Taking a big hit in business and coming back

[Undirection]

Two of us started a business last year. It has gone well and we had a few small bumps along the way which I expected as we learnt the sector and what was required, but after a year we had made a small profit and things were looking up. Until today.

Someone who helped us set up the business made some errors in doing so which only just came to light. This meant today we have to repay monies we earned to a big customer, add money to the business to cover this and then effectively financially start again with 'all new' investment. Luckily we're only talking a few thousand pounds, about ten in all but we're gutted and not a little bit pissed off. It's been a really hard day for us both and will be for the next few days. It'll take us 2 months just to begin trading again.

I'm sure some of you have been in similar positions. Any positive words of advice/motivation?

[Undirection]

Eric Mc said:

How come the errors and mistakes weren't picked up earlier? You need to have procedures in place to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Mistakes are OK as long as you learn from them.

The paperwork process was a nightmare to get right and it took an age for it all to be completed exactly as required and for us to finally get paid.

And we've definitely learned!

I can't go into details but one moment of stupidity by the person concerned wrecked everything. We're starting to get over it now and now its just the delay in restarting that's frustrating.

[Undirection]

StevieBee said:

Undirection said:

Someone who helped us set up the business made some errors

Is there any scope of liability here?

Can you revert back to them via any professional liability insurance?

No. It was a friend who helped us initially, it wasn't that kind of relationship. At the time it was helpful to us.

[Undirection]

UPDATE: Spoke to our big customer who was very understanding and although we have to do some new paperwork we do not have to pay anything back and have to hold off on some invoices for now but we can submit them later. I was totally upfront with them and explained the confusion and that we had no intentions of doing anything wrong/underhand/etc. and luckily they accepted that. It's a big relief....phew.