Every Debt Counsellor, at some time or another, has received a request from a consumer asking for help with their financial difficulties only to realize that the debt they are talking about is not of a personal nature but rather relates to their business.
Most of the time, we then have to inform the consumer that we can’t help them. After all, as Debt Counsellors, we specialise in helping consumers with their personal debt.
But what if there was a way you could assist them?
What If You Could Help?
No doubt you have heard about and perhaps even researched a little about business rescue. In many ways it is like debt review but for a company rather than an individual.
The essence of business rescue is to facilitate the rehabilitation of a company that is “financially distressed” by providing for:
the temporary supervision of the company and management of its affairs, business and property by a Business Rescue Practitioner;
providing a temporary moratorium against legal action, even enforcement action by creditors against the company;
developing and implementing (if approved by creditors) a business rescue plan to restructure a business’s affairs, property, debt liabilities and equity
All that would be done with the goal of achieving a better return for the company’s creditors higher than what they would have received if the company was simply liquidated.
“Business Rescue is Debt Counselling on steroids” says Raynard McLaren, a Business Rescue Professional from REM Corporate Solutions. According to Raynard, who has been involved in Business Rescue since back in 2014, not all businesses would be able to be rescued as there must be a reasonable prospect for rescue and that would only be able to be determined once a Business Health Check has been done.
‘it is like debt review but for a company’
This is much like how Debt Counsellors do a debt review or evaluation for consumers but with all the businesses info and debts. With some hard work and good planning, it is possible to make a suitable and realistic plan to vastly improve many businesses viability.
Raynard also says that the Companies Act strictly stipulates the timeframe in which the business rescue process must take place which includes the formulation of a business rescue plan on which the creditors of the company must either vote to implement, amend or reject. So, time is a factor.
Could You Add This To Your Services?
If you are looking to expand your offerings or would like to help consumers with these types of challenges, then you might want to consider partnering with a reliable business rescue professional.
It could be one of your extended external service offerings to consumers, on a business level to deal with their debts.
That way these consumers can get the help their business needs and on a personal level can also make use of your debt counselling services too.
As a bonus, it can even help generate an additional revenue stream for your practice, which never hurts.
For more info about how business rescue works head over to Google or check out www.remcorp.co.za
Note: To read the rest of this issue of Debtfree magazine click next/previous