QUESTION.
I own a small business set up as an S corporation. This is my first business and I've been doing it for one year. Most months I have made enough money to pay store expenses but not any salaries. I am past 65 and collecting social security benefits, so I have income and did did not need to earn a living from the store. I had one good month, but I lost about 20,000 dollars for the year. The franchiser now has a Corporate Store about a mile and a half from my store. During Jan and so far in Feb my sales have been almost nothing. I am now looking at what my options are to go out of business. I have about 15,000 in credit card dept. I would like to pay that off myself even if I close my business. My main concern is that I have a year left on my lease. I also have a contract with the phone company and internet service provider. I don't know whether to look at bankruptcy or do I have other options. I can't afford to pay the lease out of my retirement. Any advice you might be able to give me would be greatly appreciated.
ANSWER.
Sounds like your business is in need of some strategic planning. Hopefully you already have a written business plan. But I bet you don't or else you would not be in the situation you have described. SCORE specializes in helping small business owners prepare business plans and/or do strategic planning for an existing business. I recommend you contact your local SCORE chapter and schedule a free confidential face-to-face counseling session with two SCORE.org volunteers. Simply go to http://www.score.org/findscore/chapter_maps.html and type your home zip code to find the chapter nearest you.
I hope my comments are helpful to you. Email counseling at SCORE can be helpful, but try the face-to-face counseling first. Both options are free. Good luck! Regards, -Jeff
Jeff Lippincott
SCORE.org Counselor
Princeton, NJ
scoreprinceton @ aol.com
www.scoreprinceton.org
www.jlippin.com
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