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Benefits from never gambling again, using NEGA our program. EricĀ“s story.

So this story we are telling you about today, is about one of our long-term clients from our business consulting division, and we have his permission to tell the story publicly in this article.

Eric is an old client of ours, and he is 43 years old and he runs a smaller construction and roofing business with 20+ employees.

His company does 3 million dollar a year in turnover and he is the sole owner, and the company has zero debt.

He started the company 21 years ago at the age of 22 so he is a self made guy.

So these are the positive thing about Erics financial situation.

He has a salary of 500.0000 dollars a year and he pays 40% in tax and he lives with his two dogs in a 3 bedroom town house.

Eric has a net income of 300.000 dollars and he has fixed costs of 80.000 dollars a year and then comes the cash purchases of food and other things.

So now you would think if you do the math that maybe he has invested and saved almost 200.000 dollars a year for many years so this guy is doing really well!.

Here comes the bad news with Eric, he is a gambler and he plays both online casinos and he bets heavily on sports, where NBA,NFL,NHL and European soccer is his favorite’s to bet on.

This heavy gambling takes place in Erics life when he comes home from work, and before he goes to bed he bets on many objects that takes place over night.

We have had several conversations with Eric over the past 9 years that he has been a client of ours, that maybe it would be a good idea to stop gambling and just invest his money on the stock market and into real estate instead.

Eric has not been willing to do that, and he has told as that he wants to continue betting on sports because he likes it to much.

So what has now changed?, in April Eric lost his best friend to Covid-19 and he was devastated and he wanted to pay of his late friends mortgage to help the two children and the widow out.

Here comes the wake up call, Eric figures out that he was no savings , no stocks or bonds that he can sell to cover the mortgage and no 401K to take money out of.

Eric now contacts us and demands a meeting the same day, and his request is that we take over his finances for 3 year period, true a wide Power of attorney.

So he requests that we take care of his personal finances and in his business finances.

He also ask us to put him on NEGA, our gambling treatment program that we have developed over the past 20 years time.

So in May this year Mrlifeadvise consulting takes over his finances together with a CPA to make sure that we handle everything correctly.

So after having lost around 3.7 million dollars over a 20+ year period Eric is now for the first time in his adult life free from the gambling demon, and he has opened up a trading account to buy stocks from each monthly paycheck as a type of 401K savings account.

He has had many emotionally bad days and some days where he has been upset with himself for wasting all this money over all this time.

And if he had invested these money into global index funds his portfolio would have been worth anywhere from 6-9 million dollars in 2020.

Instead of like now having almost nothing in his savings account.

So Eric is still one of the lucky ones, he has a company that are still doing 85% of the business he had before COVID-19 , and he still has time at the age of 43 to change his life around.

He is one of these cases that we do not here about, since he has not hit rock bottom , because he has been able to always pay his bills and take care of his business true all these years.

But if something would to happen to his business and it would go under then ,Eric would have nothing saved up for a rainy day.

So even if you are not a gambler who have accumulated debts, you should ask yourself do i have any saving or do i spend all my loose money gambling?.

Erics father was a lawyer with a very serious gambling problem when it came to OTB/Horse betting and he developed also a heavy drinking problem and he died pennyless at the age of 72 years in a studio apartment and he did not have more than 4 dollars in assets, so Eric paid for the funeral.

So our read on why Eric had his wake up call, is because when he had to attend his best friends funeral and when he could not just pay away his best friends mortgage in a day, he saw his own future life flash before his eyes, that maybe he would end up in a studio apartment penny less 30 years from now if he does not stop gambling today!.

So stopping before hitting rock bottom with any addiction, is always the best thing you can do and always ask for help, you will not be able to white knuckle it on your own!.

Today Eric called us, and said that he feels better than ever, he sleeps 8 h a night he does not wake up thinking to himself how are the games going that he has a lot of money riding on them.

And he spends more time outdoors hiking with his two dogs, and takes his deceased friends kids out on activities every weekend(he is the god father).

Dog

Eric also told us that he is so stress free on a personal level, the business side he can always deal with, but the personal level is something that he feels now looking back at his life that the mornings waking up when he had lost 12.000 dollars on bad sports bets and going to work and faking a smile to keep the spirits up towards his workers was difficult.

So waking up stress free is something he really enjoys, and he is now paying off his best friends mortgage on their house on a monthly basis.

Stress free.

So if you want to help somebody, try and clean them up and get them treament, you can do so much by just being there and helping out, going to AA,AN,GA and other meetings is so important and many times people need a push to take that step, they are not always able to make that decision on their own!.

It takes a lot of gut from a 43 years old successful business owner to go and ask for help with his finances and this is not a sign of weakness but actually a sing of strength that you reach out for help!.

So if you know anybody who has a gambling addiction, then you should really check out our program NEGA(NEVER EVER GAMBLE AGAIN) here attached and in our store.

So take care everybody.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Life and business coaching at its best!

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When should you sell off a family run business?!.

Hi, everybody, we get this question a lot these days in COVID-19 times, when some companies are doing very well despite the Covid-19 PANDEMIC AND SOME COMPANIES ARE IN BIG TROUBLE.

So what we know from research is that the first generation start it, the second generations grows it and refines it and the third generations squanders it.

So this is of course not 100% true with all companies, but the general rule is that the second generations should sell the family company and the third generations should do something else with their lives.

The stress level that comes with taking over a family owned business in the third generations is very hard to cope with.

Stress

There is also one very important aspect that families do not talk about and that is that the sibling rivalry that can happen when you run a family business it can destroy the family bonds for ever.

Siblings

So siblings can have these horrible falling outs over a family run business.

And it is very important that the generation that is handing down the family business structures everything properly legally to avoid these sibling rivalries.

So when you work in a family business it comes with a lot of pressure and it is usually very bad for the family relations.

If the business does well then it is , who makes more money, and if it goes bad it is who does not pull their weight enough in the company and the blame game goes around, and never really stops.

Office space

So there is something to be said about selling the family business just is the right moment to keep the peace in a family.

We know that families who do not work together gets along much better with each other , than families who also works together.

There is people who will disagree with this article, but quite frankly as a business consulting company who mainly deals with family run businesses and companies that have several family members involved in them , we can say with certainty based up on our experience that this statement is very true.

It is not so much that siblings and family members wants to butt heads with each other, but business environment is very stressful and normally you work with people that are your colleagues, but then you go home for the day, with family your lives are so entangled with each other, so you never really get that stress free zone.

So even if it is difficult to let go of a family owned business sometimes it is the best thing you can do , is to sell it outright and then share the proceeds and let everybody go their own way.

Let us give you a typical example of a fight that takes place in a family owned business, so let us say that the sales manger/marketing manager wants to spend 25.000 dollars on an ad for the business, and the CEO does not approve of that spending, and they are brothers and they have a huge fight over this one thing on a Friday.

Then there is a family birthday the next day and they need to see each other on this Saturday and play nice.

Compared to if they only would work together and not be related, so then they would see each other on Monday where cooler heads can prevail.

So working in a family business is a really tall ask for anybody and it is something that you should normally avoid if you can.

If you are an owner of a family business and there are constant fights within the business , maybe let som people go or just sell the business outright and keep the peace in the family.

Because family matter and it is very important, and never ever let money come between you and your family.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Life and business coaching at its best!
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The main reason companies do not have two months worth of funds saved up in the rainy day fund, and what you can do as a consumer to save you local mom and pop stores and restaurants.

So a lot of people who are not part of the business community wonders why smaller companies do not have around two months worth of funds saved up for a rainy day like the Covid-19 Pandemic has brought on.

The reason for this is pretty simple actually, and we will explain it to you.

So if the company what ever business type it might be like a restaurant,bar, production company that is older than 15 years today.

They went true the 2008-2010 recession and what ever funds they had saved up for a rainy day, was used at that time.

And they have never been able to restore that rainy day fund again.

Many companies would have gone under without savings then.

So by using them then and also by doing so they kept a lot of jobs going in the US for a 10 year period.

Make no mistake about this fact, there are many business owners who works 80 hour weeks for very little pay to keep their business open even in the best of times.

So now when we have an even worse recession 11 years later, there is no safety net in play any longer.

No rainy day fund, no bigger credit line coming from the bank, it is all over, for a lot of companies in America.

Many will try to give it a last chance in June-August, during the summer, but in the fall starting in September we will see a tsunami of bankruptcy’s and failed business.

Many companies in the hospitality industry have in the best of times low margins a few % profit per year.

And the owners do not draw a proper paycheck from the company, because if he or she would have done so then the company would have been in the red, or even more in the red.

So be prepared that many companies in America and elsewhere will try and re-open over the summer and then in the fall they will close for good.

Then we have the other segment is the newer companies who have been forced to either buy an expensive franchise or to invest everything in a family restaurant or small business in recent years.

They have never been able to put much money aside at all for a rainy day, they needed to put it back into to the business.

So this is why so many American and companies all over the world will fail in the fall.

So the one thing you can do when you spend your money is that try and support your local stores the mom and pop stores even if the price point is a bit higher compared to the global retail chains.

We have nothing against global companies, but it would be really boring if we have no small shops and no small restaurants in our neighborhoods and towns.

So if 1000 people decide, that i will support my local shops the mom and pop kind, it will go along way in saving those jobs and that store or restaurant business.

Even if you only spend 15 or 20 dollars there each week ,it will go along way to save some of the smaller mom and pop stores and restaurants.

So we can all do what we can to keep our local business owners open for as long as possible and try to keep the jobs in our community in the process.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Life and business coaching at its best!
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The world economy for small businesses has changed forever!

So the bad news for small business owners that owns bars and nightclubs is that the world economy has changed forever!

Because the COVID-19 will linger and come back in different waves and there is a likelihood that we will see new strains in the next couple of years.

These are all very bad news for bars/pubs and smaller nightclubs.

Customers will not want to go out and risk getting infected by the very close contact of a full pub/bar or nightclub during this year and the next year 2021.

There will be some customers who do not care, but most people will drink at home, and keep smaller backyard gatherings rather than going out on the town.

This will unfortunately affect a lot of cities like New Orleans and New York among many others.

There might be some places outside of the big cities that might start to move closer to the old times.

But the likelihood is that 1/3 of the workforce for the hospitality industry will not get their jobs back.

This is a very sad fact, that we will see a lot of hospitality workers will not get their job back.

So for those, this is a very important time to figure out what-else they could be working with in the future.

So taking time now to reflect will be very important on what-else you could be working with in the future.

Take care,stay safe.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Life and business coaching at its best!

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When the cure kills more than the disease?!.

So we started our consulting business in 2006 and after the financial meltdown in 2008-2009, we had a lot of companies/clients that needed our advice on what to do.

The reason we call ourselves mrlifeadvise and not mrlifeadvice is that we want to offer our experience and and give good advise as advisers.

But we dont want to advice you what to do since it is your business and you need to make the decision yourself, we can not make them for you as advisers.

But like during the financial crisis years 2008-2009 , we have been asked by clients please take the wheel and be hands on advisers(meaning help us make the tough decisions).

Here is the cold hard truth, all these financial rescue packages are good, but they are being financed by your children and your children’s , children.

So we are just kicking the can down the road.

So simply put this is the reality for a lot of small business.

If you where on the brink of survival before the COVID-19 CORONA virus, you will not be able to re-open your business again!.

Being closed for 4-6 weeks will not allow you to re-open your business since you where on the brink before the COVID-19 SHOWED UP.

For some production companies it will be a tough year to get supplies from the supply chain on time this year.

After we helped a client of ours yesterday who has 50+ workers in a global production company, meaning this company buys and sells components globally.

He has been forced to close this week, and all workers are on 2 months paid leave, which the government will cover 90% of the salary for that period of time.

But he has made several large investments in machinery and tools over the past 2 years time and these bills for that equipment still needs to be paid every month to the leasing companies.

So we went over the numbers today and he is lucky that he has taken our advise to put a side a rainy day fund, but that will only last him for 3 months time!.

And then it is all over after that, if we are closed longer than 3 months or that he does not get cash flow in after 3 months time from customers.

We talked to all local banks today on his behalf and they flat out said no, they will not lend his company money if we runs out after 3 months time.

He owns a AAA triple A company meaning that he has had a really good credit rating for many years, but that does not mean anything in this current situation.

And if he loses his company, more than 50 families will lose a good salary.

The average age in his company is 53 years of age.

And it is highly unlikely that many of these 40 workers who are closer to 50 or over 50 both female and male, will find a similar paying job, or a job in the first place if he has to close his doors for good.

And because he is a smaller company on a global stage in a specific product market, nobody will take over(buy) his company if he closes.

So even if we see airlines, cruise lines, restaurants,coffee shops,bars and hotels are taking the biggest hit, there are many smaller family own businesses in production and other markets that will go under, if we do not open the world up again inside the next 20-25 days.

So even if the 0.5% mortality rate is horrible for the family of the deceased, the big question all experienced business people understand is at what point is the cure deadlier than the disease itself?.

Human life is valuable, but we have a larger issue at hand, how many lifes will be destroyed by depression and suicide when companies close and people lose their income/job.

No matter how hard it is to accept a virus like the COVID-19 , taking over our lives,because it truly has hijacked the world economy.

We have to move on and move forward.

And at some point we need to re-open our society again inside the next 3 weeks time, otherwise we have broken our world economy in a way that we can not undo!.

So we have to do a triage here do we accept a 0.5% kill rate and keep 99.5% with food on their table and a roof over their head, or do we sacrifice 99.5% of the population to save 0.5% of our population.

I think all sane people know the answer to this hearth wrenching question!.

So be safe out there and take care of yourself and your families.

Due to so many of our old/existing clients contacting as day and night at this point we are not gonna be able to respond to emails as fast as normal from new clients or clients who maybe wishes to join our community.

So please bare with us for the next 3-4 weeks time, and hopefully the world has opened again for business.

Thank you for reading.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Life and business coaching at its best!

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Debunking franchise ownership once and for all!.

So as formers business owners to many different types of business globally, we can once for all debunk the so called franchise ownership/system.

This opinion is strictly our own,and we are very much a where that there are a number of very successful franchisees out there.

But our blog and our advises are meant for mainly smaller business owners who lack big amounts of working capital.

So a lot of people come to us and ask about different franchises, and if they should buy in to one.

Often they will have to borrow that money from family and the bank.

Our general answer is always a big NO!.

So what is a franchise?, so very easily put you buy the right to open a business that already exists.

What it is means in layman terms is that somebody has started a business somewhere and they are selling you their business model for a cost, so you can run a smilar business in your area/town/city.

So usually there is a upfront cost to acquire the rights to a franchise.

This can be anywhere from 5.000-1000.0000, so from 5000 dollars up to a million dollars.

And the average cost is around 150.000-250.000 dollars.

Then there is usually a license cost also involved in the this deal.

And this can be either a percentage of your turnover or your profits or even sometimes a flat fee every month!.

So as you see here, the initial start up costs are very big, on top of that you have to continue to pay monthly fees to the franchise owner.

So in general you will be paying true your nose as a franchisee!.

There are some studies that show that almost 40% of franchise owners makes less than 50.000 dollars a year.

And then you should really take into consideration that many of them work 14-16 hour days.

So if you would find a job that will pay you 50.000 dollars a year for 8 hours then you are much better off based on the statistics.

There are also other studies that show that 15% of franchise owners makes more than 200.000 dollars a year.

What you need to know about these people making 200.000 dollars a year is that they usually have a lot of capital behind them and they run a big food franchise or another large franchise.

So they are not a corner store so to speak!.

Sometimes when clients come to us, we see jaw-dropping agreements from franchise owners to franchises, that we would never see in agreement around the world for normal buying and selling of services and goods.

So we can become very sad, when we see how a franchise has been taken to the cleaners by the franchise owner.

We would never recommend anybody buying into a fitness or a gym franchise under any circumstances.

Because this is not a hard thing to run on your own with one or two very experienced gym rats by your side.

To open up a gym/fitness center you first just need to know what customers you are targeting with your business.

Is it normal gym training with some spinning classes and some group classes that you want to cater to.

Or are you looking at cross-fit type of customers and maybe even half a gym and half martial arts gym, MMA and similar stuff!.

Once you know what customer group you are targeting then you need to do a very proper due diligence to make sure that the area you are looking to open up in, does not have to much competition and that there is enough of a customer base for you to open up a training facility of some sort.

Then try to find a location with enough parking spots, and where the rent is not gonna be true the roof.

Because your fixed costs will be the one major player in your business and it will determine if you make a profit or not.

There is a huge difference in paying 4000 dollars and 8000 dollars a month for a similar space.

Sometimes the 8000 dollars is justified based on the location but you have to really do your due diligence before starting up any kind of business.

So it was quite fun to see the last episode of undercover boss in January when one gym franchise chain sent out a women who basically new very little about training and running a business.

There is always that problem when you enter into a franchise that is owned by a large company who has a lot of employees and many of them are sitting in there ivory towers and they have no experience from running their own business of any kind!.

So when they make cooperate decisions that will affect you as the franchise, they do not really understand how bad those decisions can affect you and your business.

What was also jaw dropping with this particulate gym chain was that they even admitted not having any contact with the owner of one gym for over a year.

As every good franchise owner knows, the communication with head office is always a major key, so you know what is going on and what is coming in the pipeline the upcoming year/years so you can plan for your business.

The cost to buy a franchise is often way to high, and it is usually much better to spend that money of your own equipment for the gym for instance, than to pay somebody-else.

There are also some issues when you want to get out of a franchise agreement, because it is not always that clear cut that you can sell your business to anybody upright.

Usually you need approval from the licensee to do this!.

And not every buyer of your business will qualify to become the new franchisee , with the head office.

So then if we speak about food franchises of course many of them are well branded, but that does not mean that you will as the owner make a lot of money on a smaller store, once you have paid all the monthly cost that comes with being an franchisee.

In general you also need to be careful with franchise opportunities that require a lot of money upfront.

Because a lot of the bad franchise option will take most of there money upfront from you.

And very often leave you high and dry after that.

One other very important thing you need to know is that for a franchise to success you need to be working for the first 5 years yourself in the business to make sure that everything runs smoothly and cost effective.

So if you come to us as a client and ask us about if you should open up a franchise, we would almost always tell you not to do it!.

And for you out there saying we dont know what we are talking about.

We have created over 10.000 lasting jobs around all continents, over the past 50 years time.

And these jobs are stil there, in Sweden in Germany in America, in France, in Taiwan, in England and many other places.

So we have started with nothing and built and lost companies over the years, so we are in a very good situation giving business advise to smaller and medium sized companies, because we have been there, done that!.

So if you are looking at entering into a franchise , you really need to have your eyes wide open, and understand what you are entering into!.

One final note on franchises is this!.

Just because a franchise works well in California does not mean that it will work well in Iowa or Texas for say!.

So that is why it becomes so difficult to look at the success stories that the franchise owner is trying to pitch to you as the possible franchisee.

Thank you for reading.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Live and business coaching at its best!

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TOP 5 REASONS, NEW BUSINESSES FAILS WITH IN THE FIRST 2 YEARS TIME!.

So what are the top 5 reasons new businesses fail inside a 2 year period.

Reason number 1: This is a very common mistake new business owners do and that is that you underestimate the cost of running the business on a day to day basis.

What this actually means is that you dont count in all the costs that you should, when you start your business in the first place.

This can mean all the utilities and storefront costs or warehouse costs.

Usually you count in the the rent but there is so much more like insurance,theft,vandalism and similar types of costs, that comes with every psychical business.

But there is also other hidden costs like opening up phone-lines or staples and, usually there is a few invoices every month that you did not plan for in your business plan budget.

Let say that if you want to be on the safe side when it comes to making sure that you can cover your unexpected costs, you should count your budget up by 50% each month.

So if your business plan says that you should be able to get away with spending 5000 dollars a month all and all.

This actually mans that you should calculate for 7500 dollars instead.

This way you are covered.

Reason number 2: This is also very common and an easy mistake to do as a new business owner.

It is overspending on marketing and similar material for your business.

You been saving and waiting to start your business and you got a loan to top it all off, and now you want to really get going.

But hang on a minute, this is where new companies get into trouble.

You want everybody to know about your store front or company and you market hard and you market everywhere and very quickly you have spent a 5 figure amount in your first year on marketing.

Normally you should try and grow your business the first 1-2 years as organic as possible and really save on the marketing dollars.

And when you do marketing you should target just the people that you think could become a future customer to your business.

So here we would recommend to spend a little bit on google ad words and a little bit on Facebook ads and then look at Instagram influensers in your area with a following of 500-2000 people.

And maybe even taking out a small weekly ad in the local paper or free paper if you are also targeting older customers from 60+ years and upwards with your storefront, or your business.

We know a lot of people say that you have to be on the first page in the google search to be relevant, but you also need to find out how much that will cost you.

Because more often than not you will pay true your nose to reach the first page on google, and for most smaller business this is not an absolute must.

There are ways true back-links and other SEO options to land pretty high on search engines without paying true your nose.

Reason number 3: This is also a very common mistake that new business owners do and that is that you hire staff in your first year of business.

When you take on staff you have to understand that it is much more than maybe the 15-25 dollars and hour that you will have to pay.

And those things are payroll taxes and other social costs so usually count 1.5x on the salary when you hire somebody.

Second thing that you need to keep in mind when you hire a person and usually your first employee, is that you figure out if this is a short term or long-term person for your business.

We will give you an example here if we look at your first employee that you could see saying on for a longer period of time.

If you feel that this person is a long-term option for your business then try and teach that person to do many different job, within your company.

This way you have some multitasking going on.

And you can here pay a little bit more than you should if the person is a temporary solution for your business.

Then the second option is that you need a person for store gig and it is not a big job, then you can a little bit less for that person.

And take it for what it is.

Here we want o also be very clear that the better you treat your employees the better job they will do, and simple small stuff like free coffee of high quality in your store/company made in house with a quality coffee maker(costs under 100 dollars to buy) will make all the difference in how they look at you as their boss and employer.

It is the small stuff that keeps workers loyal to their employee for years to come.

Simple stuff like giving them time off in the middle of the day to bring their pet to the vet or to go to a dentist appointment.

Good workers will respond well to this kind of treatment and will give their all back to your business.

Reason number 4: This one is tied to your companies finances and that is to keep a rolling stock going .

What we mean by that is that you need to avoid having a stock of goods that cost you a lot, but that does not move around fast enough, this is what we mean by a rolling stock.

A rolling stock is a stock of merchandise that moves with in a maximum time frame of 60 days.

This way you dont tie up much needed cash flow for your newly started business.

What is often said from experts are that it is better not have a special item in stock when you are a new business even if you lose that particular sale, rather than having a lot of these items in stock and they move very slow or once every other year.

So during the first 2 years time try and avoid to get sucked in to a larger stock of merchandise unless you have unlimited funds to do so.

Reason number 5: This once is something that we seldom hear advisers talk about.

But it is such an important aspect of how your business will be a success going forward.

And that is you as the owner/leader/worker.

What is it? NUTRITION that is what it is!.

So often a new business owner has to work 16+ hour day and that also means that you will spike your stress hormone cortisol to a max level.

And the more high quality high octane fuel you put into your body the better off you are, when trying to succeed with your business.

So if you can eat as much plant based nutrition/food as possible, look at Lewis Hamilton and Rafael Nadal as an example of how well they preform on plant based nutrition.

If this is to difficult for you, try and use Casein protein in combination with Oat meal and chicken and potatoes and also add veggies and fruit into your daily nutrition intake.

So the nutrition intake is so important when you work a lot and when you work under very stressful circumstances.

So these are a few pointers that all new business owners should take to heart to really succeed with their new business venture.

Thank you for reading.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life-coaching
Live and business coaching at its best!
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When you lost your small or medium sized business what happens next?!.

So okay the worst thing that can happen , happens and you lose your small or medium sized business, what happens next?!.

So you have lost your business and regardless if you did something wrong or the market crashes or the lenders called in the notes, or what ever the reason was that forced the business to close, it does not matter right now!.

What matter right now is that you keep on going and moving your life forward.

You should know that there is a ton of successful people that failed at one point in their life and lost there business also so you are not the first person this happens to and you will for sure not be the last person.

And then some people rebuilt at some point and opened up a new business.

And some did not do so!.

There is also some bigger angel investors in silicon valley who do not invest a dime in a company if the owner has never had a failure/bankruptcy closing what ever you want to call it.

And the reason for this is that you learn a lot from going out of business , things that you can bring with you into your next project or your new job.

So we will list the to do list here for you and the things you should not do to survive and move forward in your life.

No1: The first thing you do is that you go out and look for a good paying job in the business you just came from.

And more often than not you will find this job with one of your former competitors.

So now people say , how can you go and work for a former competitors.

This is actually very simple, you swallow your pride and you contact the owner/ceo of one or several of your competitors and you say to them like something like this.

You know that i went out of business, but this was the reason and then you tell them the reason.

I am now looking for a long-term job, and i can bring all my skills and contacts into your business if you hire me!.

And if they are smart they will hire you, because it will increase the value of their business.

No2: You will have to make some tough choices if you can keep your house or not, if you still have it,and how much do you owe on the first and second mortgage, and do you stay or do you leave your house.

Here you have to be careful so you dont make a mistake for emotional attachment reasons towards your property/house.

No3: Try and tell your family that life will become better in the future, and that you will be an employee for a few years at least, 3-5 years is the minimum suggested time, unless you are sitting on real capital and you can open up a new business quickly again!.

The reason for the suggested 3 to 5 years is that , this is usually the time frame for a person that has lost his or her business to get back on their feet again, both financially and emotionally.

If your significant other wants a divorce which is very common when a company goes out of business, we believe that it is a 70% chance that a divorce will occur within 2 years from the time a family business goes under, to when the divorce happens.

The best advise we can give is to accept the divorce and move forward with your life.

Because your partner has given up on you and does not believe in you anymore, and most likely will never ever believe in you again!.

No4: Zero out your brain as a business owner, and become an employee in your own head.

There are benefits in not running your own business and not everybody is suited for doing that.

So having a boss that gives you orders, lets you relax your brain and you can shut out some noise for a few years that you could never do as a small or medium sized business owner.

Because everything was always riding on you.

No5: After 3-5 years you can think it true very carefully if you should start up something again or if you should stay a salary-man or salary-woman.

Think things true very carefully on what went wrong the last time and try and not to make the same mistakes twice, if you decide to give it another go as a business owner.

A good thing could be to start on the side on evenings and weekends for the first 1-2 years, so you have enough customers so if you quit your job, so you can draw a paycheck the first month of leaving your job.

No6: Look for investors if you are in a cash intensive business.

Because now you have lost so many years, that to catch up you need real capital to get going again.

There are a few things that you should not do, when trying to get back on your feet again.

No7: Do not feel sorry for yourself in any way shape or form.

Shit happens and life goes on.

So by dwelling on sad things like going out of business is not gonna get you moving forward.

No8: The second thing is that dont start abusing anything like alcohol or drugs, let the pain be raw and real.

You will heal much faster and get back on your feet again, by not starting with any kind of self medication.

I know these pointers no7 and no8 are difficult not to start with in some way shape or form.

But take it from people who have lost companies with over 800 employees and gone back to being an employee again, you have to stay the course to be able to ride out the storm you are in!.

Yes it stings having to take orders and having to jump true hops as an employee, but what is the other options that you have.

Sitting at home drinking and watching tv for a year or two, will just set you back with your career.

And going back to work after losing your business will also keep your mind busy.

So here are a few pointers on what to do when you lose your company and go out of business.

Thank you for reading.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life and Business coaching
Live and business coaching at its best!

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Patriks story!, A Horrible story!.

So let us talk about Patrik and his story and the shit that went down in his life due to a serious gambling addiction on ONLINE Slot machines.

Patrik was a 42 years old male who was a business owner in the construction sector of building allergy free homes and offices.

He focused his business model on building high quality allergy free homes and offices and he employed over 100 people all and all.

He started at the age of 23 his own company.

Patrik had a wife who was 10 years younger than him she was a mom and a wife who worked from home in the food catering business.

And they together have two daughters who where 5 and 7 years old when Patrik decided to take his own life due to the compulsive gambling addiction that he had developed over a 5 year period.

So Patrik operated and owned his own construction company and Mrlifeadvise came into contact with Patrik when we needed a smaller allergy free office space for personal with allergy issues.

This was 3 years prior to him taking his own life.

Looking back the signs of a gambling addict was there, if you where looking for it, which we where not at the time!.

Patrik did a great job for us and he came true on every aspect that we needed to cover by law, as a an employer.

So how did this hole thing unravel from being a 37 years old self made successful businessman and a company owner, to a person losing everything and not seeing any other way out than taking his own life to save his families future!.

So this is a very long story short, but the short version goes like this.

Patrik had to be in his office most of the time all days to cater to his foreman and other management personal that had different construction project going on around the clock.

But he also had a lot of down time, but he could not leave the office to go and do something outside the office.

And sitting in the office all days , with very little to do, since they had all the business they could handle became very boring and boring very fast.

Patrik had seen for years these adds that says deposit 200 dollars and get 200 dollars free as a casino bonus on online slot machines.

So since he had access to time and his laptop he decided to give it a go , this was 2012, so 5 years prior to everything unraveling in his and his families life.

So in the beginning he played some and won some and lost some and it was fun to play different video slot machines.

He played around 2-3 hours a day at the office and that was that.

The first year he lost around 15.000 dollars and that did not affect him what so ever.

During the second year he played a bit more and lost around 60.000 dollars.

Now these are still amounts that he can easily manage to lose.

But now he was down 75.000 dollars and as person who did not like to lose, here he makes the gamblers worst and most common mistake, he starts to chase his losses.

The reason why you should never chase your losses in gambling or on the stock market is that 99% of the times you will just end up losing much more than you had lost in the first place due to this chase.

And it is always better to walk away from a loss, than to double down and lose another large amount, and then you are even deeper in the hole than you where before you started to chase that loss.

So year 3 of online slot machine gambling is where all hell breaks lose and Patrik ends up losing 400.000 dollars more.

And still he can manage this amount, he has a good business and a paid for house and a cabin both in really desirable neighborhoods.

But his gambling becomes compulsive and he realizes that he needs to quit.

So he writes to the operators of these sites that he wants to self exclude from ever gambling there again.

Some close his accounts and never open them again even when he asks them to.

Some close the accounts but open them up again time and time again when he ask them to do so, which is both very unethical and highly illegal and the game providers/casinos licensees should have been revoked years ago.

But the regulators seldom care about these breaches, like in so many other professions, money talks and bullshit walks!.

Now Patrik starts to play at home even when the family goes to bed at 10.00 a clock pm , he starts to gamble online at the casinos sometimes the whole night and sometimes until 04.00 a clock AM.

To his wife he says i need to work on new projects during the night to get them finished.

Everybody around Patrik starts to see a real change during the third year of online gambling, he does not care much about his company, and lets things slip, and lets people who should not take the decisions take them in the business due to him not having any time to look at business related things more than to just sign his name on the bottom line.

He gambles now 14h a day.

At this point he has over 30 active casino accounts online and he plays with bets around 20-40 dollars per spin.

And if you dont know this , these are really high bets on online casino games, where most normal people bet maybe around 1 dollar per spin or even less.

He has now days where he ends up losing over 50.000 dollars a day.

Some days he wins, but normally he ends up losing it all back pretty quick to the casinos.

Patrik is no longer chasing his losses anymore, he is now gambling for the sake of gambling, and he is now a full blown compulsive gambler at this time.

During year 4 he loses 1.2 million dollars.

And now it starts to affect his own economy, he has blown true all of the families savings and this is the beginning of the end his life as he knows it.

During year 4 his business takes a big hit with an office space they have built for a company that goes under, prior to the building being ready for occupancy.

His company ends losing over 5.4 million dollars on this project and the company is in real jeopardy.

Patriks starts to increase his bet size to 100 dollars a spin to try and win big, to also help his company out.

But there is no way he can save his company, so a larger construction company offers to take his company over, and to save the 100+ workers he has on his payroll and keep those families hole, he basically walks away from his company with a small sum of money.

Year 5, Patrik is just sitting at home gambling all days.

And now he is in the final stages of losing it all, he takes out a mortgage of 900.000 dollars on his home and his cabin , that he was owned for over 10 years with out any mortgages.

He ends up losing this money in around 5 months time, and now it is time for his final step, which is to cash in his 401K.

He gets after penalties for taking out the money early around 800.000 dollars and he ends up losing that money inside a two month period.

Now he has no money left , he has no company, no income, and is under water with his mortgages at 900.000 dollars.

During the last 24 months time, Patrik has tried to quit gambling on his own , he has gone to Gamblers anonymous a few times, but allure of being able to play online casinos at home, just controls his brain as the disease it actually is.

So you see here that during the first 2 years he had the chance to corrects his behavior, but by year 3 he was so addicted that it was no longer possible for him to do on his own.

In a situation like this, the hope would have been that the relatives and friends, co-workers could have made an intervention and got him into a treatment facility for a longer period of time, and then handled his fiances for many years to come.

So this is how it usually looks like when business owners gets addicted and they end up losing their company and their assets.

The problem is that as a business owner you need to have access to cash to run your business and if you are a full blown addict you will listen to your addict brain first and foremost.

So as an addict someone else should have the power of attorney of your decision making when you your brain chemistry has been altered to the point that you can no longer fend for yourself or your company.

So gambling addicts have the highest rate of suicide compared to any other addiction out there.

And after the opioid addiction it is considered the worst one out there.

Please think about that when a casino wants to open in your area or if you get an offer to gamble online that this will happen to 10% of all gamblers, they become compulsive gamblers.

So what really happen to Patrik and his family.

So Patrik had one of these new age life insurance polices that will pay out even at suicide if you have held the policy for over 10 years time and you had a clean bill of health when you took the policy.

Patrik had held the policy for over 15 years time, and he was worth 1.5 million dollars to his family dead!.

But in his mind, he was never gonna be able to stop gambling he felt worn out beaten down and finished in every way in his own mind.

He had made the decision ruffly one month prior to him taking his own life, and like with so many others who had taken that fatal decision before him, he got a big boost of energy making up his mind on this matter.

So during his final month on earth Patrik went around saying goodbye to all of his family and friends.

And everybody blames themselves for not understanding or seeing the signs but the reality is that gambling addicts cover their tracks very well since they often dont have as many symptoms showing on the outside like a normal addicted person to pills or alcohol has.

So the last 72 hours of Patriks life, he spent with his family and the families German shepherd named Rex and cat name Blue that he really loved both so much.

They spent a great weekend out in the cabin and he told his daughters and wife how much he loved them from the bottom of his hearth.

On Sunday evening when the family had arrived back home and everybody had gone to bed, even the pets, he made a round in the house and kissed everybody goodbye on their forehead while they where all sleeping.

And he gave Rex and Blue each a treat and told them to look after the kids and his wife.

On Friday prior to this last Sunday, he had mailed over 40 suicide letters to family and friends explaining why he was gonna take his own life.

AND THEN HE HAD WRITTEN A 20 PAGE LETTER TO HIS FAMILY(WIFE AND KIDS).

These all arrived the following week!.

So at around 02.00 a clock he took his gun a bottle of Whiskey and a chair with him and he left his wedding ring on the kitchen table.

But he had his wallet with him, so the police could id him on sight.

This was in late November and his life insurance policy that was always paid in full for a whole year, during the first week of January, was about to expire in less than 7 weeks time

He walked 20 minutes up to a hill that looks out on top of the city, he drank half a bottle of liquid courage and then he pulled the trigger and that was all she wrote!.

So he left his family whole financially, but completely broken emotionally.

I meet his wife at the store last week and i asked if we could use her story to warn others not to embark on this dark and lonely road of hell on earth that gambling is!.

I asked her on how she and the kids are doing today, and she said that the first year was ruff, due to the kids being so small and not really fully understanding why daddy is no longer coming home to them ever again!.

She also said that having Rex and Blue ,(dog and the cat) gives the kids and her strength to move forward since animals(pets) are usually really good with kids and adults that are suffering in one form or another.

Since the daughter share a bed room she told me that Rex sleeps in the bed with one daughter and Blue sleeps in the bed with the other daughter.

And the mother told me that this started 2 days after Patrik was gone, and ever since then the dog and the cat almost protects the kids during the night time!.

She did not believe her eyes at first in the beginning, but now she is so used to this behavior.

I asked how she was doing herself as a widower and a single mother, and she told me that she runs a 10 person catering company these days.

But she had not started dating anybody yet, she told me that after 10 years of marriage, she is still not used to being single yet.

She still loves Patrik and hates him at the same time for putting her and her kids in this situation.

But she also understood that she was on of the lucky ones that financially they survived, due to the unusual life insurance policy that her husband had, NORMALLY SUICIDE IS NOT COVERED IN ANY LIFE INSURANCE POLICY.

And she had made peace with him being sick/addicted and not himself when making this decision to end his own life this way.

Which in her mind was to protect the family from his addiction and mistakes.

But she also told me that she would have moved into a 2 bed room in a not such a nice area 100% of the times if that would have meant that PATRIK WOULD HAVE STAYED ON EARTH!.

So the life lesson to take way from this very sad story is that, when you start gambling you dont expect to get addicted, and you dont know for sure if you are one of these 10% that actually gets addicted, and end up derailing your life and your families life in the process.

SO NEWER EVER START TO GAMBLE, AND NEVER EVER START TO GAMBLE ONLINE!

ONLINE GAMBLING IS MUCH WORSE SINCE YOU CAN DO THAT IN YOUR OFFICE OR IN YOUR BEDROOM!.

You dont even have to psychically visit the casino these days in some parts of the world.

And this is super dangerous.

So as a business consulting firm that Mrlifeadvise is, we recommend that you never even try and gamble, and if you have tried it and like it, stop.

And if you are gambling more and more each year, then think of this story of Patrik and do not go down the same road that he took.

The only winners in this story are the cold heartened online casinos that do not care if you are a problem gambler, they do not care about you and your family, like the cold blooded snakes they are, they just care about the money.

So do not feed this beast with one single dollar ever again!.

For Patrik it was a few millions that broke the camels back, for some business owners and people it can be as low as 20.000 dollars that destroys your life and your business.

So the amounts are different for everybody, but the end result is the same, pain agony and destruction.

Thank you for reading.

Mrlifeadvise.

Life-coaching
Live and business coaching at its best!