For me, the most difficult type of individual to help to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy is a small business owner. The reason for this is that often a small business can complicate an individual's plans to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy protection. Most people would like to simply be free from their creditors and not have to lose anything in the process.
It is easier when the thing you may lose is a vehicle or a sum of money in a bankruptcy. However, for a small business owner, the loss may be a business and the ability to generate income from that business. That potential loss can sometimes be enough to prevent a person from filing a Chapter 7 Bankruptcy at all. The problem that many clients face is the prospect of either being prisoner to their debts or forfeiting the assets of a business that they personally built. For many the test of whether to file is tied to the probability of the business remaining viable for long enough to bring financial woes under control.
However, most times a client’s business is what created the financial trouble in the first place. The silver lining here is that not every business is necessarily going to be lost just because an owner files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy protection. If a business doesn’t have tangible assets, oftentimes that business will not be of any benefit to one’s creditors. If that is the case, then it is possible to keep a small business even after bankruptcy.
