Oh For Food's Sake

Liquidating a Business

Episode Summary

Most of the stories we hear about businesses in our culture recount business success, where a small, ballsy go-getter grows into an enterprise giant. It’s rare to dive into the other kind of business stories, where with the best will in the world, the business just can’t keep going. But that’s what we’re doing on this episode of the Oh For Food’s Sake podcast. Today we’re talking about liquidating a business: what it means, how to do it, what it feels like and why you need to know about liquidating a business before you start one.

Episode Notes

Most of the stories we hear about businesses in our culture recount business success, where a small, ballsy go-getter grows into an enterprise giant. It’s rare to dive into the other kind of business stories, where with the best will in the world, the business just can’t keep going. But that’s what we’re doing on this episode of the Oh For Food’s Sake podcast. Today we’re talking about liquidating a business: what it means, how to do it, what it feels like and why you need to know about liquidating a business before you start one.

This episode gets real about the responsibilities of running a business and moving on with your life once your business is shuttered. We begin by giving you the definition of liquidation and explain why it’s different from going into administration. Lucy relives her experience of liquidating Pudology and walks us through the steps that she took, from hiring liquidators to dealing with the inevitable emotional fallout. She also shares the light that shone at the end of the tunnel once she’d liquidated Pudology and some of the lessons that she took from the whole experience.

We know that Lucy isn’t the only person who’s ever gone through shutting down a business that was also a passion project. If this episode of the Oh For Food’s Sake podcast resonated with you, drop us a message via our Facebook page to share your story and the light at the end of the tunnel that you found. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast to catch new episodes every week.

Timestamps

[1:24] Today we’re talking about how you actually liquidate a business

[4:41] Why it’s a topic worth talking about

[7:03] Dictionary time! What does ‘liquidating a business’ really mean?

[8:40] A quick recap of the Pudology story

[12:50] How your burn rate affects your business strategy

[15:50] “The next day is when I set the wheels in motion”: Wrapping up the business

[17:45] What it costs to liquidate a business

[20:35] So what happens with your trademark and branding?

[23:23] There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

[25:36] Business learnings, personal learnings: Moving on from liquidation

[29:25] If you want to know more, get in touch