Last week I had dinner with Ken Jacobs who said to me, “I was shocked to see you almost went out of business last year. What happened?”

When I blogged about it earlier this year, I used the word “bankrupt” and that got everyone’s attention. Yes, we nearly went bankrupt.

You see, we had plenty of accounts receivables to accomodate our expenses and even make a little bit of money last year. But, when the debt ceiling crisis debate ensued last July, all of our clients retracted and went into hiding.

No one knew what it was going to mean for the United States and, in particular, businesses. And, because we’d just had three years of really rocky times, everyone was skittish.

We didn’t get paid from a single client for nearly 90 days. Sure, we’ve done all the things you’re supposed to do: Require deposits upfront, make calls before A/R is late, even stopping work when clients were late. But it didn’t help when push came to shove. We still had bills to pay and nothing to pay them with, except signed contracts that showed the money was coming.

I don’t blame our clients. We did the same thing to our vendors and partners. I blame myself. (more…)