JOHN McGUIRE, television presenter and entrepreneur, explains how he clawed his way back from financial ruin
Your new book is called "Sorted! How to Survive and Thrive When Money Is Tight". Could you save us the cover price and reveal all here?The book looks at how you manage when your outgoings exceed your income. There's a structured, scientific way of dealing with debt and a way of dealing with creditors that's fair to them and fair to you.
And what is that?Well, the first thing you do is secure the roof over your head. Then you take care of your own living expenses. After you've done that you deal with creditors.
Are there any circumstances in which you'd advise someone to walk away from their mortgage?At the moment, bankruptcy laws in this country are disgraceful. It's 12 years here, whereas in other countries it's one or two.
That isn't jail time though. That's 12 years in which you can't serve as a company director . . .Or take out a significant loan. The banks have a nuclear option, which is to repossess your home. But the individual doesn't. We don't have a history of dealing with failure in this country. In other countries it's almost a badge of honour.
You have had some recent personal experience in this area, have you not?I haven't been declared bankrupt, no.
But you came close to it.I came close, yeah.
How close?I went from a situation where my income was able to support very large outgoings to a situation where my outgoings exceeded my income by quite a substantial amount. My business was mortgages and that overnight that went down 95 per cent. It was my foundation as a businessman and overnight that was taken away.
Was that a humbling experience?Absolutely. It changes you. I thought I'd done my hard slog. By 2007, I don't mind admitting, I was considering cashing out. I'd spent so long getting to that point, starting first thing in the morning and finishing last thing at night. I was worth an awful lot of money and I considered getting out.
Wow, do you regret that you didn't?Here's the thing: I don't think I'd ever have escaped. Even if I'd cashed out, I bet you any money I'd have bought bank shares when they were on their knees and lost absolutely everything.
So how did you recover?I made my payments. But it was a struggle every single month. I stopped buying clothes. I stopped giving a crap about my appearance. I turned my mortgage office into a cafe bar. I had 150 guys working on a site and I continued funding that out of my own savings.
I rented out my house and converted one of my vacant offices into a bedsit. I lived there for a year eating microwave dinners. The first day Dax Cafe opened there were six people in the whole place. The next day, I couldn’t get a table. Within the space of about three weeks, I got the site finished, I got the offices rented and some new companies I’d set up began to kick in.
Thirteen months ago I had one employee. Now I have 40-odd.
Once you'd repaid your debts, you didn't consider, you know, getting a PAYE job and coaching a kids football team for a few years?No, anyone who knows me knows I'd be bored with that within three weeks. I'm competitive. It was the same on the TV boxing show, Charity Lords of the Ring. The first night I sparred with Maclean Burke, we knocked the crap out of each other.
We were told to go at it 80 per cent, but I got a dig off him and there’s no way it was 80 per cent. So I gave him back in kind. He obviously knew how to box and there’s no way I was getting my ass kicked on television so I trained three times a day for four months.
For a TV show?That's completely insane. Yeah, but I put him to the canvas in the second round. It's the same in business. I hope to turn over maybe €10 million this year. If I do, I'm back in the big league. I've got my game face on.
You know, some of that sounds a little like compulsive behaviour.Possibly. But the thing is, I knew what it took to succeed at various points in my life. And I did everything in my power to make that happen.
It wouldn’t have worked out if I hadn’t done those things. I knew what I needed to do to succeed and I did it. You will bleep the swear words out though, right?
