On the new site you’ll find lots of information about the book; about yours truly; and about the reasons why I came to write “Back to the Black”. There’s a selection of case studies from the book; and a link to the eBook retail site where you can view or buy the book.
You’ll find the new website at www.back-to-the-black.com
My book, “Back to the Black: how to become debt-free and stay that way”, is now available as an eBook on the “Smashwords” site.
Ten years ago I ran up heavy debts when my business collapsed. I had started a training business seven years before, after a long career in the chemical industry. When my enterprise ran into difficulties, credit was easy, so I could fund it with loans and credit cards. In the short term this plugged the gap; I thought things would improve. They didn’t.
So I closed the business down, looked for a job, and tried to work out how to solve my debt problem. My first intention was to pay off everything I owed but I knew it would take time. I didn’t think I could get the debts down to a manageable level in less than five to ten years; my creditors would not give me that kind of time.
My financial adviser recommended bankruptcy. I had by then sunk all my assets into the business, so he said that there could never be a better time for me to go bankrupt. For many reasons I didn’t want to do that although after a fairly short period, I would have been debt-free. The advantages and disadvantages of bankruptcy – and its modern alternative, the IVA (Individual Voluntary Arrangement) – are set out in detail in the book; recent developments have taken away some of the former stigma and the practical disadvantages of these solutions.
However, I decided instead that I would negotiate a deal with my creditors myself. This approach I call “Plan C – negotiate a deal” – and you’ll find it in Chapter 10 of the book. I made an offer to all my creditors for full and final settlement. Eventually all of them, apart from the taxman, agreed to the deal.
At the time, I thought my debt problem was insurmountable. It was a very stressful period. However, I was lucky to have the support of a debt advice agency and other professionals and friends.
I came through the experience; I learned a lot.
I was not, and am not, happy with the fact that I was unable to pay my debts in full. After the event, however, I decided to write up what had happened, partly for my own benefit. I even thought that maybe it would make a couple of newspaper articles. If other people with debt problems could benefit from reading about my mistakes and what I’d learned, then something good would have come out of it all.
Those articles eventually grew into a book – “Back to the Black” – which sets out what I call the three main strategies for dealing with debt. It also contains lots of advice for dealing with debt-related stress and with the demands of creditors.
In summary, my book is based not on a theoretical approach to debt, but on painful experience. I hope that you can benefit from reading about that experience. If you have debts, whether they are consumer debts or business debts or both, the principles for dealing with them are the same. The experiences you are going through, though unique to your situation, will have much in common with mine.
Go to www.smashwords.com/books/view/22886 if you’d like to know more.
One of the many advantages of living in Bristol (UK), which has been my pleasure and privilege for the last five years, is the annual Bristol Festival of Ideas. I say the “Bristol” Festival of Ideas but how many other such events are there in the UK? The only big one I’m aware of is in Cambridge, with all due respect to Sedbergh in Yorkshire. There’s also one with the same title in the north-west but that is rather different, focusing on ideas related to social issues. Where my (new) home city leads, others will surely follow, as the late great Isambard Brunel might have said two centuries ago and Bristol’s Merchant Venturers’ Society, still active after eight centuries, would surely also say.
What I do know is that if you type “Festival of Ideas” into Google, the Bristol event always heads the list. Is this because it’s the best event of its kind or because Bristol is more competent at IT, or more specifically how to appeal to search engines?
That’s enough boasting about Bristol, except to say that the last event of the main Festival of Ideas this year was a lecture by Vince Cable. This is probably the most trusted politician in Britain today and a man that even his political opponent Alan Duncan called “the Holy Grail of economic comment these days”.
In the unlikely event that you had forgotten, ‘Cable’s the star of Newsnight’s credit-crunch discussions, the go-to guy for a sagacious economics quote for broadsheet front-page leads … ‘ (Guardian). He’s also ‘everything a politician should be and everything most politicians are not’ (Mail on Sunday) and ‘a heavyweight in anybody’s cabinet’ (The Times)
And in the middle of the recession, we had him in Bristol! I don’t know why the venue was only 80% full, but those who stayed at home missed a lot. Economics is supposed to be “the dismal science” but dismal Vince Cable is not. Even while describing events that were, and remain, apocalyptic to the trained economist that he is, his intelligence and wit shine through, as did his insistence that “I’m not here as a party politician,” a claim he backed up by a reluctance to score blame-giving points and a tendency to give credit where it was due. Who knew politicians could do that??
But what I liked best of all was his tendency to put all the figures he mentioned in perspective; in context. Comparisons create a picture of the significance of the data in a way which can’t be done by just throwing out an impressively large number on its own, as most politicians like to do. The examples of this exemplary trait were too numerous to mention and the habit shines through Dr Cable’s new book “The Storm”. This analysis of the world financial crisis has been so comprehensively (and favourably) reviewed that I don’t have to repeat the process. Suffice it to say that my gang were unanimously of the view they had been at a memorable event.
“Pub is the Hub” was an initiative set up in 2001 by The Prince of Wales. It encourages breweries, pub owners, licensees and local communities to work together to help retain and enhance rural pubs. The idea was that providing new services from the pub, such as a post office or a shop, either keeps an essential service in the village or brings a new one in.
My local, the Coronation Tap, could never be called a rural pub, as it is only about a mile and a half from the centre of the city of Bristol. However it could be called a village pub, as it is in the area generally called Clifton Village. “Whatever”, as they say: the principle of “pub is the hub” is fulfilled superbly by the Coronation Tap, except that it’s a musical hub.
When I first came to Bristol five years ago, I was fortunate that in my first week here a friendly local told me about the CoriTap, as it is often called. I soon discovered that Jan and Mick Gale, the licensees, had built up an enviable reputation for the quality and variety of the live music, and also for the friendliness of the pub.
Since then they have gone from strength to strength and last week I was there at an unusual time, Monday morning. The occasion: BBC Radio Bristol was broadcasting live from the pub for two hours, because the following day Jan and Mick were going to the Grosvenor House in London for the award of the “Publican” trade paper’s “UK Music Pub of the Year”. The CoriTap had made it to the last six.
One reason for this success is that it’s not just the punters that enjoy the live music sessions here. Without exception, musicians line up to describe it as their favourite venue; this despite the fact that in terms of space it’s less than ideal. Atmosphere is hard to specify, but this pub has it in spades. An appreciative clientele is another reason why Jan is constantly being approached by new acts, some from beyond our shores, that have heard about the CoriTap legend from fellow-musicians and want to come and see what all the fuss is about.
Jan and Mick didn’t win this time; I believe that we came joint second. But there is always next year. This is the first time that the pub has entered the competition, so to have reached a national shortlist at the first attempt is some achievement. I am confident, and so are all the customers and musicians who love this venue, that next year the title will come to Bristol!
http://www.thecoronationtap.com/calendar.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/newsid_7959000/7959612.stm
http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/Bristol-s-CoriTap-running-UK-s-best-music-pubarticle-591011-details/article.html