It has happened to so many businesses over the last few years. Thriving businesses reduced to the brink, or to nothing.
There are many reasons why this happens, including recessionary explanations, competition, changes in culture, changes in practice that were badly managed, and so on. And despair and misfortune can play their parts. The stories we hear are without limits.
So it comes to pass, in a chance meeting, I hear the story of a photography business that was doing well. So well, in fact, that it chose to expand its horizons before the recession to move into video and TV work. It got it wrong at the wrong time, lost focus on the core business, took on debt and lost customers, and spent a few years falling apart.
So, we had a think, and we made a pitch. We knew that the business had assets that could earn money, and we saw a route to bring the business back to profit using a variety of routes to market, and using the assets that it still had.
Several weeks later, and they are employing again!