Lessons from Chapter 11 Put Them on Road to Better Future

Brian and Ann Turbeville made a series of common small-business mistakes on their way to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in July 2009. The Turbevilles are proprietors of Minnetonka-based Wallace Carlson Printing, a commercial printer they acquired in 2005 for $1.7 million.

The transaction left them with a substantial debt load that included a $200,000 loan from a commercial factoring firm, a company that provides alternative financing at comparatively high interest rates to small businesses that can't qualify for conventional, lower-interest credit.

But the Turbevilles saw the purchase as a necessary move. Wallace Carlson's larger commercial projects were