Page 19 - How To Avoid Going Bust In Business

It took several months but we climbed out of the hole. The lessons I learned in those
few months are what saved my bacon when a few years later when I got into serious
difficulties as mentioned above.

So here’s some of the things I learned the hard way. As singer Billy Joel says ”The
things I didn’t learn the first time, I learned by doing twice”.

(He goes on to say “But still they come to haunt me, still they want their say, so I rub
my neck and I write ‘em a cheque and they go their merry way”. I think he may have
been talking about his ex-wives.)

When The Going Gets Tough, The Tough Take a Break

Three things to do when the excrement hits the fan

So now you are sitting there looking in utter disbelief at the numbers on your
spreadsheet. It’s very likely much worse than you thought. You ask yourself “How did
it get this bad?”

Whether you elect to fight or quit, the coming days, weeks and months will be hard
going. There will be tough decision to be made and hard actions to be taken.

So here’s the first three things to do right now . . . and one of them will surprise you.

1: Face the facts. Grim and awful as they are.

The time for hope is over. It’s now time to get real.

If you just keep hoping that it will all come out OK you are doomed.

Right now you must make a decision that you are going to deal with this problem.

You need to sit down and say to yourself “This is not working. I am in the crap and
getting deeper every day. Something’s gotta give”.

In many ways this is the most important single decision you will make in this sorry
situation: Simply acknowledging that you have a problem and it will not come right on
its own.

2: Take A Break

This might surprise you, especially in the light of some of the advice further down
about cutting family spending: Take a weekend off and go away somewhere. If you
have a family, take them with you.

I don’t mean a fancy resort.