Good Lee Bad Lee

[drum_hacker]

Hey all!

Hope you are all awesome and crushing it!

I wanted to introduce myself and also as I’m new, ask where it would be best to post the following Q...

My name is Lee. I am a step dad, business owner, musician, recovered user, writer, and lecturer from the south coast UK.

When I took on my my step son I had just left my job at a college I had lectured at for 7 years. I won teacher of the year award and the following day received a letter telling me I had lost more hours than I could afford (government cuts always seem to hit the education and health service first - our new CEO gave himself a pay rise within the first month. Awesome). I went from running one course over 5 days to running 2 courses over 3 (impossible) and using my remaining time in the day to coach students FOC as I thought it was a shitty situation for them to have lost a bunch of lessons. I’m a good guy

I decided that getting f@*ked was one thing, but bending over and passing the lube was further than I wanted to go, so I quit.

I had been running a business in the evenings and mornings and always knew I needed to double down on it, so I did.

With my co-Director and best friend at the time (you can see where this is going) we built the business up to nearly enough to pay ourselves. We took on all the jobs (even the ones we were terrible at) and had no business acumen at all.

My business partner was definitely not a risk taker, not even little risks. He would crumble under fear if I even suggested him making a sales call or similar. One time he was meant to let one of our contractors go due to them always turning up late and doing a terrible job (he hired them against my will in the first place) and he ended up freaking out on the phone and offering them more hours! *face plant*

I could tell you a bunch of super hilarious anecdotes but I want to get to the point because I need some help and guidance.

At the start of this year we had £15k stolen from us. This particular company is an entertainment agency, supplying singers, bands, and DJs to venues in the UK. We sometimes send out 10 singers on the same day.
Long story short, we found out that over the last year, many of the singers we were contracting had been stealing little amounts from one of our venues which accumulated to the aforementioned amount over the year. This was not good. These were people we had given regular work to for nearly 7 years, some were friends, some came and ate at my house.

At the same time this was happening, my wife had a cancer scare. 6 months of inconclusive scans and hospital visits. She finally got the all clear but the ride there wasn’t easy.

After we worked out the money had been stolen my then business partner and best friend bailed. He quit the company and left me with all the debt. Without taking 30+ different people to court there was no chance of getting the money back, and no chance it was worth 30 court cases worth of time credits!

I didn’t know what to do as I was living off the last little bit of savings from my lecturing years and it was about to run out. I’d never had a credit card or missed a payment so I decided to get a personal loan and use it to pay back the other staff that the £15k was meant for.

Fast forward to now and I have started a new Co (the other one is still running and ticking over) but the debt and loan repayments are crippling. I have employed needed staff, and have never missed payroll, but it’s near Christmas and I haven’t paid myself in about 3 months now.

To top it off, I had to go into my overdraft and the bank accidentally shut my account (I know, you couldn’t write it!). I am in the LONG and arduous process of getting them to reopen it but even though have admitted fault, it seems it will take months not weeks.

I do not have a business/life divide - I love what I do and I couldn’t believe the first time I read UNSCRIPTED . As it must have with all of you, it rang so true.

It’s awesome to have found some like minded people!

My time is focused between my business, my family, and my health.

So what am I asking? I need help! My new business (that I set up 2 months ago) is already doing better per month than my other business does per month after7 years. And not having my ex-business partner on board means I can take the necessary leaps of the cliff when needed, but I am really struggling at the moment and need to take a wage!

My staff and bills are always paid but on this journey back to zero I don’t know what to do.

I currently have £47 in my account and personal rent and bills coming up. I don’t know what to do.

Any help or direction super appreciated. And thanks so much for reading and having me in the forum!

Big smooch,

lee

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)