Kerre Woodham: At what point do business owners call it quits?

At what point, when you're a business owner, do you decide that you've had enough? There was Covid, then there were the boom times, then there was the recession that seems to have gone on and on, there's a crisis in consumer confidence, there's global uncertainty that too has gone on and on. There are problems finding staff, there are problems keeping staff, there are problems finding work, problems with cash flow. At what point, which 3 in the morning wake up do you think, "I can't do this anymore?" Do you look at your life and realise that for the past five years you haven't had a life, and you call it quits or do you look at your books, and find yourself hoping for a good summer, then realise that hope is not a strategy, and decide to pull the pin?  

Business liquidations hit a 10-year high last year, with 2,500 companies folding, and that's the highest annual figure since 2014. Retail and construction suffered the most. But this year it's even worse. The number of companies put into liquidation so far in 2025 has surpassed last year's total for the same period, as economic pressures and low consumer confidence impact business viability.   

Dry words to describe heart palpitations, terror, dry mouth, sleeplessness, fractiousness. Very dry words to describe a terrible time in your life. Analysts say the recent rise in liquidations can be attributed to an increased focus on enforcement by Inland Revenue, as well as a lag of companies that were in distress during Covid but were propped up with government money, so it gave them a false second life.  

There's a long-held belief that recessions and shocks like Covid clear the dead wood, that there are many companies that shouldn't be in business, that fall by the wayside. But behind that, every business that closes its doors are people who put their hopes and their dreams and their labour and their hard work and their life savings into it.   

But does deciding to call it quits bring its own freedom? If you have been in a lather, desperately hoping that you're going to turn the corner for years now, not months, but for years, can deciding to call it quits be liberating? If you've had to make the tough decision to call it, it's done, can it be a relief?  

There are many people who, you know, through the GFC, it was similar. There were businesses that went by the wayside as people suddenly found they had no spare cash in their pockets. The stock market crash in New Zealand. Now that saw people with astronomically high interest rates, mortgage interest and business interest rates.  

Again, people with no disposable, lack of consumer confidence, a time of austerity. There were plenty of businesses that went under in the 80s as well. '87 was the stock market crash, and then from, I think it was really about 1990 that I remember that it was just a very, very grim, grim, austere, brutal time.  

So people have been through it before, and if you have, is there life after insolvency, after a liquidation, after closing your doors and saying, "I cannot do this anymore. I just can't?” There are more important things. My health is more important, my family is more important.  

Is there, and this is where I'm going to need you to tell me because I've never owned my own business, but I've certainly heard from a number of you over the years who love being your own boss. You can't imagine working for anybody else, but by God, that comes at a price, especially in times like these. So, if you've made the decision to call it, does insolvency mean the end and a new beginning? 

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