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Disclaimer: I know nothing about business or finance. >>>MY WIFE<<< has spent the past several years working with a business partner to create and develop a B2B agency, an LLC. The company's success(/failure) largely depends on client relationships, creative production, and sales. She started in content production, managed ops, and eventually became VP. At its peak, the company was earning over $3m annually with very few operating costs. She went for her MBA and had arranged to buy the company from the owner so that he could move on to other projects. Before becoming owner herself, she ran HR, finance, and directed the directors. Long story short, we got an SBA loan to buy the agency. The owner received a sum up front and the rest would be paid in an "earn-out" which (according to the numbers at the time) could be fulfilled as soon as one year after signing. The owner agreed to stick around for at least one year after that to manage existing accounts and go after new ones. Things were looking pretty good! What we didn't know was that the owner had been making deals and promises to clients that he knew the company couldn't keep. One month after my wife bought the company, half of the accounts closed and the previous owner was MIA. We met with a seasoned e-biz consultant who introduced us to another business attorney and finance expert. Both of them took a look at the books and told us that she bought a poo poo sandwich and that the previous owner absolutely hosed us. My wife is now "99%" sure that we'll have to file for bankruptcy within a year unless she snags some pretty big accounts in the next three months. I am not hopeful. The consultants have told her that it may be in her best interest to start over and take the total loss as a lesson learned and that it wouldn't be worth the money spent to file a lawsuit against the previous owner. We may end up losing the house. The question: Are there any organizations or groups that specialize in bailing small businesses out when they default? I'm a war vet and she's ethnic and has registered the LLC as a minority/woman-owned business with whatever organizations care about that sort of thing. We're great at managing personal finances, and have already started to plan a bounce-back. If we can help it, I'd like to avoid having to file for bankruptcy altogether.
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Aug 14, 2019 17:27
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No one is going to bail you out and you need to cut your losses pronto.
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Aug 17, 2019 23:56
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Is this a troll thread? You're gonna wave your vet/minority flag around and beg for a bailout? Are you trying to be wacky and ironically hilarious? For some real advice: no, you have to be a billionaire for bailouts.
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Aug 19, 2019 05:17
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Pryor on Fire posted:Is this a troll thread? You're gonna wave your vet/minority flag around and beg for a bailout? Are you trying to be wacky and ironically hilarious? Let me be perfectly clear. I am not a victim and neither is my wife. There were issues with the buy that we could have seen from a mile away had we been more experienced and cautious. What we're getting is what we deserve because of the choice we made. That being said, this thread wasn't an attempt to try and play myself out as a victim, and I simply wanted to build context to the issue we're dealing with in case it led to any alternate solution. I'm comfortable with cutting my losses. There, see? My question was whether or not there were any small business loan forgiveness-type options available to vets/minorities that we could take advantage of. I was thinking back to our college days, where most if not all of her tuition had been paid by minority scholarship grants. Not knowing much about business/finance, I was curious if anything like that existed for small businesses. Don't know of any? Okay. Can't hurt to ask.
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Aug 20, 2019 19:59
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Have you tried contacting the Ethnic Business Bailout Agency (EBBA) yet? Their email contact is areyoufuckingkiddingme@ebba.org. They have literal piles of cash laying around just for things like this.
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Aug 20, 2019 21:29
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Flavor Truck posted:I was thinking back to our college days, where most if not all of her tuition had been paid by minority scholarship grants. This isn't remotely the same thing as a scholarship. Are you loving with us for grins? Did I spring the trap? Flavor Truck posted:Not knowing much about business/finance, I was curious if anything like that existed for small businesses. Don't know of any? Okay. Can't hurt to ask. No, nothing like that exists. Small business fail all the time, in fact they mostly fail, and small business owners, whatever their background, are stuck with consequences of decisions willingly made. Which in your case was doing the due diligence after the deal, not before it.
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Aug 20, 2019 22:20
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Flavor Truck posted:I was thinking back to our college days, where most if not all of her tuition had been paid by minority scholarship grants. Not knowing much about business/finance, I was curious if anything like that existed for small businesses. Don't know of any? Okay. Can't hurt to ask.
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Aug 20, 2019 23:14
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I guess I used to small a font in the OP when I very clearly wrote that I knew nothing about business or finance jfc - Again, I'm not running the company and have/had very little to do with it apart from being married to the owner and now discovering that there are consequences on the horizon. Thanks for the positive feedback.
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Aug 21, 2019 01:03
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don't buy poo poo on credit that you don't understand expensive lesson to learn but at least you guys aren't retirement age or w/e
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Aug 21, 2019 01:40
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Not a bailout option, but there definitely is a preference given to minority/women owned business in procuring government contracts if your business has anything to do with the govt. No idea about the hoops that need jumping through though. I think the SBA also gives some preferment to minority owned businesses, but if you've already gotten an SBA loan I doubt they'll give you more.
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Aug 21, 2019 01:56
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Flavor Truck posted:I guess I used to small a font in the OP when I very clearly wrote that I knew nothing about business or finance jfc - Again, I'm not running the company and have/had very little to do with it apart from being married to the owner and now discovering that there are consequences on the horizon. Thanks for the positive feedback.
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Aug 21, 2019 02:21
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Kaiser Schnitzel posted:Not a bailout option, but there definitely is a preference given to minority/women owned business in procuring government contracts if your business has anything to do with the govt. No idea about the hoops that need jumping through though. I think the SBA also gives some preferment to minority owned businesses, but if you've already gotten an SBA loan I doubt they'll give you more. Yeah no poo poo, there are dozens of options for women, minorities, vets, and so on to get loans to start businesses but they all have the same thing in common in that if you completely gently caress the dog and screw up said business there's no magic "whoops, we'll forgive it this time" option. Flavor Truck posted:I guess I used to small a font in the OP when I very clearly wrote that I knew nothing about business or finance. You could have put it in giant-font with all caps and I'd still be scratching my head over what type of response you thought would get to this.
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Aug 21, 2019 02:51
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Ixian posted:You could have put it in giant-font with all caps and I'd still be scratching my head over what type of response you thought would get to this. I took a shot in the dark. At least I know there's no easy way out of it. Thanks.
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Aug 21, 2019 03:34
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If you do declare bankruptcy your home should be protected. Whether or not you can afford to keep it is a different question. If it was set up as an LLC like you said then it should be able to do the bankruptcy and your personal assets should be protected overall. Though I'm guessing the loan is in your name and not the LLCs? Then see the first point. Good luck
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Sep 3, 2019 23:16
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Raldikuk posted:If you do declare bankruptcy your home should be protected. Whether or not you can afford to keep it is a different question. If it was set up as an LLC like you said then it should be able to do the bankruptcy and your personal assets should be protected overall. Though I'm guessing the loan is in your name and not the LLCs? Then see the first point. SBA loans require lenders to take a personal guarantee, so the house is on the line. OP, have you spoken to your lender and your local SBA district office? If there was fraud involved there is a chance that that could put the bank's guarantee at risk because the SBA loving hates when banks are sloppy underwriters. Um, don't walk in looking for someone to blame though or someone to save you like in your first post. You won't make friends. The best you can do is show your willingness to make it right and ask for help and see what happens. If the lender isn't one of the big banks they may work with you to avoid a default if you can show that you'll be able to continue making payments another way (ie getting a job somewhere else). E:Even if you're certain on declaring bankruptcy and handing over the house and business assets and tanking your credit for a while you should still do the above. El Mero Mero fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Sep 13, 2019 |
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Sep 13, 2019 06:38
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Your only real option is potentially hiring people who know finance and lawyers to look at all your books and the deal and see if he was intentionally misleading you enough that it could constitute fraud and sue him, but I wouldn’t get your hopes up. How much was the cost (both upfront and the trail) if you don’t mind me asking?
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Oct 21, 2019 11:25
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