Clients are gone, lots of debt, what would you do?
ahoyhere: There's lots of good advice here but I want to chip in my two cents, because I was once in a very similar situation and my advice is different enough than what's already here.Short backstory so you know I'm serious: In 02, I lost a client along with about $20k of unpaid work (long story), $15k in debt, NO money, my ex-boyfriend stole my car (worse than a stranger, ha - and no, I couldn't get it back), working all the time & money stress lowered my immune system, I caught a ridiculously bad case of mono and could barely sit up for 3 mos, leading my only paying client to threaten to sue me. My father couldn't help me at all with money and my mother is an evil bitch who had an extra car but wouldn't help me anyway. It sucked. It was by far the worst period of my life BUT there's a huge upside, too.The first thing is: you can deal with this. You're smart, dedicated, and capable. This is just a temporary setback for you. You're already being proactive instead of wallowing in self-pity - way to go. It took me much longer to get to that stage.As another commentor pointed out, only sell your things if the equivalent hourly rate works out. For most things, that's a "no" right now, since consumer spending is tanking. Keep your stuff. Don't pay to store it - but keep it somewhere. Unless you're like that savekaryn chick and spent it all on small, easily shifted designer purses. ;)Second thing is: Call your credit card company(ies) RIGHT NOW and tell them "Look, it's lower my interest rate or I'm going to go bankrupt." This is the #1 mistake people in our situations make (after the racking up of debt, of course). Credit cards ARE negotiable. Allow me to repeat: CREDIT CARDS ARE NEGOTIABLE.And right now, CC banks are especially vulnerable because of the shit economy and that means YOU, an actual customer who intends to make good, is GOLDEN to them. If you tell them you have no other option, they WILL lower your APR, which will do HUGE things for you.If they don't respond to your approaches, try another (male?) friend or family member who can pretend to be you - who isn't feeling beaten down & can be assertive. If that fails, get a (reputable, genuine) debt counselor or lawyer. It's WELL worth the investment - it will return way more than 30% on your money.Third thing is: pay off your debt quickly but DON'T KILL YOURSELF DOING IT. If you eat only ramen and work 18 hour days, you're going to be unmanageably unhappy (read: depressed, beaten down, and totally burnt out) and possibly physically ill, too. I tried both approaches, and the overworking one nearly landed me back in bed.I got a f/t job - my first ever after being a freelancer since a teen, that's how low I had sunk - and that helped a lot because it greatly reduced my feeling of uncertainty. However, my first job was shitty and I was only able to stand it for 3 mos - by the end of which I'd lined up a better job and jumped to that seamlessly. Again, this falls under the category of "don't shit all over yourself just to pay off a debt." Better to go bankrupt, in my mind.Fourth thing is: Hustle. I got my job by hustling. I got my second job, the better job I stayed with for a year to pay off my debt, by hustling. And I made extra money by hustling. What's hustling? Not anything illegal. But you've got assets, so work em!What has the company gotten you? Software you developed? Know-how? SELL IT.Ask EVERYONE you know if they have work for you - and, most importantly - if they know anyone who might have work for you. Refine your pitch, give people as concrete examples as possible. Stretch your skills to fields where you hadn't worked before.Ask everyone you meet who is at least tangentially related to your work - politely - if they could use you, or know someone who does.There is NOTHING wrong with this. People are reluctant to do it because it seems sketchy or exploitative, but that all depends on how you do it.I got every job I ever had by asking, mostly people I had barely just met (last job paid me about $180k/yr so this is not just for small fish). You HAVE TO ASK, because most people - even ones who really could use your help - don't think about the possibilities until you do. And for the people who know you best, trust best, ask them to help you figure out ways to hustle better.Now, for the rest of the know-how, consider training other people to do what you do. Consider writing an ebook or something, once you get on your feet. Your knowledge is valuable, and if you do a cursory look into the world of self-published niche topic ebooks, you'll find tons of people are making a couple extra hundred bucks a day doing it.Remember that your time IS worth something - and probably quite a bit. Remember that what you do today with your time is like investing or spending your future income, too, not just for this month. This year or two or three of your life that you're going to take paying off your debt, you don't want to look back and have nothing at all to show for it but, well, less debt.Invest in yourself and your future where it makes sense.If you pay off your debt a bit more slowly, but stay sane and have built something that can help you in the future (an ebook or teaching web site, say), that's almost surely worth the extra interest. You just have to be sensible.Also, pro tip from a girl who knows: never, ever, ever work for anybody again who won't make a 30-50% advance payment. Put kill clauses in your contract, so you keep those deposits. Otherwise you're "putting yourself on sale" and letting everybody know it.Oh, and that upside I mentioned earlier? It's this: this is probably the worst personal situation you will ever have to deal with. And you WILL deal with it just fine. And after that, you'll realize A) how unimportant money is to your overall happiness, which paradoxically makes making money that much easier because you have its number (so to speak), and B) if you can conquer this, you can conquer ANYTHING.Cheers and best of luck.Amy