There aren’t many people who wouldn’t love the idea of being their own boss, but only a few of us actually achieve it. For those that do start their own business, keeping it profitable can be a constant challenge. In the middle of a recession, this gets even harder; and if you find business debts are mounting, it’s important to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

As you’d expect, businesses get into debt when there is more money leaving the business, than is coming in to it. Lowering costs could be one way to reduce the amount of money leaving your business, and you could look to increase the money the business makes by seeing what benefits or grants you, or your company may be eligible for. However this might not always be enough to solve all your business debts.

When dealing with business debts, it’s important to deal with your priority debts first. These are debts to your more powerful creditors like HMRC, Local Authorities, and mortgage companies, who have the ability to take your property, equipment, cut off your power, and even apply to have you sent to jail. Secondary debts are also important and still need to be managed, but any action from these creditors usually has less severe consequences.

You can make arrangements to repay your business debts in two ways. If your debt problem is only a short term situation, due to a temporary cash flow problem, many creditors will come to an informal arrangement with you to repay the debt. If the problem is more serious, and likely to take longer to resolve, a formal Company Voluntary Arrangement may be a better option for both you and creditors, and make your business debts more manageable while you work to pay them off.

When there there doesn’t seem any realistic possibility of repaying your business debts, and the company has become insolvent, Administration can help you keep trading while the issue is resolved. If this doesn’t look possible, there may be no other option but to cease trading, in which case Receivership or Liquidation would sell off the company’s assets to repay creditors.

Running your own business can be one of the best ways to make a living, but not all businesses succeed. If you find you are getting into trouble, and your business debts are mounting up, it’s important to get advice as soon as possible. Organisation such as Advice UK and Business Link should be able to help you choose the best option for sorting out your business debts.

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