Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I think a number of people are in this situation, and perhaps more will be joining soon. I also had a similar situation, and never in my life ever dreamed I`d be experiencing the kind of deplorable financial conditions I`m dealing with nowadays.

Out of it all, I`ve learned a very important lesson---one that my father tried to drill into my granite-block-head his whole life. Only now I`m finally starting to get it.

It`s all well and good to try hard to be a nice person in business. But what so many people, myself included, don`t seem to realize is that in the modern world, money is the fundamental tool of survival. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, hunting skills mattered, and your weapon and horse (maybe) were crucial.

As farmers, our skills at understanding weather and soil were fundamental. Money wasn`t so important, but it was gaining. Nowadays, though, you can`t just go out into the world and hunt for food! Nor can you casually build a log cabin wherever you happen to be standing!

If you want to live in the wilderness or on a desert island, or maybe in a third-world country, then fine---money doesn`t have to be the crucial survival tool. Otherwise, it comes down to either having money and surviving in THIS society, or not surviving. And to that end, "being a nice person" comes after that survival. It`s a luxury, so to speak.

You can spend the rest of your life paying off debts, never getting ahead, and perhaps when you`re too old to enjoy it, starting over again. Or, you can take strategic, drastic action and declare bankruptcy and start over at a younger age.

Business is a complex idea, combining abstractions with concretes. We have tangible products or services, and real interactions with customers. That`s the tangible part where being a nice (ethical) person can be accomplished. But we also have the abstract side of things, such as strategy, tactics, profit & loss, bookkeeping, research & development, and so forth.

In the latter--the conceptual aspects of business--you have to focus very strongly on your own (the business) survival, and the money flow. It`s really and truly the "life blood" of the constellation of activities we call "business."

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Natalie Berrett
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I`ll add to what Natalie (LiveWise) said, in that 10 years ago it didn`t make all that much difference if you declared bankruptcy---not like it did 40 years ago.

One reason is that a whole lot of really large companies have gone into some form of bankruptcy or restructuring. Another reason is the increasing number of people defaulting and declaring bankruptcy.

Why do you suppose there`s this increase in commercials for companies to help work out solutions to debt repayment? Many of those companies are connected with the credit card companies, and act as negotiators to try and collect some amount of money rather than lose to a bankruptcy.

My primary argument stems form the chasm between what you "think" you have in terms of time, versus what actually will happen. Most people with a responsible background, who also fall into serious financial hard times, don`t believe it`ll persist for very long. They figure they can fall back on their safety nets, keep things afloat, because, "After all, it`ll only be a few months and then I`ll be back in the black."

But what happens if it isn`t a short-term thing? What happens if you`re in hard financial times for years at a time? What happens when you`ve wiped out all your safety nets, along with the backups of the backups to those emergency funds?

Nowadays, it seems too often that people end up paying out everything they own only to discover they`re still in the financial crisis. They`ve spent thousands of dollars on maintenance fees, minimum payments, and late fees, and still end up going bankrupt. Only now they have no assets at all.

Bathurst,
I think you`re only one of countless others who`re in this situation. Not only that, but we`re going to see an avalanche of similar stories, as the world enters into a whole new way of things.

As I see it, now having been climbing out of the abyss for more than 8 years, there`s a sort of historic basis in what`s going on. I haven`t yet read the book (have it on hold), "The Fourth Turning," but in an interview, the author speaks about how there are four basic types of generations. Each generation creates the world for the next, which forms the basic platform for economic and social events.

We, the Baby Boomers, aren`t "new." We`re part of whichever of the four generations (I`ll know more when I read the book). But the circumstances we`re in, and those coming along, mirror those of our type of generation going back 300 years.

Out of it all, I`ve come to believe that whatever it is we become passionate about, the resulting lifestyle is just that...a result. We strive for wealth, riches, fame, and fortune, but it doesn`t always happen that way. So the trick, in my opinion, is to figure out what really makes you happy.

Right now, with dreams of a large and successful business, we`re bootstrapping. We have little money but we`ve learned to make the money go a long, long way. We`ve had to radically lower our standard of living, but we`ve found those things that increase the *quality* of our lives.

For example---and this is one of those silver lining kinds of optimistic things---we both love to fish. Working a full week, there isn`t much time for fishing. Now, with little money, no bills anymore, and just enough to get by, we actually do have more time to fish.

The first thing is to remove as much stress from actual, current events as you can. If that means bankruptcy, horrible credit ratings, and defaults, then so be it. Figure out the absolute bottom of what you really and truly must have to survive. Focus on bringing in the money to handle that---a roof over your head, some food, a phone, and transportation.

If you can shut down to that survival level, but reduce out as much stress as possible, then you can have some breathing room. And that`s where you can begin to dream up the next adventure. It`s incredibly hard, and I never in my wildest imagination would have thought I`d be in the situation I`m in. And yet, it happened.

The main problem is the "exhausted, traumatized, and emotional wrecks." You`ve GOT to do whatever it takes to reach a point where you can sleep well. Otherwise, your body starts to fall apart. And without a body, it`s not that easy to make things happen in the physical world. :-)

I`d suggest looking through this site, to see how people come up with ideas. I also think that in today`s market, a "commodity" type thing is a good way to go. Something you can manufacture yourself, inexpensively, that`s unique or very unusual, and that you can scale up in the long run. It should be cheap to make, then sell in quantities. If you can develop a minimum order of around $30-40 per order (for one or several of these items), that`s the goal. :-)