Business failure

Starting your own business could be the way to achieving financial independence, or it could just as well land you in debt for the rest of your life. That, at least, is the view of Charles and Brenda Leggat, a Scottish couple, who last week saw their fish farm business put into the hands of the receiver. 'We started the business in 1985 when everyone was being encouraged by the banks to borrow money. At the time we were sure that we could make it into a going concern,' said Charles Leggat, a farmer from the Highlands, 'and the banks lent us more or less everything we asked for. Their people analysed the proposals we put forward, and they agreed that it would be a highly profitable business.'

Sure enough, within five years the Leggats were exporting trout and salmon products to hotels all over Europe, and employed over fifty staff. But with the advent of the recession, they began to lose ground as orders dried up. 'The awful thing is' said Brenda Leggat, 'that now the business has been valued by the banks at a fraction of its true worth. If they had left us to work our way out of our difficulties I am sure that we could have gone back into profit. As it is, we have been left without a livelihood, and the banks have not recovered what they lent us.' The Leggats both felt that their banks had not treated them fairly. 'They were falling over themselves to lend us the money, but they have done very little to keep the business going, and fifty local people in work.' A spokesman for the main bank concerned, the National Caledonian, refused to comment.