The kindest thing you can do for a failing business is close it
Bankruptcy isn’t a moral failing. It’s a tourniquet for a bleeding firm.
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Most people see a bankruptcy filing as a catastrophe. More often, it is merely the formal acknowledgement that the catastrophe has already occurred.
ST PHOTO: JASEL POH
Lee Yen Teik
In April 2021, Dennis Tay placed Naiise into liquidation and announced he would file for bankruptcy. The retailer, once one of Singapore’s best-known platforms for local designers, had reportedly struggled to pay vendors since at least 2016, first in instalments, then through deferred promises, and eventually not at all.
By then, Tay had exhausted his personal savings and borrowed heavily from banks against personal guarantees. He called the preceding weeks “the darkest of my life.”
