I opened my business in February 2001 with my wife. I applied for a loan through the Small Business Association and was approved for a guarantee. During the course of the business I opened lines of credit with Fleet bank and the Capital One. StarsDVD, LLC was the first all DVD rental store in Connecticut. Everything was going fine till I got divorced. The business suddenly went from a two-person job to a solo gig.
I was working about 80 hours a week and going to school full-time. I made some mistakes here and there, like forgetting to include my salary in the business opinion. Money started skittish from the bank account and the debt started piling up. Despite filing for a Limited Liability Corporation, the debt was mostly under my name. Creditors often insisted on a waiver or personal guarantee to set credit.
In 2003 I was faced with a decision to get another loan or discontinuance shop. The DVD market had changed in those two years and the future for the format did not look that promising. I chose to close the doors to StarsDVD, LLC. By that time I was almost a quarter million dollars in debt and I was tranquil a few years before my thirtieth birthday.
I had no choice; it was either a life of indentured servitude or a accelerate through the bankruptcy courts. I got myself a lawyer and was whisked through the whole process rather painlessly. The humorous thing is that lawyers want their money before they initiate the paperwork so I had to borrow that from friends and family to get the ball rolling.
Filing for bankruptcy was by far the smartest financial move I ever made. Credit card companies paint a grim picture of bankruptcy and the years of toiling it will take to get out of that mess. I’m not advocating bankruptcy; everyone shouldn’t use it. However, if you do file, you are now stuck with the monumental task of building credit from scratch. Here are my five tips for surviving bankruptcy and building credit.
1) First thing you need to do is ensure you have an active checking AND savings account. If you don’t have a debit card you should then apply for one immediately. Having a debit card will solve your immediate problems such as buying airline tickets or renting a car. True you have to have the money in your account but the MasterCard or Visa logo on the debit card can be a godsend in the future.
2) Second thing is to get a secured credit card with a Visa or MasterCard logo. You will rep that you are getting credit card offers in the mail. Read these carefully because they are designed to take advantage of people with terrible credit. You need to get a secured credit card. These cards will offer very little available credit after all the fees have been applied. You need to max out this card and then pay the minimum payment for a while. This establishes a new credit history.
3) Don’t ever ever miss a payment again. This is imperative as it takes two years for a missed payment to leave your credit statement. Beg and borrow for the money to make the minimum, don’t miss a payment. Missing a payment after filing bankruptcy essentially will reset your credit rating back to a unique gross. Don’t let this happen.
4) Monitor your credit on a monthly basis. TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian all have plans where you can get monthly reports on your credit. You can catch one free report a year but trust me you want the monthly reports. When you get these reports you need to go over them with a fine-toothed comb. Anything that does not watch correct needs to be disputed. These credit reporting sites have an online announce obtain you can file. Remember you are on the ropes now and fighting for your credit life. Every little error counts.
5) Don’t earn discouraged. This last step may seem cheesy but you will still have creditors calling you. It will be difficult luminous you can’t even slither into Target or Sears and get a $300 line of credit. There is a light at the end of the tunnel but it takes years to get there. Staying positive and looking at the big picture is super distinguished.
Filing for bankruptcy is a life-changing event but there can be life after bankruptcy. The whole credit business is based on alarm. These multi-billion dollar credit companies give credit out like candy and they specifically target younger audiences in school. By the time you graduate you may have tens of thousands of dollars in student loans and several thousands of dollars in credit card bills. Then you have to get a car and a job to pay those bills. Before you know it you have to work years and years to pay off you debt you incurred in school. It can become a never-ending circle of debt and repayment. This is how the credit card companies get their money.
Utilize your credit wisely and always withhold an eye on your credit reports.
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Filed under Partnership Bankruptcy by on Jan 28th, 2011. Comment. 
- Ice Edge Holdings appears to be out of the picture when buying the Phoenix Coyotes.
- Famed hockey analyst Don Cherry has stated his desire to spy professional hockey in Winnipeg.
- With no other options, True North Sports and Entertainment might be the only intention to go.
Fourteen years after the NHL broke the hearts of every resident of Winnipeg, Manitoba news has broke that Winnipeg might, in fact, get a second shot at the NHL.
On May 22, 2010 news broke that if the disaster Phoenix Coyotes could not find an owner by the extinguish of the year that the team would be sold and relocated to Winnipeg-based True North Sports and Entertainment.
Lost Love
It was crushing in 1996 when the Winnipeg Jets played their final game in the storied Winnipeg Arena. A playoff loss to the Detroit Red Wings, the game was a sellout highlighted by Winnipeg’s signature “White Out” – every fan in the stands wearing white. It was a sight to see with an unbelievable amount of emotion.
The Winnipeg Jets landed in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, to become the Phoenix Coyotes. Many derided the move from Winnipeg — known for it’s long, snowy winters — to Phoenix, a city better known for it’s year-round warmth than high speed ice sports.
The NHL selected Phoenix in order to complete Gary Bettman’s bold vision to expand the game of hockey into non-traditional markets. To that point similar locations of the Minneapolis-based Minnesota North Stars to Dallas, Texas and expansions to Anaheim, San Jose, Tampa and Sunrise had produced mixed results.
The Winnipeg Jets had boasted many superstar players during their early-90’s rebuilding period. Notably, superstar forwards Teemu Selanne, Keith Tkachuk and Alexei Zhamnov created a high speed playing style and a renewed contender. Unfortunately, most of the star players were forced to be traded due to the weak Canadian dollar before the depart to Phoenix was even made.
Early Success
The initial move to Phoenix was met with surprising success. The team made the playoffs nearly every year thanks to a solid core of good players, while transplanted Canadians filled the arena to re-live their Northern routes.
It was not long, though, before the team began to struggle. Not surprisingly, once the novelty of hockey in the desert wore off spectators began to look elsewhere for entertainment. Likewise, financial woes began to destroy the team, leading to trades that saw stars players like Keith Tkachuk, Teppo Numminen and Nikolai Khabibulin leave the Phoenix Coyotes.
New Ownership
Eventually original ownership was found from an unexpected source: NHL legend Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky and his investment group purchased the team in the hope of a turnaround, even installing Gretzky as head coach.
For as good as he was as a player, Gretzky was honest as dreadful as a coach. The team lost all coherence as a string of disappointing seasons followed. Attempts to trace star players to turn the team around failed, notably with former league MVP Brett Hull who retired after playing only five games with the Coyotes.
Bankruptcy
The Phoenix Coyotes had bled money for most of their existence in Glendale, losing up to $40 million a season at one point. In December of 2008 reports broke that the Coyotes were being supported financially by the NHL.
Six months later, Coyotes owner Jerry Moyes declared the team bankrupt with the blueprint of selling the Coyotes to Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie. Balsillie intended to purchase the team in order to relocate them to Hamilton, Ontario.
The move caught both fans and the NHL off guard, as by asking for assistance from the NHL Moyes was no longer capable of putting the Coyotes into bankruptcy. Having not gained approval to join the NHL as an owner, Balsillie was deemed underhanded by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Legal Wrangling
The battle quickly moved to court, as the NHL controlled the team and believed it had the suitable to sell the Coyotes to an owner of their choosing. Jerry Moyes, on the other hand, supported Balsillie’s exclaim despite the fact that it was in direct violation of the NHL’s rules.
Several prospective owners came forward, but only those with the intention of keeping the Coyotes in Phoenix were taken seriously. The most high profile was Jerry Reinsdorf, whose Ice Edge Holdings company save forth an early bid, although they failed to create a proposal for the bankruptcy proceedings.
Eventually, a Phoenix court ruled that Jerry Moyes and Jim Balsillie could not manufacture a deal that violated the rules of the NHL, while the NHL’s enjoy bid for the team was also rejected for not covering debtors. The NHL eventually put together a proposal that was accepted, thereby gaining ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes.
Finding an Owner
As time had rush out, the NHL was forced to control the Coyotes over the course of the 2009-10 NHL season. Ice Edge Holdings was once again lined up as a potential owner, this time dealing directly with the NHL.
By May 2010 the deal had fallen through, however. Ice Edge expected Glendale to hide losses by the team, at least temporarily, with tax payer money. At this point, rumors began to circulate that the NHL had a contingency notion in place with True North Sports and Entertainment.
Hope Renewed
The NHL refused to confirm any of the rumors, although reliable sources stated that a deal was in place in principle to return the Coyotes franchise back to Winnipeg if an ownership group in Arizona could not be found. The city of Glendale eventually voted in favor of covering the Coyotes losses, up to $25 million, over the 2010-11 NHL season to give the NHL more time to find a local owner.
With Ice Edge Holdings seemingly out of the recount, few groups have come forward with intentions in keeping the NHL in Arizona. Not helping matters is a rabid hockey market in Winnipeg begging for the return of what is rightfully theirs.
The NHL is finally beginning to run out of time on their hockey-in-the-desert experiment. A deadline was set on May 22, 2010 that if no willing buyer was found to keep the Phoenix Coyotes in Arizona by the end of 2010, than the True North deal would be sealed and the Coyotes would return to Winnipeg, Manitoba.
True North Strong and Free
It has been a long fourteen years for citizens of Winnipeg. The minor league Manitoba Moose have served as the primary source of hockey for one of the most natural hockey markets on the face of the planet. The financial troubles that plagued the Jets during the early-90’s should not pose a problem this time around as the Canadian dollar has remained fairly steady with the American greenback for quite some time and the NHL’s salary cap has provided parity for smaller market teams.
Supporters have also emerged from reputable sources. Former NHL coach and famed hockey analyst Don Cherry has stated that he would like to become an investor should a team return to Winnipeg, while Jim Balsillie has gone on record saying that he would be the first person in line to buy tickets should Canada be granted a seventh NHL franchise.
The NHL southern experiment has fairly miserably, with only teams in Anaheim, Dallas, Tampa and Raleigh meeting any kind of success. Improved parity between NHL franchises over the last decade and a half has seen tremendous results, especially for smaller market Canadian teams.
The Manitoba Moose, a minor league affiliate of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks, has played to mammoth success in Winnipeg’s MTS Centre, selling out the 15,200 seat arena despite it’s minor league status.
Winnipeg is the kind of city designed for a hockey team. Nearly every kid grows up playing shinny with their friends, and the level of devotion shows in the level of talent coming out of the city in the likes of Jonathan Toews, Travis Zajac and Cam Barker, among others. Should an NHL team return to Winnipeg, Manitoba it might just be the smartest proceed the NHL has made in quite some time.
Sources
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/True-North-a-bona-fide-owner-waiting-for-Coyotes-94666154.html
http://www.tsn.ca
http://www.azcentral.com/articles/2009/06/15/20090615coyotesnosale.html
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jLF92I7lewixUWAgsf3YsPo9V5NgD9FL3RH81
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Filed under Partnership Bankruptcy by on Jan 21st, 2011. Comment.
Celebrities often blame their associates for their money trouble and bankruptcy. Usually it is the business manager that takes all of the blame for the losses. Losing millions of dollars is more of a team anguish though. It takes a lot of people to spend serious amounts of money like that.
Big spending and poor money management does them in!
Take MC Hammer for example. This rapper was a famous substantial spender. In the early 1990’s, Hammer became the biggest hit. He and his entourage were known for the exorbitant spending that devoured an estimated $33 million. He filed early for bankruptcy. Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch costs about $200,000 per month to keep running. It’s easy to see why many stars go bankrupt when a day’s shopping trip ends up costing millions of dollars. Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Since his reign in the boxing ring, Mike Tyson has fallen from grace. He has spent time in jail and has spent all of his money by buying tigers for pets that cost around $8000.00 each. His lifestyle came in at about $400,000.00 per month.
Huge paychecks led these celebrities down the primrose path. They had no experience in dealing with large amounts of money and rode in their limousines down the road to bankruptcy.
Donald Trump’s Bankruptcy
Donald Trump is a daring businessman who likes to take risks. This has led him to file for bankruptcy twice, and still has come out on top. The Donald is famous for telling people “You’re fired!” every week on television. When filing for bankruptcy the second time, it is unbelievable the board had not fired him.
Smart businessmen separate their finances. Trump keeps his personal finances separate from his business ventures. This protects him. When his casino went into debt for a billion dollars, his corporation filed for bankruptcy. Trump did not personally file. He consulted with his banks and bondholders, and decided to file Chapter 11. This gave his businesses an opportunity to regroup and brought his business debt down. This guaranteed his creditors would get paid. A wise fade, because it also reduced his personal debt and avoided lawsuits from creditors. This insulated his personal accounts and kept him personally out of bankruptcy.
His company recovered quickly but still retained serious financial problems. After reorganization, his company’s stock prices soared to double digits. Personally, his fortune exploded and he landed on Forbes most wealthy list. Donald was on top, despite his bout with bankruptcy.
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Filed under Partnership Bankruptcy by on Nov 30th, 2010. Comment.
Many businesses are facing difficult times. Loans have become great harder to score. Your customer base may have slowed down dramatically. Financial cut backs have been done as much as possible. As a business owner you may have face the reality that income is not meeting expenses and there is not a possibility of future improvement.. Bankruptcy may be the only way to restructured or save your credit. There are two options available, Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Chapter 7, or Chapter 13 bankruptcy proceeding.
Chapter 11 Bankruptcy is filed for those businesses that would like to remain viable but want to force creditors to reorganize their debt. In this type of bankruptcy the debtor, or business filing, Once the filing is done, creditors will be notified and committee will be formed to picture the interest of the creditors. The plan must be approved by the court. This filing can be complicated so a attorney is recommended. After 120 days, creditors can enter a proposed understanding, if one is not implemented. Just like with other bankruptcy cases, a motion of pause is ordered. This ceases any collection efforts by creditors. The trustee will review the bankruptcy to make sure the right filing has been done. If the trustee discovers that the bankruptcy qualifies as a Chapter 7 or 13, it can be converted. If the Chapter 11 filing is just, you business can be allowed to continue to function as it restructures. A Chapter 11 does not require the companies assets to be liquidated, instead the company’s financial health is overseen by the trustee. A Chapter 11 filing does require the votes of the creditors.
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy is suitable for companies who are so far in debt that reorganization is not possible. This bankruptcy allows for the liquidation of assets to payoff credits. The assets are sold off to pay the creditors. Those creditors that have secured debt, will have the asset returned to them, while those with unsecured debt would have to file a claim and hope there are funds left over to received some repayment. When a business files for Chapter 7, the company will cease operations.
It is important to realize that not all debt can be discharged in a business bankruptcy. Debts such as taxes owed to local space, federal or government agencies, debt that was not listed, debts acquired after bankruptcy and more. It is necessary to consult with your attorney to make sure that all the paperwork filed is lawful. Do not mislead or attempt to hide information from the bankruptcy court. The penalties are severe, could include fines and possible jail time.
Filing bankruptcy will affect your business. First, all your creditors who are listed in the bankruptcy filing will be contacted. They will be notified depending on your type of bankruptcy filing, whether they will receive payments, assets returned or a settlement offer. Accountants and your attorneys, will receive administrative claims, which means they will have priority on being paid first.
Making the decision to file bankruptcy is not a easy one. But in today’s economy, it is not unexpected that more and more businesses will have to access this option. Depending on the filing you do, bankruptcy can support to obtain your business. A Chapter 11 gives you the opportunity to work with your creditors to remain operational and to rehabilitate your business. There are two other options but they are limited. Chapter 13 can be traditional for sole proprietorships and partnerships if the amount of secured debt is less than $1,010,650 or unsecured debt is less than $336,900 according to www.moranlaw.net . If you are a family farm business you can file under Chapter 12. Again, consult with your legal counsel to see which bankruptcy meets your needs and what actions can be taken after the filing.
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Filed under Partnership Bankruptcy by on Nov 29th, 2010. Comment.
Corporations are right entities according to United States laws. They are allowed to select and sell assets, hire and fire employees, and a host of other things. These businesses are incorporated in one dwelling located within the United States and are chartered by the state or territory for tax purposes. There are two main types of corporations Sub-chapter S Corporation’s, or C Corporation’s. It is important to understand the advantage’s and disadvantage’s of a corporation before selecting it as your business structure.
There are many advantages when selecting a corporation as your business structure. A corporation is residence to have tremendous advantages over the sole proprietorship or partnership structure. Corporations have almost unlimited access to financial capital because it may raise capital by selling stock, borrowing from banks, or by issuing bonds. As long as a corporation is financially stable, it has unlimited life. It is not forced into liquidating bankruptcy. Corporations can be transferred from one owner to another by selling a corporations stock, by gift, or by inheritance. Most owners enjoy the fact that they have diminutive liability. The corporation assumes all liability. All owners are required to invest $1000. Therefore, you can never lose more than your $1000 investment if your company were sued or ceased to exist.
With that being said, there are also many disadvantages. The first is annual audits by an independent, impartial, outside auditor, of which the corporation must cover the costs. You must file many forms and be in compliance with Federal laws that are only applied to corporations. The ownership of your corporation is widely held. The owners of the corporation are separate from the business and have little to no control over how the business is urge on the daily basis. A board of directors is selected and they bear the responsibility of making decisions. However, from the financial point of view, double taxation is the biggest disadvantage. Corporations must pay Federal tax on its profits; then the corporation may distribute a share of its stocks back to the owner as a dividend. You can, however, avoid double taxation by putting your money into a private corporation that has received Sub-chapter S status from the IRS. Profits will still be distributed to stockholders, but as ordinary income, and the stockholder is responsible for paying taxes on the profits.
Now that you have the basics of a Corporation, construct sure that you study further so that you can make this structure is right for you.
More Business
Different Types of Corporations: Advantages and Disadvantages of Corporations
MoreBusiness.com
All Business
Advantages and Disadvantages of Forming a Corporation
Allbusiness.com
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Filed under Partnership Bankruptcy by on Oct 1st, 2010. Comment.