Page 96 - Paulisms: Gold Nuggets for Small Business

On the other side, if you have a bad debt with someone, communicate with them. People like communication, and nine times out of ten people will help you through that debt situation. But if you don’t communicate, they will come down on you quickly.
I was helping a guy close his business, and he had no money. One creditor was chasing hard. I said, ‘Go and see the company, sit down, and say, “Sorry, I tried and couldn’t get the business to work. I owe you $20,000. Would you accept $10,000?”’ A wise company would think, ‘Well, there is probably a 50% margin in here anyway – let’s just cut our losses and move on.’ And they moved on!