to emigrate, it would have been a bad choice.
Will I Give Up Blogging About Business Because Of This Mistake?
Absolutely not. I don’t see liquidating the business as a failure, because it was the right thing to do. I’d already given up a business I enjoyed (huge mistake), built a successful business and sold it (smarter move) and now I’ve liquidated a business that wasn’t right for me. So I believe I’m now in an even better position to help and advise others than I was before.
Am I Not Worried That Readers Will See The Death Of The Business As Failure?
Not at all - I hate the failure word. And I don’t see the decision to end a business that isn’t working and pursue my passions as failure.
Of course, negative people may see it like that but there’s no room for negative folk on this site. I’ve already received messages in my comments section from one person who had heard about the death of the business. They went straight into the spam folder, as they’ve posted negative comments and personal attacks before.
In the near future, I’m going to share some of the mistakes I made over the last year or so and the reasons that the business died. If you’d like to learn more, click here to subscribe in a reader. It’s completely free and it means you won’t miss a post.
Do you have any questions? Do you have any stories about businesses that have gone under that you would like to share - either your own, or ones you’ve read about? Would you give up something in order to follow your passions, even though it meant a huge financial loss? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Image Credit: Jef Poskanzer
Other People’s Mistakes
Last week, I asked readers to share what mistakes they’d made, or things that they really suck at. Hunter Nutall shared a major interview mistake he made and described how he turned it round. His story is a must read for anyone who wants to improve their chances of getting a job: The Hidden Question In All Job Interviews.
And Sara at On Simplicity bravely shared: Three Things I Suck At
Related Reading On This Site
Six Things You Can Learn From The Man Who Had No Shoes: This man’s was broke after losing his business. Yet he went on to build one of the most well known brands in the world.
Are You In The Business Of Misery? Can you be truly successful, if you don’t enjoy the business you’re in?
From £1 Million To Bust: How To Turn Your Business Round Again: An interview with Ian Denny who revived his business after going bust.
What You Can Learn From The Man Who Lost £250,000 Overnight: An intriguing story about a man who borrowed thousands on credit cards to start a business that crashed within months.
Going Broke? Judge Me - Feel Free To Cast The First Stone: Ian Denny talks about the stigma attached to business bankruptcy.
How I Brought My Business Back From The Dead With Blogging: Michael Martine lost everything and describes how blogging helped him start again.
Reaching Back Through Time To Help A Single Mom Living In Her Parents’ Basement: A great story by Wendy Piersall about the death of her first business and how it inspired her to start again.
Is Blogging Putting You at Risk?
July 17, 2008
Celebrities get a lot of flack in the media. And many people claim that celebrities have no right to complain because they put themselves in the public eye. Also, most of them are paid a small fortune for entertaining the public.
So what about bloggers? By putting ourselves in the public eye, are we giving them carte blanche to attack, humiliate, gossip about us and worse? It isn’t really something I worried about before but something happened to change my mind.
Yesterday, some people I barely know did something to deliberately humiliate and upset me in public. It was pretty bad - in fact, I was so upset that I reverted to bad habits that have caused harm to my health in the past. And the worse thing was, the amazing pills my GP gave me a few weeks ago, which have helped me to sleep an uninterrupted 8 hours every nights didn’t work. I woke up after 4 hours, still feeling upset about the incident.
The first thing I asked myself was, why on earth would people who don’t even know me, deliberately go out of their way to hurt me? And it occurred to me - if they’ve been reading my blog, they may actually think they know me. But does this make it ok for them to cause me deliberate harm? And is this just something I’ll have to accept because I blog?
It’s not like I blog about anything really controversial. When a business behaves badly, I’ll blog about it if I think it makes an interesting story. And sometimes, I’ll call out businesses who rip people off. Also, I did receive a comment telling me to “go die”, and various other insults, when I wrote this post.
Have you ever had a bad experience as a result of blogging?
How did you deal with it?
Do you think bloggers deserve any hassle they get because they’re putting themselves in the public eye?
Do you find that people who are virtually strangers act as though they know you intimately just because they’ve read some of the things you write?
Do you think bloggers attract a certain amount of jealousy from strangers? Why is that? Is it because they think we’re all making millions a year like Perez Hilton, or is there some other reason? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.
Related Reading
Those Are Fighting Words: Want to drive a heap of traffic to your blog and don’t mind if you also get a lot of hassle because of it? Barbara Swafford discusses some articles that have pissed off a lot of people.
Are You Sick Of The StumbleUpon Freaks?: The original article I wrote that provoked a heap of attacks - I also got a decent amount of traffic from it 
And this is the follow up that prompted a commenter to tell me to “go die”: Is StumbleUpon Going Down The Tubes?
Egyptian Blogger Jailed For Insult: Some bloggers may get a lot of flak when they write something controversial. But this guy was jailed for three years for insulting the president.
Kathy Sierra contacted the police and quit blogging after she received death threats in the comments section of her blog. The offensive comments have been taken down and the blog hasn’t been updated since April 2007. But the blog still gets a lot of traffic due to it’s brilliant content and you can still check it out here: Creating Passionate Users.
Teenager Commits Suicide After Cyber Bullying: An evil neighbour deliberately set up a fake MySpace account to harrass a teenage girl and drove her to commit suicide.
Five Ways To Defeat Blog Trolls And Cyberstalkers: Having trouble with a Psycho Troll or Cyberstalker? Computerworld discusses the behaviour of these wackos and shows you five ways of dealing with them.
No More Bold Advice
July 11, 2008
When I started this blog around sixteen months ago, I concentrated on giving advice to build the type of business which would consume most of your waking hours and bring you rewards later.
Trouble is, as the blog readership has grown, so have I. And I’ve realised for some time, that it isn’t the way to go. The truth is, when you’re working 18 hours a day and weekends are not much different to weekdays, you don’t have a life - you have a business.
And while I don’t deny that you may have to work more than 40 hours a week to build your business, you reach a point when you become less productive. In fact, if you go too far, you reach the point where you become like the living dead - that’s what I did.
There’s been far too much focus on building your business now, so that you can enjoy life in years to come - not just on this blog, but in many business books and websites. But later may never happen for some of us.
I know many people who do work they hate, just so that they can enjoy a two week summer holiday each year. And that’s really sad - if they live for 70 years, that means they’ll only have enjoyed 140 weeks of their lives. That’s not even 3 years, so it means they’ve spent 67 years being miserable.
Tim Ferris’s Four Hour Work Week went some way towards addressing that problem. Tim encouraged us to take mini-retirements. So instead of hoping you’d live long enough to retire, you’d take a few months out every year or so.
And while this sounds like a great idea for young singles, or people with grown up children, it isn’t really a good fit for the average person, with kids in school - unless you want to disrupt their education and spend most of your mini-retirement home educating them. So there needs to be a better way.
This blog won’t be closing down, but the tagline will be changing and many of you will have noticed that the focus has been shifting for a while.
What I hope to do, is to help and support you readers in building a business and lifestyle that is right for you. We’re not all the same - we don’t all want to live in the same place, we don’t all want to build the same type of business. Some of us are happy staying small, some of us want to grow huge and some of us want to freelance.
But I’m guessing that the one thing most of us have in common is that we want to enjoy life now - not wait until our summer vacation, or until we’re able to take one of those mini-retirements. And many of us also want the time and space to fulfil our spiritual goals.
I hope you won’t unsubscribe. And if you’re not subscribed already, why not click here to do it now.
And while you’re here, why don’t you share some of the amazing things I’ve come across recently:
The Millionaire Homeless Guy: Would you rather be a financial millionaire or a real one? Check out Jamie Harrop’s wonderful post and decide for yourself.
And if you enjoyed that moving and inspirational story, you’ll love reading - Reaching Back Through Time To Help A Single Mom Living In Her Parent’s Basement by Wendy Piersall.
Magic Happens: Want proof? Check out this post by Davina at Loving Pulse.
Talking of magic, Steve Pavlina’s first book, “Personal Development for Smart People” has reached the Amazon Top 100 already and it isn’t even out until October 2008. Now that’s what I call real blogging power. To learn more about Steve’s new book, check out this post by Hunter Nuttall. And if you’ve never read Steve’s blog before, you can find it here.
Are you hot? Most of us have had to sleep in a high temperature with no air conditioning at some point - and if you’ve done it, you’ll know it can be really uncomfortable. But it doesn’t have to be - if you check out Mrs Micah’s 5 Tips for Sleeping With No Air Conditioning.
And if you haven’t been sleeping well because you’ve been feeling down - Mare shares some brilliant tips for cheering yourself up: Create a Long List Of Ways For You To Feel Good.
Are You Ready To Give Up The Day Job?
July 5, 2008
Many people struggle to make the decision to give up their day job, so they can start a business, or become a full-time freelancer. Trouble is, even the phrase, “giving up the day job” can create a barrier, because it implies that you’ll be “giving up” or “going without something” to reach your goal.
Hunter Nuthall has been discussing his future options recently, in his mid year round up. And he’s not sure whether he’s ready to give up the security of a regular wage.
But if you’re thinking of quitting your day job yourself, you might want to check out this interview at Sparkplugging, on how to leave your job and take the freelance plunge in six months.
And if you’re still on the fence, Mark of My Tropical Escape shares 5 Questions You Must Ask Yourself On Your Quest For Personal Freedom.
Perhaps you’re hoping to get started as a freelance writer, Monika Mundell shares the 13 Best Freelance Writing Job Websites.
Maybe you want to build an online business, but you’re not sure where to start. Then check out: The Recipe - 26 Practical Resources for Starting An Online Business.
And once you’ve learned the basics, you’ll want to know what not to do, so check out: 13.2 Ways Not To Get Rich by Men With Pens.
If you want to start out alone and relocate, you may find it useful to read: Is Becoming An Entrepreneur Harder Than Surviving In A Foreign Country by Akemi Gaines.
And if you have no start-up capital at all, check out: How I Made £2952 Online With 0 Investment, by Christine OKelly.
How about you - do you want to give up your day job, or are you struggling? What are your biggest fears?
Or have you already given up your day job? How is it going?
Maybe you haven’t had a day job for years. Would you go back to working for someone else in a heartbeat, or would you sell the shirt off your own back before you’d consider working for someone else?
