TAKING ADVICE
Another friend suggested that we file in Los Angeles Chapter 13. We thought about this, but were not ready to just take any advice. Especially not from this person. She had done numerous filings, both as a business and as an individual. She always seemed to land on her feet, but we did not want to live our lives like that. We wanted to avoid filing at all, if we could. We had been in business for over 20 years, and this current financial situation was the result of just getting overextended with one customer. We ramped up for expansion and then the company we were expanding for went belly up. Nobody saw it coming. We were really caught short. We had two choices. We could just write down the entire expansion and sell the equipment at a loss, or we could look very hard and very quickly for a source or two to buy materials from us in order to utilize the equipment. We had to get things set and in order in less than 30 days. Otherwise, we could have one or both loans from the banks called. I called the staff in and we had an intense meeting. I told them that we had drop all but the most critical projects and find new sources.