Published in Debt Advice Features on Sunday, December 31 2006

You can, but there will be more work involved, as your creditors will need convincing your business will remain constant in order to secure payment every month into the Individual Voluntary Arrangement. 

This means you will usually need twelve months accounts to show the previous years income, as proof of your income, and that you will need to do a business cash flow projection to show your business plans for the future. Creditors are often very wary as obviously the business could fail and they won’t get their dividend back. Also there may be considerable assets in the business and your creditors may consider this, as if they took you into bankruptcy they would be entitled to any assets your business holds.