Welcome to the third story of my CEO story contest. I announced the CEO story contest on August 5, 2011 (Read the announcement here). You can read the previous stories: Story #1: The CEO’s son and Story #2: Paper Thongs.
Thank you to all those who participated in the contest.
Samuel
I once worked for a construction company. I thought it was going to be a lot of fun.
When I started work there, I began to do a review of the books. It became apparent very quickly that the person before me had bankrupted the company. The balance sheet and income statement looked really good.
The reality was that she never paid the bills, did not enter invoices into the system to the tune of $600,000, did not pay the payroll lease company for months and she had a stamp with their signatures so there were a lot of “cash checks” ran through the system.
After doing my homework, I sat down with the owners. This was one of the most difficult conversations I have ever had to have.
I told them they were a “going concern”. The CEO went outside and was sick. The other owner started crying like a baby. It wasn’t pretty.
The company lasted another 9 months as we completed the jobs that were outstanding, but so much money was owed to equipment companies that they personally guaranteed because the banks and the owners all thought they had money; there was no way to survive.
PS – We never were able to find her to prosecute; she disappeared.