Phoenix by jurvetson

Since the recession began, I’ve seen an increase in the number of business phoenixes. A phoenix happens when a business closes down one day, and then opens the next day as a completely new company, but with the same staff, directors and customers. You can usually tell this has happened by a slight change of name, a different bank account, and the directors looking exhausted but relieved.

Businesses usually phoenix (if we can use it as a verb) because they are in trouble and have big debts around their shoulders. Ethically, the difference seems to be that some businesses phoenix because they would not survive otherwise with their huge debts to the banks and some businesses phoenix in order to avoid paying their suppliers. You can tell the difference because the second category (the unethical ones) phoenix again and again. They’re the ones where the directors have taken all the money out of the business before closing it down – you can recognise them when the director is driving a Lexus but telling you that they can’t afford to pay your invoice.

In essence, creating a phoenix company is fairly simple. You put one company into liquidation and open a new company at the same time. The new company now does whatever the old one used to do for the same customers, with the same staff, and a very similar name and brand. Quite often you don’t notice the difference – you could be sitting next to a phoenix right now.

Pros and cons

If you’re thinking that this might be a great way to ditch some of the hassles of business life, such as that troublesome loan which the bank seems to think you will pay back, or that useless member of staff, then do think carefully.

A phoenix strategy has some things going for it, but there are also some serious disadvantages.

• A phoenix has to be done properly and legally otherwise you’ll end up still owing the money but you won’t be able to pay it back because you’ll be in prison for fraud. Get the right advice, from an accountant who has done this before (many accountants haven’t) or preferably an insolvency specialist.
• A phoenix has major long term consequences. You could have that bird around your neck for the rest of your life. If you put a company into liquidation, you are unlikely to ever get a loan again and you’ll have difficulty getting personal credit, even for small items. Some people who have been through this have had difficulty opening bank accounts or setting up online payments, even years after the event.

When you might have to

I’ve worked with three businesses in the last year who have phoenixed. They all tried everything they could to keep the original business going but, when the banks withdrew credit, the directors had no choice. The only alternative was to close down the business for good, and make everyone redundant with no severance pay and walk away. The phoenix was the lesser of two evils.

When it’s bad

A bad phoenix, like most bad actions, has a malicious motivation. When a business owner does this because they have been reckless or greedy, paying themselves big wages when the company isn’t paying suppliers, spending money on lazy, crazy marketing activities such as PR to promote the owners’ egos rather than the products or buying expensive things like cars, or in one case I saw, a giant fish tank for the office when staff hadn’t been paid that month. The company’s assets get sold to the owner’s mum for a fiver at liquidation, and you see Mr Dodgy driving his (sorry, his mum’s) sleazemobile a week later.

How you can make it better

If you’re in a bad situation, and are thinking about phoenixing, or you’ve done it and are feeling morally icky about it, there are some things you can do to make it better.

Firstly, protect the little guys. If you owe your suppliers, and can’t pay them, unless you talk to them they will hate you. Make sure you know that the small companies you owe money to know that they’ll get their money later. A client once paid me the last part of the fees she owed me a whole 5 years after I’d done the work, and I respect her for taking the trouble to do this.

Secondly, ensure that your staff know what’s going on. Staff always have a good idea of what’s going on, and if you tell the truth it will usually be better than the worst case scenario they’ve been imagining. If you’re intending to take staff with you to the new company, this is especially important as you don’t want them to jump ship.

I’ve recently been asked for help by someone who is running a (sort of) social enterprise.  He’s been running a business, and on the side of this he’s been doing all sorts of community projects.  All brilliant stuff, getting young people involved, providing services to the community – I’m not going to be specific in case you recognise him, but there were lots of great ideas for wonderful things.

This guy had not planned things out, and unfortunately had started a business which was failing.  So none of the lovely things could happen, because there was no profit to recycle into the community benefits.

In order to run a social enterprise you need to put the enterprise bit first.  You have to run a business, sell things, make money and deal with all of the things that every other entrepreneur has to deal with.

I tell people all the time that making money is a good thing, because money gives you options.  For some (non social) entrepreneurs, these are options to make the business bigger, have lovely holidays, do more aggressive marketing or feel secure for once.  Social enterprises have a different set of goals – they need to make money to make a contribution to the community.

So making money, and lots of it, is even more important for social enterprises than your regular businesses. If you’re not making a profit you’re just a loss making business, just like all the other failing businesses, but you’re going to feel worse because you’ve set yourself these community goals as well as business goals.