Review of "The Bankruptcy Alternative," by Bruce Bowler

Review of

The Bankruptcy Alternative, by Bruce Bowler ISBN 9780998632810

Five out of five stars

 This book is an autobiography of the last days of a business, after the author made the decision that it was impossible to continue operations. The business was one that made custom apparel for auto racing teams, which required special fabric and machines to process it. The goal of the author was to make the case for others in similar situations to engage in an owner-managed liquidation rather than to simply go through a court-managed bankruptcy proceeding. His decision was to perform the owner-managed liquidation and his arguments in favor of that approach are unconvincing, although very educational. Which is the reason for the five stars.

 Since the business had a large building for manufacturing, specialty equipment along with the more routine assets and liabilities, the process took over two years. Actions such as working with credit card and other financial institutions, getting out from under a lease, selling the equipment, giving workers decent severance pay while keeping them employed while they were needed, and other situations were extremely taxing. Reading about selling properties and taking mortgages out on others and finding the credit to continue the process of getting out of debt is a bit chilling. While I commend the author for taking the path he did, in so many ways going through the tested process of bankruptcy seems to have been the better choice. Certainly, easier on the nerves and requiring less decisions along the line of who to pay and who to put off until later.

 Yet, even if you simultaneously reach the end of the book and the conclusion that the author made the wrong choice, there is a lot to be learned about liquidating a business in this book. Even when you think the deed is done, something else will pop up to convince you otherwise.