hit bottom, need advice!!!

Your $327,000 in cards isn't the least bit surprising to me.
Actually, that's a pretty small amount for a business.
For an individual, it would be fairly awesome to the average person.

A large business could run into the $100 million per card, so yours is very small. That's beside the point, however.

One thing you should realize is that this message board is frequented by individuals who are either only interested in getting their own personal credit fixed up or by those who are at least fairly well versed in how to do it, and many of those are also working on fixing their own credit too.

Business credit problems are a different world. As a business owner, you must have good credit because you must have the capability to lay in stock to either use on jobs if you are a contractor or to have on your shelves if you are a merchant. How you approach the problems you have is also going to depend upon whether or not you are incorporated.

If you are incorporated, then taking a bath isn't going to do you any damage to speak of because you can start a new company and have it rolling before the doors are closed on the old one although you wouldn't want to get caught doing that by the bankruptcy court.

If you are not incorporated, everything you own including your personal assets are on the line. That can also be true even in a corporate situation if you have had to sign personal liability for your company.

Although there are people here in this and other forums who are very knowledgeable about credit problems and credit repair, I personally would not want to trust their advice to any great extent were I in your shoes, and I very well may have been in the past. (That depends on factors I don't know yet.)

The problem is that you say you have only about a week before the whole thing comes crashing down on you and if you wait and hope for helpful answers to come out of these forums, you are likely to end up dodging the timbers as the roof caves in on you.

I think you are going to need much more professional help than you are very likely to find in these forums except by some accidental encounter. You need the advice of professional accountants and attorney, not the amateurs you will find frequenting these forums.

I may be able to help you after the roof has already crashed in on you, but I won't attempt to give you any advice at this time because I think that all I would end up doing is hurting you because of the time situation if nothing else.

I might be able to give some small amounts of advice if I knew more about your situation, but your best bet is to go get you some real professional help right away today and let them tell you what to do. I also would advise you not to just settle for the advice of one type of person were I you.
I'd want to consult with a professional CPA and an attorney as well. And when it comes to attorneys, I'd also look real hard at what kind of an attorney you need to get. An attorney who specializes in bankruptcy for instance is likely to slant his/her views and advice towards getting you to file bankruptcy while another type of attorney might slant you a different way.

I'd recommend that you start with a CPA if you don't already have one and ask him to recommend a good attorney to you if he will. I'd bet you that a good CPA will give you the names of maybe 2 or 3 but usually won't recommend just one. Of course, there are a lot of CPAs who are also attorneys. If you can find one of those, so much the better.

But at any rate, I think the best advice I can give you due to your business situation is to go get professional help rather than spending your precious time here.

If it all comes crashing down regardless of what you do, then come on back and maybe you can expect to get some answers here. Not now.

 

I agree. You need a professional to guide you. It'll be well worth the money in the long run. There is no way for us to know which will be better for you, to file CH 7, 13, or what....
BTW, my BIL had a failed business & filed CH 7 for about the same amount of $$. That was 3 or 4 years ago. Life is much better for him now. There is life afterwards....

 

Freedom, You might want to check into a debt arbitration service, unlike accountants and lawyers they charge no upfront fees and only charge you a fee based on the savings they can get for you. If you are interested, feel free to email me.

 

Do you think that might work in a business type situation?

I've not heard too many positive comments about it even for consumers, so how would a business type situation be any different?

What does this service you seem to offer do for the customer that the customer could not do for himself simply by calling up his creditors and asking for some extension of time to pay?

Please don't think I'm trying to put you or what you offer down. I am not. I'm just trying to learn something for myself too.

 

While the final decision is yours, I agree with nursie, I would file a CH 7 BK. You realize that this would mean the sale of your business, though. Have you thought of just selling your business and pay off the cards? Anything else you can sell?

For small amonts of money and with BK so common, trustees really don't investigate your assets. For this amount of money, you will need to be a little proactive with any assets you have, and hide them as best you can. If you have planned on any gift giving of property, this is the time. Definitely hire a lawyer.

Once you are out of BK, immediately start rebuilding your credit with secured cards that report a balance to the CRAs.

 

Speak to a good attorney. You may be able to protect your personal assets by tranfering all titles and deeds in to a trust. As helpful as this board is for personal credit repair not many people have the experience to help you in a case like this. You really need the help of a professional.

CF

 

A debt arbitrator acts on behalf of the debtor. The debtor pays no upfront fees or any cost at all unless the debt arbitrator works out a mutual aggreement with the creditor. So the debtor buys time and can save $ by having a non-binding arbitrator deal with the creditors first before having to go to litigation.

Basically, the arbitrator knows the total amount of money available by the debtor. As long as the business is having a cash flow problem but is not bankrupt, the creditor is usually very receptive to an arbitrator. Litigation is costly and the creditor knows it can lead to bk, leaving him with nothing vs a small sum of $ and the chance to continue to keep working with a viable business that just hit a pothole in the road.

Yes the debtor can do this on their own, but a creditor has no reason to believe him. An arbitrator lends credibility to the debtors cry for help.

At the worst, it bought the debtor time, removed annoying phone calls before litigation if the creditor won't budge. They usually do though.