From a fall, back to flight - Reprogramming My Mindset...

1.- I grabbed all my open orders and projects that were quoted on one side and made a big pile, added them up. You know why I still had work? Because I never let anyone know of my situation.

2.- I grabbed all my debt invoices and accounts and made a separate pile on the desk.
After working out the revenues and cash flows I ideally needed to be able to pull this off, I came to the realization that it would at least take me three years to get back on my feet, keeping in mind there was almost no room for error, everything had to be precise.

Because the problem was finances, my focus was on developing a good cash flow for the companies. Cash Flow is something very important that everyone should learn about, but the subject is quite extensive, so that might be another post down the line.

I started to renegotiate all debts I had with each Bank and Institution, my attitude had to be assertive because Banks are not too willing to negotiate too much in Brazil.

I personally called every single Manager asking them to see me, and managed to bring down the monthly payments by 20% of course extending them, but I needed the money to stay in business. In other words 80% of my revenue went to pay all the debt I was paying off, so to make up for it, I had to focus on increasing productivity, that would be the only way of getting out of the problem faster.

When I tell you that my attitude with the Bank Managers was energetic and assertive, I'm going to share with you one of the experiences I had with one of them.

The Bank manager was sitting in my living room, and I was showing him my proposal of repayment of debt, he looked at me and said: "This is impossible!" I quickly responded "Oh yeah? I'll show you impossible"

I had a jar full of mints on top of my table at this point, I look at the jar, look at him and say: "Do you see this jar of candy?" he of course nodded.

I continued "that is pretty much how many Institutions I owe money to, each candy represents one bank, But do you see the candy on top?" He nodded again "Well, that's you and I'm telling you I'm going to do my best to give you priority and repay my debt as soon as possible.... But if you tell me it's impossible, then I will have no choice to put the mint that represents your Bank at the bottom of the jar, and then this debt will be the last of my priorities"

I continued. "Go talk to your supervisor, and make sure he understand that you don't want to be the last mint inside my jar"

One week later they took my proposal to re-negotiate my debt, and we signed all the papers. And this little tactic continued in one way or another until I restructured the whole thing.
I want to be clear about something, I never stopped paying my debts, but with that attitude I made sure that it was possible and I had to do it to be able to have an adequate Cash Flow to stay in business. It's about giving yourself your place.

What I'm trying to tell you with this message is that no matter how hard the situation can be, you must stop defaulting to just complaining, you have to learn to dominate those emotions and focus on finding a solution.

I wish you all much success, until next time

@chbartist