Week ago - no issues at all; today - completely shattered

[kokie]

Just posting here to hopefully get some advice.

A week ago I was slowly building up my business with a casual 1,000 EUR profit per month that recently fell to a pit due to Google completely obliterating it's rankings last year and advertisement costs. I spent almost all my savings to get it back up.

Now last week I had zero issues, nothing to worry about, just casually going up.

Within 3 days, I had:

1. Bookkeeper that used to be good messing up the VAT, instead of 70K, it's actually 40K. Might have to pay penalties from my own money?
2. Bookkeeper's company had yesterday billed me for 300 after a week's of work but now, just 1 day later, claim it's 900.
3. A previous office that we rented had scratches only on the fridge bins( $20 ) and small cosmetic wear on 2 tables. Without any request or warning to me, sent straight to the court for me to respond within 2 weeks to buy a completely new fridge( $700 ) and tables ( 2x $1500 ). A foreign investor, 100% bullshit, but I don't have money to get a lawyer right now.
4. Wise banking which we used for 6 years with zero issues, out of nowhere decided that one of my businesses - video game services, is not allowed per their T.o.S, and has closed all my accounts with all my savings and available money. Not just one business, but all my 5 different small businesses that were related to me with savings in just 1 hour because they were managed from a single account. Only one of these was related to the service.

So right now I am locked out of all my money and need to buy food, pay rent and my workers within 2 weeks.

Any suggestions for any of these?

I am honestly in a complete disbelief how things that were so robust and sure for over half a decade completely shattered over night.

 

[mutambo]

@kokie So in one week Google screwed you over, your bookkeeper turned out to be dishonest and incompetent, your landlord brought a dubious lawsuit against your with no warning, and your bank terminated all your accounts with zero warning.

Either you've had your head buried in the sand ignoring the warnings for a long time, or there's more to this story than you're saying.

 

[kokie]

@mutambo Not really.

The Google rankings dropped from all time rank 3 to rank 10 in last year's May update. Took a lot of time and money, and content and redesigning to eventually hit a spot where it started going back up again.

Bookkeeper, admitted to making a mistake, but I am not sure what to make of it now. Am I liable for this?

Yes, we've never seen the old landlord and they live half the World away from here. We left because of the constant increase in price which made them bitter as we left during the slowest real estate season ( Winter ).

Wise has never had an issue with us, and does not have issue with the other businesses, only one of the businesses is closed, but because it has 5 other businesses on the same account - everything got shut down.

 

[delad3]

@kokie

Bookkeeper, admitted to making a mistake, but I am not sure what to make of it now. Am I liable for this?

Idk why but I feel like you aren't in america-- usually in a scenario like this here the bookkeeper is a regulated enterprise, so as long as you have them admitting fault in a verifiable format (electronic logs) then their insurance or business should be the liable party for any fees and fines

You'll still have to figure out how to shit the 30k difference, but considering the above the agency in question may be willing to get that backpayment on a payment plan due to circumstances beyond your control but that is neither a guarantee or financial advice. Though it may be worth checking into and might take some of the sting out of at least one of these issues

 

[kokie]

@delad3 I am in Europe.

They did admit to it on the phone, but I did not record this. I can call the book keeper again and discuss about it to verify that they did claim it.

 

[delad3]

@kokie I live in the us and am no lawyer or accountant

Generally speaking, if there might be some kind of problem anything you can do to prove to a court or government agent that someone else is at fault is in your favor to do.

And building on that, it's always better to submit evidence instead of offer testimony, because they can also offer testimony - and absent evidence their truth and your truth are just "he said and she said" until there is some kind of objective record that can be refrenced and built on

For your landlord- photo or video walk-through showing the condition you leave things in before you leave can help prevent getting stuck with paying for their remodel when they claim you trash it

The bank issue and the Google rating issue are both a little to foreign to me, I assume the bank has to surrender your money to you somehow someway - but I'm not certain and you'd have to talk to a series of employees and probably a few supervisors to figure that out

And same with the Google thing- which I've only heard about- being a pain in the ass to do unless you're really big

 

[kokie]

@delad3 I know that the landlord case is bullshit, because the court document for the fridge is just two pictures of frozen peas inside a fridge bin which is slightly cracked in the middle.

Cost - $700.

But, I have no money right now because of the bank issue.

The bank issue is a pickle because they will probably surrender the money, but I have no money right now because of it. I had absolutely no problems with it for 6 years. If anything went wrong - it wasn't it. So I had all my savings there. I know they can keep it from 30-360 days in their hands, but my time limit is 2 weeks. So I am hoping to find an appeal or a positive resolution for it.

 

[delad3]

@kokie

So I am hoping to find an appeal or a positive resolution for it.

Im cheering for you from this side of the lake my dude

 

[jrock8787]

@kokie Business is not all about good days,

Hello bad days

Start tackling each issue one by one based on the most crucial functions to the business, you can get yourself out that rut

Good luck

 

[kokie]

@jrock8787 I appreciate your encouragement.

I am working on it already full time but I am still trying to suck in as much information as I can to make this next however long it will take struggle to be easier. Doesn't make any better that I just got out of a rough work period where I put in so much effort just to keep the businesses afloat, only to get slammed outside the businesses themselves.

 

[johnjohn74]

@kokie You think this is bad? This is a sliver of what life will throw at you. Buck up man. This is as good as the bad will be throughout life. How you deal with this minor issue today, will derermine how you make out in life later

 

[johnsonmarkus]

@kokie Sounds like you have your to do list for today!

 

[johnjohn74]

@kokie And by the way. Learn to represent yourself. Go to court and take a chance. The worst that can happen is you learn something. Learn to control your extreme reactions. There are billions of people on this globe that will give up everything for a slice of what you have. A bit of context will help you deal with lifes complexities and this is not one of them on the grand scheme of things. Death, illness, divorce, catastrophic failure....these are the problems that should cause lack of sleep. A crap landlord, a stupid accountant and google rank is not something that should cause you concern. Learn how to put things in context every time you have a hard time dealing with a "problem".

 

[kokie]

@johnjohn74 Not really that simple. As my livelihood and able to have housing depends on this. Going YOLO to court and randomly submitting tax forms with no experience on a very complicated, but possibly salvageable scenario is not a wise thing to do, no matter how much chest hair you have.

 

[johnjohn74]

@kokie If i can represent myself in divorce court, you can represent yourself in a civil matter for sure. I was not trying to simplify your life. I was trying to convince you that it can be much more challenging and likely will be. Go read about law if litigation scares you. Spend a week reading cases in the same wheelhouse. You will learn something valuable.

 

[kokie]

@johnjohn74 Sorry, but "Do not get a lawyer" is not good advice.

 

[johnjohn74]

@kokie I did not say "do not get a lawyer". Quite the contrary. Take charge of defending yourself and learn something, before you let a total stranger defend you. That is what i said. If you do that, you will stand taller, and sleep easier next time and the time after that, regardless of your success rate. Anyone can hide behind a lawyer. Few of us take off the gloves and go bare knuckle.

 

[lizelle]

@johnjohn74 Alright then I will take this advice and teach myself how to skydive, rigging the parachute myself and all

 

[yakob123]

@kokie I feel ya… falling apart for me as well… all at once

 

[jrock8787]

@kokie No problem, It happens, and it’s totally normal to feel defeated and want to vent, you got this!

Just use that disappointment as motivation to get things back where they were but in better shape