What the firms won’t tell you.
Straight, first-person writing on director risk, ATO pressure, DPNs, and what really happens when a business fails. No jargon, no judgement.
38 Years of Business Turnarounds
Lessons from the frontline I've spent nearly four decades walking through the fire with business owners. Not from the sidelines, not from a theoretical distance — but right there…
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Signed a Personal Guarantee? Read This First
If you signed a personal guarantee for your company's debts, liquidating the company does not make that debt go away. The creditor simply stops chasing the company and starts…
Restructure or Phoenix? Where the Legal Line Sits
There's a word that gets thrown at every director who closes one company and opens another: phoenix. Sometimes it's deserved. Often it isn't. Starting again after a business fails…
What to Ask Before You Hire a Liquidator
Most directors pick a liquidator the same way they'd pick a plumber at 10pm on a Sunday. Whoever answers the phone first, sounds confident and says they can start Monday. I…
Administration, Liquidation or SBR: Which Fits?
Every week someone sits across from me with the same question, usually phrased three different ways. Should I put the company into administration? Is it too late to restructure?…
Will My Partner Be Dragged Into My Bankruptcy?
Your partner does not go bankrupt because you do. Bankruptcy is personal. It attaches to you, your debts and your assets, not to the person you live with. But in 38 years of…
Will I Lose My House If I Go Bankrupt?
It's the first question almost everyone asks me, usually before they've asked anything about their debts. Will I lose the house? The honest answer is: it depends on one number,…
The ATO Froze My Bank Account. Now What?
The call usually comes on a Tuesday morning. Wages are due Thursday, the account should have $40,000 in it, and the owner has logged in to find it sitting at zero. No warning from…
The System Is the Solution: Why Every Problem Lands on Your Desk
Here's a question I ask every business owner who sits down with me: if you went away for four weeks, what would happen to the business? Most of them laugh. Then they go quiet.…
The Bridge — Negotiation, Persuasion and Getting What You Need
Nobody gives a toss about your product or service. Not really. I don't care about mine either, past the point where it gets me from where I am to where I want to be. That's the…
Why the ATO Is Coming After Directors Personally
A director penalty notice used to be a rare thing. Something that happened to someone else, in a business that had really lost the plot. Not anymore. The ATO issued close to…
The New Face of Bankruptcy Is a Tradie in His Late Thirties
Ask most people to picture someone going bankrupt and they'll picture a failed businessman in a suit. That picture is out of date. The data says the person most likely to be…
A Housing Crisis Built on Insolvent Builders
Australia has a housing shortage everyone agrees is a crisis. And at the same time, the industry meant to fix it is falling over at a rate we haven't seen before. 3,472…
The Rescue Tool Nobody's Using Anymore
When Small Business Restructuring came in back in 2021, it was the best idea Australian insolvency law had produced in years. A director-led process, cheaper and faster than…
Bankruptcy Is a Reset, Not a Stigma — and I'd Know
Years ago there was an ad for an electric shaver. The pitch was simple: the boss tried the product, rated it, and the line became famous — "I liked it so much, I bought the…
The Warning Signs I See Before Owners Do
By the time someone calls me, they usually think the problem started a few weeks ago. It almost never did. It started somewhere between twelve and eighteen months earlier, and…
Three Years Is Too Long. Make Bankruptcy Twelve Months.
I've been arguing this one for years and I'll keep arguing it: the default bankruptcy period in Australia should be twelve months, not three years. This isn't a fringe position. A…
Bankruptcy vs Liquidation: What's Actually the Difference?
This is the question I'm asked more than any other, usually by someone who's been using the two words interchangeably for months and has just realised they might mean different…
Safe Harbour Was a Start. It Was Never Enough.
When the safe harbour provisions came in, the thinking behind them was sound. Directors were being pushed toward premature liquidation by insolvent trading laws that made it…
The Insolvency Culture That Punishes People for Asking Early
There's a pattern in this industry that I've watched for close to four decades and never made peace with. The business owner who comes forward early, admits the position, and…
It's Time We Shifted How We Think About Bankruptcy
Ask most Australians what bankruptcy means and you'll get an answer about the person, not the process. Failed. Reckless. Someone who couldn't manage money. Ask the law what it…
When the Headlines Don't Tell the Full Story: My Side of the ATO and Dreamtime Pools
It's confronting to see your name in the media — especially when it's painted with a single brushstroke of blame. The articles published in the Geelong Advertiser raise serious…
We Fix What Others Walk Away From
Watch on YouTube When a business hits real financial pressure, something predictable happens: the people who were happy to take your money on the way up start going quiet. Calls…
Uncomplicating Insolvency, One Business at a Time
Insolvency doesn't have to be scary, and it certainly doesn't have to be the end of your business. Half the panic around it comes from not knowing what the actual options are —…
No Robes. No Wigs. Just Results.
We're not lawyers, trustees, or liquidators — and that's exactly why people come to us first. When a business is in trouble, the first instinct is to ring a lawyer or, worse, to…