When a company runs into serious difficulty, directors often find themselves steered toward a process before anyone has properly assessed what the right outcome looks like for them personally.
- Your company is under financial pressure and you’re not sure whether closure, rescue, or restructure is the right route
- You’ve been told liquidation is your only option — but you haven’t had an independent assessment
- You’re concerned about your personal exposure: a director’s loan account, a personal guarantee, or HMRC debt
- A winding-up petition has been issued or threatened, and you need to understand what that means for you
- You’ve built something and want to know whether any of it can be preserved
- Your accountant or solicitor has suggested you speak to a specialist before any formal process begins
An insolvency practitioner, once appointed, has a statutory duty to creditors — not to you. Lightside’s role is different: we act solely on your side, before and throughout whatever process follows.
Not sure how to describe your situation? Don’t worry — call or message us and tell us what’s happening. The first conversation is free, completely confidential, and carries no obligation.
Four things that matter before any decision is made
Tap each card to see what it means in practice.
Definitions of CVL, pre-pack administration, voluntary strike-off, administration, and MVL are in the FAQ below.
Speak to us before any decision is made
No charge for the initial conversation. No obligation to proceed. Completely confidential. We will tell you honestly where you stand and what your options are.
The outcomes that become possible when a director gets independent advice first
These are the outcomes that become possible when a director gets independent advice before any formal process begins.
- A viable business rescued rather than closed — where the underlying trading position justifies it
- Company dissolved rather than liquidated — avoiding investigation, DLA recovery, and IP fees where conditions warrant and allow this
- Brand, staff, and customer relationships preserved through a pre-pack sale to a new entity
- Personal exposure addressed as part of the company process — personal guarantees, DLAs, and HMRC handled together
- Pre-appointment consultation with the liquidator — shaping the outcome before the formal process begins
- A director who understands exactly where they stand — and has someone acting solely on their side throughout
“The business hadn’t failed. That was the hardest part to sit with. We’d built something real — then the council changed what we were allowed to use.”
- Pre-pack sale preserved the brand, team, and customer base
- All staff offered TUPE transfer to the new company
- New business trading profitably from new premises
Most of our Director Support work reaches us via referral from professional advisers.
“Nobody had mentioned that Nick would personally have to repay £30,000 if we signed. We were hours away from signing when Lightside told us what the liquidation route actually meant.”
What happens when you contact us
Most directors come to us not knowing what their options are. That is exactly what the first conversation is for.
You make contact
Call or message us. You don’t need to have the answers — just describe your situation as you understand it. The first conversation is free and completely confidential.
We map the full picture
We review the company’s financial position and your personal position together. Business and personal debt are often connected — we look at both before any route is recommended.
We set out your options
We tell you what each available route means for you personally — cost, investigation risk, personal liability, and what can be preserved. You make the decision with the full picture.
We stay alongside you
We remain with you, helping to manage any personal debt dimension and liaising with the IP on your behalf. You are never left to navigate it alone.
Director Support
Every situation is different. These cases show the range of what becomes possible when directors engage before any formal process begins.
“I didn’t want to close. The accountant mentioned winding the company up, and it was starting to feel like the only conversation anyone wanted to have. But closing felt like giving up on something I’d spent years building.”
Diana’s bounce back loan was the company’s only significant creditor — the business itself remained viable. Lightside reviewed the financials, identified that the repayment schedule (not the underlying business) was creating cash flow pressure, and approached the bank with a structured commercial position. When the bank passed the matter to appointed debt collection agents, Lightside negotiated directly with those agents and secured a repayment plan of under £20 per month with interest frozen. The business continues to trade.
“We were already moving towards signing the engagement letter when a friend intervened. Nobody had mentioned that Nick would personally have to repay £30,000 if we signed.”
Nick was hours from signing a liquidation engagement letter when he was referred to us. The firm instructed had not disclosed that appointment would trigger a statutory demand for the £30,000 overdrawn director’s loan account — recoverable from Nick personally. We assessed the position from first principles. The company’s total creditor exposure was £7,800. We confirmed voluntary strike-off remained available — the company had ceased trading, faced no pending legal proceedings, and no insolvency practitioner appointment was required. Where no liquidator is appointed, no statutory power to recover the DLA arises. We settled all creditors in full for £7,800, filed the strike-off application, and the company was removed from the register. No investigation, no conduct report, no DLA demand. Saving against the liquidation route: over £22,000.
“The business hadn’t failed. That was the hardest part to sit with. We’d built something real — then the council changed what we were allowed to use.”
Structured a pre-pack sale of the restaurant’s assets to a newly formed company at independently assessed fair value; all staff offered TUPE transfer; original company entered CVL — preserving the brand, team, and customer base while closing out historic liabilities.
Why send your client to Lightside before an IP is instructed?
Most directors who come to us have already been told what is going to happen. They have been advised to instruct an insolvency practitioner, and the conversation has become about which IP to use, not whether IP involvement is the right route at all.
We fill a gap that is structurally absent from the insolvency market. An IP acts for creditors. We act for directors. That is a different service, and one that most directors need before any formal process begins — not after.
Referring a director to Lightside early does not complicate your role. We work alongside you, not instead of you. Your client relationship is protected. We take the director through the options, and then support them on whichever route is taken.
Discuss a client situation with us — no commitment required
You can speak to us before any referral is made. All speculative discussions are treated in complete confidence. Your client relationship with your firm is not affected.
Cases referred by professionals
“We were ready for retirement and couldn’t see a route to trading our way back to that kind of money. Closing the company through liquidation seemed like the only sensible option left.”
With a £360,000 HMRC debt already established as fraud at tribunal, a standard CVL risked leaving the directors personally exposed. We engaged with the liquidator before the CVL formally proceeded and negotiated a global settlement — £250,000 net repayment — that let the company close cleanly while resolving the directors’ personal exposure in the same negotiation.
“I’d built this business over twenty years. My name was on the door. By the time my accountant referred me to Lightside, we were close to the edge. I wasn’t prepared to liquidate — but I didn’t know if there was another way.”
Liquidation was a live option — we considered it seriously. But before any route was committed to, we remodelled the trading figures with two adjustments: removing the personal credit card repayments that had been draining business cash, and restating stock costs to reflect the theft that had gone undetected. On both adjusted bases, the business returned a viable trading position. He chose restructure. We negotiated an informal creditor arrangement freezing interest on his personal debts and agreed a Time to Pay arrangement with HMRC for overdue VAT. The business returned to full compliance and continues to trade.
“The business had taken out a Bounce Back Loan hoping revenue would recover. Then additional business borrowing which I personally guaranteed. The business didn’t bounce back. Suddenly I was personally liable for debts I’d never intended to incur, and one creditor moved to make me bankrupt.”
We took over both personal guarantees directly and handled them on separate tracks. One creditor had already moved to commence bankruptcy proceedings; we deployed a Breathing Space moratorium to halt that action and negotiated a settlement during the sixty-day window. The second settled at a 75% discount. We also advised against formal liquidation of the company, recommending a managed Strike-Off instead, which avoided £40,000+ in potential personal liabilities.
“I didn’t want to close. The accountant mentioned winding the company up, and it was starting to feel like the only conversation anyone wanted to have. But closing felt like giving up on something I’d spent years building.”
Diana’s bounce back loan was the company’s only significant creditor — the business itself remained viable. Lightside reviewed the financials, identified that the repayment schedule (not the underlying business) was creating cash flow pressure, and negotiated directly with the bank’s appointed debt collection agents, securing a repayment plan of under £20 per month with interest frozen. The business continues to trade.