Starting a Blog After Bankruptcy: What You Need to Know

Bankruptcy can provide much-needed relief in the middle of sticky and suffocating financial problems. But it’s not a perfect solution. And in the aftermath of filing for bankruptcy, it becomes more difficult to start a business, like a new blog, using traditional financing. 

However, there are plenty of ways to do it.

6 Tips for Starting a Blog Post-Bankruptcy

Starting a business is difficult enough. Starting a blog after bankruptcy is even harder. But with the correct approach, you can do it. Here are several tips and considerations:

1. Be Smart About Bankruptcy

This first tip is really something that you need to think about as you’re going through the bankruptcy process. While most people look at bankruptcy from a purely emotional frame of mind, you have to think objectively about where you see yourself going from here.

“When filing for bankruptcy, you can’t look at your circumstances in a vacuum,” attorney Rowdy G. Williams explains. “You have to zoom out and think about where you want to be in 12 months, three years, or even five years. That’s the only way to make a smart decision that benefits you and your family.”

Each type of bankruptcy is different. There are unique rules and slight nuances that might make one particular form of bankruptcy more favorable than another (based on your current assets and your future goals – like starting a blog). Don’t go through this process alone.

2. Fix the Underlying Cause

Every bankruptcy can be deconstructed and analyzed. Make sure you take the time to do an in-depth analysis and review to understand what the underlying causes were for your bankruptcy. It might have been one single factor or a long list of small issues that compounded over time to put you in a bad situation. It might be a specific mistake you made, or it could simply be the result of bad circumstances that you had no control over.  Whatever the case may be, dig in and seek to understand the cause.

When you understand the cause of your bankruptcy, you’re much less likely to make the same mistakes in the future (or put yourself in a situation where the same circumstances can harm you). This sort of clarity bodes well for your future business plans.

3. Gradually Rebuild Your Finances

One of the most important things you can do after a bankruptcy – regardless of what kind of business you’re trying to start – is to begin repairing your credit.

“It’s a widespread myth that filing bankruptcy will ruin your credit forever. Although bankruptcy does do some serious damage to your credit score, that damage is not irreparable,” credit expert LaToya Irby writes. “With discipline—and a little patience—you can follow these steps to slowly rebuild your credit and get your financial life back on track.”

Irby recommends doing a few things, specifically making sure your credit report is accurate, making payments on time, choosing credit repair companies wisely, getting a secured credit card or loan to slowly build new credit, etc. These are all great tips, regardless of whether you’re an entrepreneur or not. But when you use them wisely, it accelerates your financial “recovery” and gives you a better chance of having new doors open.

4. Take an “All Cash” Approach

While easier said than done, you may need to bootstrap your blog using an “all cash” approach. In other words, you can try building the blog from the ground up without taking on any outside financing. If nothing else, build it to the point that other people can believe in the vision and it has enough money coming in from ads, sponsorships, or affiliate links to justify outside investment.

5. Work With Private Money

A traditional business lender probably won’t work with you in the direct aftermath of a bankruptcy. Having said that, private money lenders have their own requirements and expectations. Most won’t care about your personal history. They just want to know that you have a good idea that can make them money. That’s why we recommend working with private money in these situations. If you can show that you have a plan for generating cash flow (not just clicks to your blog), you’ll be much more successful. 

6. Use Your Experience

You might not have a great track record for building successful businesses in the past, but you have plenty of life experiences. For example, you’ve just gone through bankruptcy – why not start a blog on the emotional side of bankruptcy? Or what about a blog about starting a business after bankruptcy? There are huge markets for this. Don’t miss out on these opportunities.

Blaze a New Path Forward

Don’t let your past financial mistakes, including bankruptcy, prevent you from exploring your entrepreneurial dreams and passions. If you have a good idea for a new blog that you firmly believe in, go for it. Yes, you’ll face some challenges in getting financing, but it’s nothing that you can’t work around. Take it one step at a time and you’ll eventually feel your way through the dark.