A business in trouble has more routes than people think, and the worst of them is drifting — draining personal savings into a company that cannot be rescued, while the guarantees quietly follow you home.
The guarantees are the real question. Closing the company ends the company. It does not touch what you personally signed for, which is why the business side and your side have to be planned together rather than one after the other.
Collection, lawsuits, garnishments and repossession must stop on filing. It applies to the business immediately, and to you where you have filed too.
Every creditor is dealt with in a single case on a single timetable, instead of separately and on theirs.
Reorganising businesses keep trading while they restructure. The point of the stay is the room it creates to make decisions rather than reactions.
Whether a business should reorganise, close, or simply be renegotiated with turns on one question: does it still make money at the operating level? Everything else follows from the answer.
The numbers, the debt, and what you have personally guaranteed. Whether the business makes money at the operating level decides most of the strategy.
The company's exposure and yours, together. Planning them separately is how people end up solving one and worsening the other.
Reorganise, close, or renegotiate — with the guarantees factored in rather than left for later.
Collection stops on filing. A reorganising business keeps operating throughout.
Subchapter V works to a 90-day plan deadline and confirmation after that. A Chapter 7 wind-down and a personal discharge run on their own timetable.
Nearly every meaningful business obligation — the bank loan, the equipment lease, the landlord, the SBA note — was signed by an owner personally as well as by the company. That signature is a separate promise, and it is usually the thing that actually keeps owners awake.
Find every guarantee. Owners routinely have more than they remember, spread across leases, notes and vendor accounts.
Establish which are already called and which are dormant. The two need different handling.
Decide whether the personal side needs its own filing. Often the business case alone does not solve the owner's problem.
Sequence them. Filing the business and the personal case in the wrong order can cost real money.
Entities, guarantees, and the routes out.
The options are widest while the business is still trading and the guarantees have not been called. Bring the numbers and we will tell you honestly which routes are still open. The consultation is free.
Not legal advice. Prefer a person? Call (469) 607-8552