Long one about failing.

My first business lasted eleven months. Printing and branding, 2022. We were good at the work and terrible at being paid for it, which turns out to be the entire job.

I closed it owing two suppliers. Both of them took payment plans and both of them still answer my calls, which I did not deserve and have not forgotten.

The thing nobody tells you is that failing in public is survivable. People remember how you ended it far longer than they remember that it ended. Pay what you can, say what is true, and do not disappear. That is most of a reputation.