Your business in financial difficulty: first help and a clear view

The first conversation carries no obligation and costs nothing. A large part of SSP's purpose is helping people in crisis for whom insolvency looks unavoidable. We do this first of all out of conviction, because we fundamentally disagree with how this is currently organised in the Netherlands. That is why our earnings are not what matters most in the process. We offer every business owner who can no longer see a way forward an open and honest conversation. Once we have mapped out the situation, we can work out together how the financial side might be handled.

Start with a clear picture: how much money is left, which payments are most urgent and which obligations keep running, such as salaries and contracts. Talk to your accountant early and, where needed, a solicitor. In a confidential conversation SSP maps this out with you and helps you decide who to talk to first.

No. We help you get a clear view of your situation and bring in the right specialist at the right moment, whether that is a solicitor, an accountant or an insolvency practitioner. We also prepare you for those conversations. A solicitor gives you legal advice; an insolvency practitioner (curator) is only appointed by the court in an insolvency.

A WHOA procedure (the Dutch Act on Court Confirmation of Extrajudicial Restructuring Plans) lets a struggling business reach an agreement with its creditors outside insolvency. If the court confirms the agreement, it also binds creditors who voted against it. A specialist solicitor guides the procedure. SSP helps you get a clear picture first and prepares you for that conversation.

In a suspension of payments (surseance van betaling), the court grants a temporary deferral of payment, and you run the business with an administrator so it can continue. In insolvency (faillissement), the court appoints an insolvency practitioner (curator), who takes control and winds the business up. A solicitor advises on the right route. SSP sets out your options with you.

Sometimes. In a restart (doorstart), a party, sometimes the former owner with a new company, buys the activities of the insolvent business from the insolvency practitioner, and the work carries on. Whether it happens is up to the insolvency practitioner, under the court's supervision. SSP helps you judge whether a restart is realistic and prepares you for that conversation.

We only know that after a proper conversation. There are often more options than it looks: carry on, restructure, wind down, sell, hand over or stop. We think those options through with you, without false hope and without unnecessary panic. In the Crisis Scan we set those options and their consequences honestly side by side.

For crisis work we only take on companies based in the Netherlands. Where in the Netherlands your business is does not matter: you can call the crisis line or request a confidential conversation. The first conversation carries no obligation, costs nothing, and can be held in English.