Closing a business down

[allchange]

I have my own business, its been going for about 5 years now, its never quite taken off and the industry we are in is changing and fees are being driven down.

We have 1 member of staff.

We take hardly anything out of the business and its harder and harder each month.

A job has come up which fits well for me but..

I have a reluctance to close the business down, possibly vanity - don't want to be seen to be a failure and all that and a nagging doubt that it could work out and be an opportunity for my children (should they want to)

Anyone had any experience of closing a business and going back to employment?

(regular user, new name)

[allchange]

In response to more info:

Traditional estate agency (shop front) locally we are all losing instructions to online agents with millions to spend/ lose on marketing.

Catch 22, not enough £ to market = not enough £

Our lease is up in 10 months so maybe one last push?

We have minimal debt.

[allchange]

We do lettings - all be it not on a huge scale

[allchange]

just to thank everybody for their input and to give a brief update.

Current thinking is that we'll keep the shop till the lease expires, the odds of subletting it are slim at the moment as there are 8 other units available close by.

But we plan on blanking the windows out (still with space to showcase houses etc) but to make it an office not a shop, so if we are out we are out and we don't have this need to keep the "shop" open in case someone comes in, footfall is minimal but we basically employ someone to be in - just in case someone pops in - basically we can trial being a local/hybrid agent for 10 months..

If it means we are not tied to the office it frees us up to go out delivering leaflets, door knocking, viewings etc.. we can get rid of the staff member and if people want to see us, they can make an appointment like the rest of the world manages!

Hopefully i'll be able to keep people updated as things either progress or fail

[allchange]

Thanks Mike, appreciate the input.

Well we have done the most painful bit and just made our staff member redundant, pretty painful and its been a hard couple of weeks building up to this but there was just no way other than head on. Seemed a bit callous to do it almost as soon as she walked through the door but there we go its done and we are free of the pressure of paying someone.

All we have to do now is see how the nice few months pan out as we wind our lease up (May19) i may well market it though to see about sub-letting it for a couple of months..

[allchange]

Thought i'd update the thread.

i've taken a job wth another firm, its more money, some stability and offers the variety that i need. Most of our stuff will transfer across which is nice as well.

Our landlord has been good as well, we found another tenant who wanted to sublet (we have 10 months left) but he would like to sell up anyway so is happy to take this months rent and call it quits...

Thanks for the input from all who posted as its been nice to have nuetral input from people with experience / perspective thats not clouded by emotions.

Allchange...