

The Double Whammy of Bankruptcies for Entrepreneurs - cwan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204731804574386844132423118.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness

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jacquesm
There's a third one a little while down the road, having been involved in a
bankruptcy you will find - especially states-side - that your credit rating is
now in the basement which will make it almost impossible to do anything other
than to get a job. (and even some employers use credit scores to decide who to
hire).

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cperciva
_... which will make it almost impossible to do anything other than to get a
job_

I'm not sure what you mean here. Are you saying that after declaring
bankruptcy it's difficult to convince someone to loan you money to start a
business?

Getting a job is the normal state of affairs for most adults, so I don't see
what's particularly exceptional about it.

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jacquesm
In some places it can be difficult to even get banking.

Borrowing money is not the issue.

Employers are not above doing credit checks and banks might simply refuse to
deal with you.

That can make the road to recovery a very difficult one.

Sure, most of the people out there have jobs, but since there is no better way
to learn than to fail if you're going to try again some day it might help that
you're able to get a half decent job so you can save some $.

Assuming the bankruptcy is a real one and not one of those where banks and
credit card companies get to garnish your wages for the rest of your life.

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cperciva
_banks might simply refuse to deal with you._

How odd -- I've never heard of that happening in Canada. Sure, banks will run
credit checks before allowing an overdraft; but the only problems I've ever
heard about with people being entirely unable to get bank accounts have been
homeless people without any ID.

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jacquesm
Coincidentally my experience is also in Canada (not my own experience, but a
close friend there, an older person).

This was about 6 years ago. I was quite shocked to learn that you could be
refused banking at all, for any other reason than for instance being a
criminal or something like that.

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cperciva
I don't get it. People are signing personal guarantees on business loans, and
then say that they didn't realize that their personal assets are at risk? What
did they think "personal guarantee" meant -- or did they just sign blindly
without even trying to understand what they were signing?

~~~
RiderOfGiraffes
I agree with you, but I've seen it repeatedly. People firstly don't understand
the real differences between personal assets and business assets, thinking
that because they own the business they can move things around freely.

Then people don't really, really read the fine print _and understand the
details._

Sometimes the fine print, or even not so fine print, is designed carefully to
appear clear, and yet still not get the message across. In the UK people have
started to tune out the "Your home is at risk if you do not keep up payments
on loans secured against it." becuase they are hearing it so often.

It's easy to gloss over things you don't want to hear, know or acknowlege, and
sometimes I wonder if entrepreneurs aren't especially prone to that.

If you listened to all the naysayers you'd never get started - there is a
tendency to ignore the negative, focus on the positive, and push on
regardless.

