About Business Debtors Anonymous

Business Debtors Anonymous

B.D.A. Beginner's Tool Kit
We have found the following suggestions helpful in recovery through Business Debtors Anonymous:

Create a personal spending plan via Debtors Anonymous
Work out a 12 month business plan: include all costs, projected revenue, and payroll—be sure to include you own salary.
Review the Business Plan with a Business Pressure Relief Group meeting.
Open and maintain a separate business checking account. Separate personal from business finances.
Create an action plan to ensure the business bookkeeping records are clean, orderly and accurate.
Be willing to be both in charge and responsible for all aspects of your business. Professional help—accountants, lawyers and consultants—are working for you and are not your business' higher power
Show up for your business and keep your focus on generating revenue. Your business collars and time spent should generate revenue.
Be very clear about your profit. Know your profit margins on each and every business transaction whether it involves a product or service. Write it down, use your calculator, run a tape, double check the numbers.
Detach from difficult personalities: clients, partners, employees, and your own DIS-ease. Remember in all your business transactions its principles before personalities.
If you have a problem with record keeping, billing or collections: BOOKEND. Bookending is a very valuable tool for you and the person you call. It's a form of service and commitment to recovery for all parties involved.
Be aware of the competition, but don't worry about it. There is enough for everybody. It is and abundant universe. Consider your competition as a valuable teacher. Don't compare your business insides with your competitor's outside.
If you feel either high or low when closing "deals" or financial commitments: BOOKEND. Try not to dramatize!
Pay bills promptly and get payments due to you promptly.
Put all your business agreements in writing. To save money and confusion, write your own letters of agreement before seeking legal advise.
Take care of yourself. Remember HALT: don't get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.
Begin building cash reserves—no matter how humble.
Compare prices before contracting, giving an order, or signing a check. When it's time write a check, stop all other activities and THINK.
Don't debt "one day at a time" and keep coming back to D.A. and B.D.A.

B.D.A. Recovery Issues

Our goal is to be willing and able to build a prosperous, debt-free and solvent business using the principles of the program in all our business and personal affairs. To accomplish this, we took the following actions:

We detached from the business with a renewed commitment to the business.
We surrendered to the idea that we are neither our business nor our debts.
We made a commitment to ourselves, to God and our pressure Relief Groups to repay all our creditors.
We maintained a prosperous cash flow to meet our business needs.
We took charge of all our business affairs and obligations.
We structured a supportive and reasonable overhead for the business, sufficient to meet our needs.
We monitored all our business expenses with clarity, being in charge of all our accountants, bookkeepers and other financial and legal advisors.
Over time, we built and maintained prudent cash reserves.
We took the salaries, benefits and vacation time due us on a regular basis, just as we expected our employees to do.
We took responsibility for maintenance of our business records.
We worked spiritually with other people—employees, vendors, clients, and competitors—remembering that it is principles before personalities.
We came to know that through business highs and business lows, we were going nowhere unless we were on our spiritual track.

B.D.A. Debting Signals

As business owners, we knew we where heading for problems:

when we paid invoices prematurely instead of according to agreed-upon terms.
when payments were not made within agreed-upon terms.
when we borrowed from personal funds for business expenses.
when financial commitments were made on anticipated sales.
when we held on to clients who were slow or bad payers.
when a reasonable and comfortable profit margin was not factored into our pricing
when we did not know the exact costs of our overhead and running expenses.
when we cut our salaries in order to save the business money.
when we operated without a comprehensive business plan.
when we started missing B.D.A. meetings and lost contact with our business Pressure Relief Group.