About
Everyone else in the room has an adviser. This is yours.
Director Helpline was set up for one reason. When a UK company gets into difficulty, the company gets advice. The director, whose name is on the guarantee, the loan account and the conduct report, mostly doesn't.
The point of view
The company isn't the client. You are.
That sounds obvious until you look at how the system is arranged. An insolvency practitioner, once appointed, acts for the creditors. The bank has a recoveries team. HMRC has enforcement. Your accountant acts for the company and is often as worried as you are. The solicitor you might call charges by the hour and starts from a blank page.
Directors in difficulty are surrounded by expertise, none of it pointed at them. So they carry it alone, make decisions under pressure, and find out later which of those decisions counted against them.
We sit on the other side of that. We're interested in the company only to the extent that it affects you. That focus is narrow on purpose. It's what makes the reading of your position honest.
Who it's for
Directors of ordinary companies, at an extraordinary moment.
Most of the directors we speak to run businesses with between two and fifty people. Building firms, agencies, hospitality, haulage, retail, professional practices, manufacturing. Companies that were fine two years ago and aren't fine now, for reasons largely not of their making.
They tend to share a few things. They haven't told anyone the whole picture. They're still working every hour to keep it going. They've signed things they don't fully remember. And they're more worried about their family and their staff than about themselves, which is admirable and, from where we sit, slightly the wrong way round.
If that's you, you're who this is for. If you're further along, with a petition served or a liquidator already asking questions, it's still for you. It's simply more urgent.
How we behave
A few things we hold to.
We tell you the difficult thing
If a guarantee is enforceable, we say so. If a transaction will be looked at, we say so. Comfort that doesn't survive contact with a liquidator isn't comfort.
We don't manufacture urgency
Some situations are urgent. Most are serious without being urgent. We're precise about which is which, because the difference determines whether you make a good decision or a fast one.
We don't sell a process
We're not an insolvency practice and don't benefit if your company enters one. Where a formal process is right, we say so and introduce someone regulated. Where it isn't, we say that too.
We stay in our lane
We give information and support. We don't give regulated legal or insolvency advice, and we won't pretend to. Knowing the edge of what we do is part of being useful.
We answer the same day
Directors call when they've finally decided to. That window doesn't stay open long. Every enquiry gets a human reply within one working day, usually within hours.
We're on your side of the table
When we introduce a professional, we brief them first, sit in where it helps, and make sure they're working for you, not around you.
If you've read this far, you probably have a reason.
Start with a conversation. Free, private, no obligation.