The Day I Was Ready to Declare Bankruptcy
The most dangerous moment for a CEO isn’t failure.
It’s when momentum silently disappears.
On 2nd October 2019, I was 41 years old. My marriage had collapsed. I was £100,000 in business debt, with zero sales for three consecutive months - and ready to declare business and personal bankruptcy.
Twelve months earlier, I was running a £1 million agency with 14 staff and international recognition.
I did not see it coming.
2nd October 2018
40 years old
Married with 3 young daughters
Living in a £700,000 7 bedroom country home with £2000 p/m mortgage
Driving a new £80,000 Land Rover Discovery (business contract hire)
Driving a new £40,000 Audi TT (business contract hire)
Running a £1M turnover, industry-respected UX and CRO agency
Monthly retainer sales of around £45k
Monthly sales of around £90k
£0 business debt
Employing 14 incredible members of staff
2 offices in Manchester City Centre
Our own research facility
Representing the UK in the “Global Conversion Alliance” with other leading CRO agencies across the earth
Working with brands such as Red Bull, Nike, Allianz and LVMH Group
Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
Training for Google
Keynote speaker
2nd October 2019
41 years old
Marriage collapsed early 2019
Still living in a £700,000 7 bedroom country home with £2000 p/m mortgage
Still driving the £80,000 Land Rover Discovery (business contract hire)
Still driving the £40,000 Audi TT (business contract hire)
Running a UX and CRO agency on the verge of bankruptcy
Monthly retainer sales of ZERO
ZERO monthly sales for the last 3 months
£100,000 of business debt
Employing 2 remaining junior staff - everyone else made redundant
2 offices in Manchester City Centre closed
Our own research facility closed
No longer representing the UK in the “Global Conversion Alliance”
Working with 0 brands
Still a lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU)
No longer training for Google
No more keynote speaker engagements
The Psychological Cost
The silence was deafening.
Emails went unanswered.
Proposals stalled.
Momentum had vanished.
For the 1st time since I had started PRWD I had experienced the humiliation of seeing almost all the team take voluntary redundancy - including friends I had worked with for years and my right hand man, my Operations Director.
The scale of business and personal financial pressure was absolutely crushing me to breaking point.
I was stood on a cliff edge, gripped with fear, in an impossible situation.
I Was Ready To Declare PRWD Bankrupt And Deal With The Consequences
On 2nd October 2019, I was standing on that cliff edge with £100,000 of business debt, including a £50,000 loan I had taken out months earlier simply to fund redundancy payments for the 12 team members I had to let go that Summer.
I was ready to declare my business bankrupt and deal with the implications of this, particularly with the likelihood of having to declare personal bankruptcy. I was in a completely impossible position - with ZERO sales for the last 3 months as clients, understandably, were “deserting a sinking ship”.
In that moment, with no commercial solution left, I did the only thing I hadn’t tried before.
Having gone from no faith to total faith a couple of weeks after marital breakdown in April earlier that year, I prayed to God, asking Him if He needs me to declare PRWD bankrupt and closed this month.
God answered my prayer by saying to me by His Spirit in me:
“My son, keep going, don’t worry, the sales are going to start coming in.”
I burst into tears. The fear lifted. Suddenly my faith rose up.
I knew I was going to keep going and trust God’s word to me.
The Next 4 Weeks
From my answered prayer on 2nd October, over the next 4 weeks, having not won any sales in the last 3 months, we secured more new business than in any four-week period in the previous 12 years.
By the end of the 4 weeks we had won over £90k of new sales, which we would be delivering over the following 3-4 months.
As Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
I learnt that collapse exposes what success hides.
