Obviously I decided that writing in my blog needed to take a backseat to my current ventures. I made the choice after my ventures began demanding more of my time and I realized that my goal for blogging was not to make money; something which had to take precedence over the past few months.

So I suppose finances is where I should recap.

Progressive decided not to pay for the uninsured motorist claim I filed and that is why I am still in a lot of pain (neck and back). I was investing all I had into my ventures and there is no more left for all the doctor bills I was accruing. In order for me to be effective in the gym again, I know I will need to get my neck and back issues taken care of. Just before the two year statute of limitations, I had to file a lawsuit. They are playing games, though, by responding that they are not registered to do business in Georgia. That’s really funny seeing as how millions of people in Georgia are insured by Progressive. I wonder what their customers would say if they knew they were buying insurance from a company not licensed to do business here?! In Progressive’s eyes, that means that I cannot sue them. In the law’s eyes, however, it means that they are using unscrupulous means to avoid a lawsuit, very stupid on their part. The lawyers should have a field day with them. As I find time, I will push this forward.

My venture, ShrinkTheWeb (http://www.shrinktheweb.com), has really started to take off. I invested a lot of time and money into this venture, because I felt like “website previews” (as silly as it might seem to the average non-techie) would become a huge hit on the Internet. It seems that this is coming to fruition. Time will tell.

I have also been consulting to a previous client to analyze and develop their strategy. After much hard work and efforts, we have built strategic alliances that I expect will be very lucrative and I determined exact reasons why their business has been only moderately successful over the past several years. My proposal to correct those issues was accepted and will put them in to a position to strengthen their offering, boost their credibility, and usurp their competition by collapsing their niche market (much like ShrinkTheWeb did to the website thumbnails niche). I am hopeful that this will be lucrative for all involved.

In my spare time (hahah, right), I have also been promoting, ColorBuster (http://colorbuster.net), a fun puzzle game for the iPhone that was developed by one of my best friends, Attila Jancsina. This is my first time promoting an iPhone game and it is riddled with pitfalls and loopholes. This is definitely a learning experience but we did manage to get listed in the “Staff Favorites” section within just 2 weeks of launch! So that is fantastic. I have more plans to also promote through my third venture, a networking group I’m co-founding with Valerie and Frank. So I’m hopeful that our efforts will be productive.

So many more tough obstacles have come up over the past year that I doubt I will have time to write in my book for awhile. I really enjoyed writing but I have to get my ventures fully self-sustaining so that I can focus. A lot of people who are familiar with my life trials and tribulations have been eager to read my book, but I just have to get to a point where I can relax and let the thoughts flow. At the moment, they are all jumbled in my head.

And that really falls in to my last topic: writing in my blog. I may or may not (most likely not) write in my blog until I have several issues out of the way. I wish you all well.

Cheers,

Brandon

Unfortunately, I am having to file bankruptcy, even though I am an exception to the irresponsible credit rule. Typically, most people find themselves in a bind due to having charged beyond their means, lost their jobs, couldn’t keep up with their mortgage, or had mounting medical bills not covered by insurance.

While I do have thousands in mounting medical bills (thanks to Progressive not paying my uninsured motorist claim), I am mostly filing bankruptcy to simply get bill collector’s (now filing lawsuits) off my back. I need to be free of their harassments and liens in order to make progress towards making my second million. I am very close but I am scraping bottom at the moment. In fact, these past couple of years have been so filled with trials and tribulations that I feel now like I will be able to breathe again soon.

However, I’m not out of the woods yet.

I won’t go into detail in this post (because we don’t have the hours to go into just yet), but I’m mostly filing bankruptcy because of corrupt police officers. From that ordeal, I ended up having to use my SBA loan to survive and depleted my savings while I lived in another country and then sat in jail for seven months for crimes I did not commit. If that sounds familiar to any of you, that might be because of the new movie called “Felon” that came out recently. Oddly enough, that is a very close version of what I went through (somewhat less violent, though). What surprised me most is that the San Quentin prison looks identical to the “adult detention center” where I was kept. I think that seems a little harsh, when it’s supposed to be innocent until proven guilty, don’t you?

Anyway, I digress.

Another big factor in my decision to file bankruptcy was that DriveTime violated my rights by giving out personal and financial information about me to a 3rd party. This is known as an FDCPA violation and they knew that they were so guilty that they changed their “policies” and offered me money to drop my suit. I refused and made a counter-offer, which they refused. Later, they sent me another offer, this time by certified mail. I sent one final counter-offer, which I thought was a big compromise. Instead of calling or writing back, their response was that they simply charged off my car and reported on my credit that I did not pay and refused to return the vehicle.

Ah well. I suppose that is how these places choose to deal with things. As for me, it is just one more reason to roll that auto loan in with my bankruptcy and they’ll get nothing. Plus, I have not absolved them of any liability regarding my case for the FDCPA violation, so they will still have to contend with me on that eventually. Bankruptcy was always my “ace in the hole” in this fiasco, but I thought we could come to an arrangement that would be amicable and mutually beneficial. Apparently, I was wrong.

In any case, that is a glimpse into my world and my reasons for filing.

I have taken many months and put in quite a bit of effort to prepare for the bankruptcy and to make a quick recovery from it. This included having several good items on my credit closed out, so that they will not get wiped off during the bankruptcy AND discussing with my bank to keep (or re-affirm) their credit card throughout the bankruptcy. By re-affirming the credit card through the bankruptcy, I planned to have a higher line of credit and a great recent history spanning a few years.

However, despite my precautions and talks with the bank, they did end up closing the account anyway. That is really lame, since I had been planning this for over a year and did everything in my power to ensure that this would be a major point of positivity in my rebound. Now, though, I am cut off at the knees in respect to that. It turns out that this was done out of adherence to some lending regulation.

Naturally, I also have contingency plans, because I knew the potential that they would close out the card anyway. Now, I will have to solely rely on secured cards with low limits and secured loans to boost my score back up. The only problem is that the card that got canceled was primarily used for business and not personal, so now I have to spend yet more time, that I do not have, to swap out payments on the credit card to my business debit card.

Once the bankruptcy is discharged, I am told that I can open another secured card to use for the business. This will be a huge factor in helping me rebuild my credit quickly and easing the burden on how to pay my bills each month.

All in all, this bankruptcy will allow me to focus on what is important and will bring me that much closer to getting back on top. I’ve been unfairly having to struggle over the past several years, but I’ve been pushing through like always. Now, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to keep pushing onwards until I get there.

I have an opportunity (85%) likely, as of today, where I will go live overseas and provide consulting services to an Indian company and a French company. Those will be my first two clients and I will be based out of Paris and London. Those companies are also interested in investing in my company, so that could mean I will be back on top by the end of next year or hopefully by 2010 at the latest.

With secured cards and secured loans, my credit should also be back in tip-top shape by the end of next year. So, I just have to hang on for a little while longer.

The moral of the story is that bankruptcy is definitely not the end.

Though, it can be the beginning.

Anyway, I just haven’t had time to research bankruptcy or get myself into the right spot to file. I have a few more preparations that need to be in place. However, I’ve got so much work on my shoulders this month and next that I am really just too overwhelmed to deal with it.

Yesterday, in fact, I had to jump through another “hoop” because the lady at the DriveTime center where I went out of my way to file the deferment paperwork shredded my documents just to spite me. So, I have gotten the phone number to file a complaint against her with DriveTime, and I will be telling them that this is yet another reason why I do not trust their company and that they could lose my business as a result. They need to know that this treatment will not be tolerated –even if I am technically delinquent on the account. That still does not excuse their rude behavior.

So, anyway, I went through the trouble of getting a letter from the bank showing that I’ve had a bank account in good standing with a nice balance for a year. I got someone at the bank to write that letter and it should be good enough –even the manager who accepted the paperwork thought it would be good enough. However, it was immediately rejected by DriveTime corporate and they insisted on 3 months of bank statements. This is the trouble with being self-employed.

Now, I officially surpassed my tolerance level for this situation. I have spent far too many hours dealing with this, and I just told them that I will give them what they have requested when I come down to make my next payment. They will simply have to wait.

I’ve been planning this out for more than a year. I am still not 100% decided on whether or not I will be able to completely repair my credit within the next year or whether I should just file bankruptcy and get this hassle off my shoulders. One reason I am considering it more strongly than ever is because of the hassle I’ve had with DriveTime.

The only real considerations are that my pending bad debts (caused by leaving the U.S. due to police corruption) are nearing the 7-year mark and will drop off but that also means that the creditors will probably step up their efforts in collecting. So, it’s a gamble to wait. I may wait that entire time only to find out that they’ve filed lawsuits and gotten a judgment against me which will be tougher to overcome in bankruptcy proceedings (as I understand it). If I go ahead and file now, then I avoid giving them the opportunity but I lose the possibility of having those drop off naturally and not having a bankruptcy on my record for 10 years.

I will be checking into this more in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned if you are in the same boat as me! I will also divulge tactics I have used on how to pre-build your credit so that once you file, you wont’ be left completely at the mercy of creditors and ultra-high interest rates.