Business Failure: What to Do Right Now
If your business has just collapsed, or you can feel it coming, everything feels urgent and nothing feels clear. These guides are written for that exact moment. No motivational platitudes. Just practical, honest advice from someone who's been through it.
When everything is on fire, you need a plan, not a pep talk
When a business fails, the first few days and weeks are overwhelming. Creditors are calling. Your team needs answers. Your family needs to know what's happening. Your personal finances are tangled up with the company's. And you haven't slept properly in a week.
Most of the advice you'll find online at this point is either clinical legal content written for insolvency practitioners, or chirpy "failure is a stepping stone" articles written by people who've never actually lost a business. Neither is useful when you're in the thick of it.
These guides are different. They're written in plain English by people who've lived through business collapse. They focus on what to actually do, this week, today, right now, so you can stop spiralling and start getting steady. They cover the practical (who to call, what to prioritise, how to protect yourself) and the human (what to tell the people who depend on you).
You don't need to read them all. Start with whichever headline matches where you are right now.
What you'll find here
Your business just failed. Here's what to do this week.
Practical triage guide for the first 7 days after collapse: what to deal with now, what can wait, and how to stop spiralling.
10 min readYou've run out of cash. A practical survival guide.
What to do when there's no money left: immediate priorities, who to call first, how to buy time, and what not to panic about yet.
10 min readHow to decide whether to close your business or keep fighting
An honest framework for the hardest decision a founder faces: when to pivot, when to push through, and when to walk away.
10 min readWhat to tell your team when the business is going under
How to have the hardest conversation of your career: with honesty, dignity, and practical information your staff actually need.
10 min readWhat to tell your family when your business fails
How to break the news to the people closest to you, especially when they depend on the income, and when shame makes the conversation feel impossible.
10 min readHow to talk to creditors when you can't pay
Practical scripts and strategies for the calls you're dreading, from HMRC to suppliers to your landlord. Avoidance makes everything worse.
12 min readIf you're going through this right now, you don't have to figure it out alone.
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