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Looking back, it is easy to see how quickly things fell apart.
Unfortunately, you had mentioned to two friends that you might be selling your gift boutique. After being in business for the last 11 years, you were tired of the long hours and the competition was growing. When you first opened you were one of only two stand alone gift boutiques with front door parking. Now, you are one of 35. And while you did a great job for awhile correctly predicting the items that would sell the most. Lately, however, some of your selections have not been popular and you end each season with too much inventory.
The sales had dropped so much that you actually owed three different vendors significant amounts of money. So much, in fact, that they did not allow you to order for the holidays until you made some substantial payments. You eventually made the payments, but now that you were a little gun shy you found yourself ordering holiday items that were of lesser quality. You had to spend money to make money, and right now you simply did not have the money to spend.
Your intent was to triple the number of social media posts you were making and increase the traffic through the door. Your thought was that if you could show great numbers the last three months you would be able to find a buyer who was willing to buy what looked like a recently profitable shop. The social media posts, however, were not enough. the traffic was still slow and your sales were in a real slump. You fear that your friends let others know that the shop might soon be for sale so your customers seem to be holding off on purchases, waiting for significant markdowns.
As you prepare to make the second semester college tuition payments for your only daughter, your husband’s commission checks from his contract work were not enough to make the payments. When the shop did not sell once you privately listed, you feared that you would have to start meeting with a bankruptcy attorney to understand your options. You have finally paid off all of your vendors, but now find yourself struggling to meet the lease payments. You are hopeful that a bankruptcy attorney will help you decide between filing for bankruptcy and giving it a few more months. It is possible that your daughter can take out some student loans, but you do not want her to have to do that if it is at all possible.
Could a Bankruptcy Attorney Help You Understand Your Business or Personal Financial Options?
Whether you are looking for a Tulsa bankruptcy lawyer or a team of bankruptcy attorneys in California, most financial advisers suggest that it is better to seek legal advice sooner rather than later. Sometimes, just understanding your options can make the stress of financial problems more manageable. And while the stress of losing a business is significant, did you know that the majority of bankruptcies are actually personal, not business? In fact, 97% of the bankruptcies filed in 2014 were personal, while only 3% were business.
Many factors contribute to the financial stress of individuals, but one of the most common and devastating can be medical bills. Fortunately, a bankruptcy attorney may actually be able to help you find a way to renegotiate the terms of many kinds of debt, even medical bills.
According to the latest U.S. bankruptcy court statistics, as many as 1.5 million people file for bankruptcy in the average year. Data from a recent Harvard University study indicated that medical expenses lead to approximately 62% of personal bankruptcies in America. Because the problem is fairly common, it should come as no surprise that help is available.
In a time when the average American household has 13 payment cards it is not surprising that fewer than 25% of Americans have enough money in their savings account to cover six months of expenses in an emergency. The realization that typical credit card purchases are 112% higher than those purchases made using cash is a major contribution to the bankruptcy crisis that this country deals with.
A bankruptcy attorney may be able to help you understand how some types of bankruptcy can help you get a fresh start.
