What Closing My Radio Show Taught Me About Shutting a Business Down

In 2023 I hosted a radio show. It was somewhat like Businessing, the show I host now, just more interview based. It ran an hour on Saturdays and Sundays on 23 radio stations around the country, and it was a lot of fun.

We were doing okay. But we never got on enough stations to really drive the audience up, so the sponsors weren't getting a great return. It just didn't work, and I had to pull the plug.

What closing did to my head

It messed with my head for a long time. I really thought that show was going to work, and when it didn't, I felt terrible about it. I also took a lot of debt out of that experience, because it was really expensive to start that show and expensive to end it.

It made me feel guilty and kind of ashamed, too. I kept thinking that if I'd just worked a little harder, or if the show was a little better, or if I'd had a better idea, it all could've worked.

If you need to close your business, you're going to feel all of those emotions, so consider this your warning.

When you shut down a business, you're closing off a piece of your life's work, with all the emotion and energy you put into it. That's why I say small businesses are dreams. We have a vision and we do everything we can to make it come true, so when the dream doesn't come true, it's emotionally heavy.

Why I'd close sooner

If you're out of money and out of options, and you know you need to close, close it. Debt will follow you unless you declare bankruptcy, and that's a whole other animal of bad outcomes. If you try to keep the business going, the debt keeps following you.

I wish I would've closed mine sooner rather than later. When you get down to the final days of a business you have to close, you'll probably be chasing it. You'll run more ad campaigns and try new strategies to make it work, and that gets you deeper into debt.

What comes after

If you had the guts to open a business, you're literally my hero. You had a vision, you went after it, and you didn't settle. There are floors and floors of cubicles in the big building downtown full of people who wish they'd had the courage to start their business idea. That's their choice, and that's cool. But if you were courageous enough to give it a shot, you have all of my respect, and you get to close knowing that you tried.

Closing this business doesn't mean you have to go work for someone else, either. There may be a different version of it that works. Businessing is my different version of that radio show. I brought it back, and now it's distributed digitally. I'm unemployable myself, and there are options out there for smart, talented, driven people.

Here's the homework. Be honest with yourself about whether you're out of money and out of options. If you are, stop paying to chase it, because every new ad campaign in the final days adds debt that will follow you. Then pull the plug sooner rather than later, and remember that you had the guts to try.

If you do start a new version, the first job is saying clearly what it is. Here's my post on how to explain what your business does.

About the author

I'm Pat Miller. I help small business owners build a better business. I host Businessing, a weekly show for small business owners, and I run the Small Business Owners Community, where owners get help from other owners. Come find us at smallbusinesscommunity.com.