Just to add I am meeting all my current repayments but only because I am borrowing money left, right and centre (i.e. by not paying back my payments and using my credit card to pay for food etc).

Welcome to the trust deed forum bankruptemotionally.

I'm sorry to read that things are so tough for you at the moment.

The options available to you at the moment are probably limited if you do not have a provable source of income to at least cover your essential costs like your rent for example.

Options such as a protected trust deed, the debt arrangement scheme or a debt management plan all depend upon you being able to afford to pay a contribution towards the debts each month. After you have paid your rent, utility bills, council tax, food, clothing, transport costs and so on do you think that's possible at the moment?

Can you envisage a way to continue to run your business without access to credit?

How do you envisage your trading will be over the next six to twelve months?

Hi bankruptcemotionally

I dont see any reason why you would be asked to give up your business, if anything you should be actively encouraged to maintain it.

Looking at a formal option, ie DAS, Trust Deed etc may allow you more time to concentrate on the business side of things and be less worried about increasing debt payments.

Remember a Trust Deed should be used to solve problems, not create other ones.

Mark

Trust Deed Assistant - I do think I would be able to pay a monthly contribution towards a payment plan as I'm currently managing to meet all outgoing payments by doing a lot of juggling and it would be much easier to budget if I knew there was a certain amount leaving my account to cover all debt repayments on a certain day of the month without incurring any more interest and increasing month on month.

At the moment I can't see how I can run my business without credit, the problem is I have never lived without credit - I got my first credit card when I was 18 and was in debt by the age of 22. My first lot of debt was due to a shopping addiction and sheer stupidity even though I was living at home, but then I moved out and the cost of living made it snowball. My parents dug me out of that one and I thought I would be debt free by November 2012. I no longer spend like that at all and have completely changed my attitude but a decline in sales last year coupled with the extreme winter we had (which all but ruined the profits I would normally make from Oct-Dec) meant I had no money to pay by tax bill this year so that went on my credit card and has gradually snowballed. I feel like I am constantly paying for my past mistakes and I'm so full of regret.

Trading is so unpredictable so it is hard to answer your last question, I went from turning over approx. £4-6k a month (between £7-10k during Oct-Dec) in 2009 to £2-3k from June last year, I know this is down to fashion trends changing so this is why I am setting up a new website as this one alone is not enough to live on now. I have been nominated for a fashion award and if I win I think this will help considerably and business usually picks up from September onward due to Christmas. I was hoping to launch my new site in 6 weeks to maximise profit.

Sorry for all the rambling!

I had been switching credit cards to 0% balance transfers but I haven't done that since February. I haven't tried to get credit since then and I thought about applying for a large personal loan to consolidate it but again I'm worried I'd just be adding to the debt and I'd slide back into it by using the cards again. I'm not confident I'd be approved for a loan though hence why I'm considering a trust deed.

It's almost certainly going to be extremely difficult (if not impossible) for you to have access to credit for your business if you go ahead with a trust deed bankruptemotionally.

Do you have to purchase stock?

This is what I fear.

I still have to buy stock as I supply to shops etc and if I can't supply them I will lose their business.

As a last resort I'd be willing to work from home again instead of renting another office from October but to be honest the £184 it would save me seems like a drop in the ocean - although obviously every little helps.

I just don't know what to do first - if I wasn't self employed (well I wouldn't be in this mess in the first place) I wouldn't hesitate to go for a trust deed.

Who is best to speak to about my options?

There are lots of sources of advice available to you bankruptemotionally including the Money Advisers who may work at your local CAB office or Local Authority, trust deed providers or my colleagues in the site advice team here.

The key point however is that most debt solutions will either forbid you from taking on further credit, or lead to a reduction in your ability to get credit because your credit score will decline. The same is almost certainly true if your debts continue to increase; at some point lenders will become uncomfortable about lending more.

From a business standpoint this is probably going to need to occupy your thoughts so that any route you choose doesn't end up being counterproductive.