Bankruptcy as a Tool: Insights from Hunter Durham's Entrepreneurial Journey
April 16, 2024
In this episode of the Small Business Mentor podcast, Alan Pentz is joined by Hunter Durham, former owner of Impact Industry. Hunter shares his rollercoaster entrepreneurial journey of rapidly acquiring businesses, the challenges that led to bankruptcy, and the hard lessons he learned along the way.
In this episode of the Small Business Mentor podcast, Alan Pentz is joined by Hunter Durham, former owner of Impact Industry. Hunter openly shares his intense entrepreneurial journey - from starting a fast-growing agency to acquiring multiple businesses in under a year using SBA loans.
What started as a vision to make an impact through business ownership took some unexpected turns. Hunter discusses the complexities of merging company cultures, navigating customer concentration risk, and how the volatility of the COVID era factored in. Ultimately, a combination of factors led to Hunter filing for personal bankruptcy.
With refreshing honesty, Hunter reflects on what he would have done differently and the invaluable, if expensive, lessons he's taking forward. He advises others facing financial struggles and shares his perspective on entrepreneurship through acquisition. While it didn't go as planned, Hunter sees the experience as an accelerated business education that will shape his future ventures.
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Quotes:
Quotes:
- "Bankruptcy is definitely a beginning, not an end... It's a legal process. That's all it is. At the end of the day, there are laws that you have to follow in order to unwind and restructure your debt or liquidate your debt. And after that, it's discharged and you go to the next thing."
- "Bankruptcy can't take your kids away. Can't take your wife away. You can't take your sanity away. Only you can kind of take away those things."
- "If I would have just focused on the agency and growing the agency to be the biggest it could be and throwing off as much cash flow... then I could have made the impact that I set out to do."
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