If your business is under pressure, you don't have to face it alone.
I work with business owners who are dealing with cash flow crises, mounting creditor pressure, or the real possibility of business rescue. My job is to help you understand your options clearly, act early, and give your business the best possible chance of survival.
Pictured: Fergus Ferguson, Senior Business Rescue Practitioner, with Dr Gert Holtzhausen, Senior Business Rescue Practitioner, and Alexander-Mor Ferguson attorney and associate at Cilliers & Reynders Inc.
Book a confidential consultation →
Phone: Fergus Ferguson 082 650 0867
You're not the first person to sit where you're sitting
Financial distress doesn't happen because you did something wrong. It happens because trading conditions changed, a major client fell away, debt became unmanageable, or growth outpaced cash flow. Most business owners who end up here are competent people caught by circumstance — not failures.
What matters now is what happens next. The businesses that recover are almost always the ones that acted while there was still room to act.
What business rescue actually is
Business rescue is a legal process under the South African Companies Act, designed to give a financially distressed company a structured chance to recover — rather than being liquidated. A registered Business Rescue Practitioner is appointed to take temporary control of the company, develop a rescue plan, and work with creditors, employees, and management to restore the business to solvency wherever possible.
It's not an admission of failure, and it's not the end. In many cases, it's the mechanism that saves jobs, preserves value for creditors, and gives the business a genuine second chance — but timing matters. The earlier a business enters the process, the more options are available.
Signs it may be time to act
You're consistently unable to pay creditors as debts fall due
You're relying on personal funds or new debt to cover operating costs
Suppliers are tightening terms or demanding upfront payment
SARS or creditor legal action has started, or feels imminent
You're losing sleep over whether the business will make it to month-end
If two or more of these sound familiar, it's worth a conversation now rather than in three months.
How I work with you
1. Confidential assessment. We start with a clear-eyed look at the business's financial position, obligations, and realistic options — including whether business rescue is the right path, or whether a lighter-touch turnaround is more appropriate.
2. Stabilisation. Immediate steps to slow the bleeding — cash flow triage, creditor communication, and, where needed, the formal steps to place the company under business rescue.
3. Restructuring. Developing a rescue or turnaround plan: operational changes, cost restructuring, negotiation with creditors, and where relevant, support with raising rescue or recovery capital.
4. Recovery. Implementing the plan and working alongside you until the business is genuinely stable — not just technically solvent.
Why work with me on this
AWARDS:
MOST IMPROVED BUSINESS COACH GLOBALLY - Berlin - August 2013 (first South African recipient)
EMERALD Coach - South Africa - Nov 2014
MILLIONAIRE Coach - South Africa - Nov 2015
COACH of the Year South Africa - Nov 2015TOP CONVERSION AWARD - South Africa – Nov 2016
PRESIDENT'S CLUB 2016BUSINESS PARTNER OF THE YEAR - South Africa - 2019
CHAIRMAN'S CLUB 2021
More than 30 years advising businesses
ActionCOACH-accredited business coach, based in Pretoria
Registered Senior Business Rescue Practitioner (CIPC) — coaching from someone who has also sat inside genuinely high-pressure business situations, not only advised on them from a distance
Founding Chairperson of the Pretoria Sakekamer (2023–2026) and Joint Chair of the Centurion Chapter of Sakeleiersraad — active in rooms with other serious business leaders, which shapes the standard this coaching is held to
MBL (UNISA), B.Com Hons (North-West University)
Confidentiality
Reaching out doesn't commit you to anything, and initial conversations are treated as confidential. Most business owners find that simply talking through the situation with someone who's done this before brings immediate clarity, even before any formal process begins.
Next step
The single biggest factor in whether a business recovers is how early the owner reaches out. If you're reading this because something feels seriously wrong, don't wait for it to feel more wrong before acting.
Book a confidential consultation →
Phone Fergus Ferguson 082 650 0867