After matriculating in 1975 and a couple of interesting years at medical school [in which he discovered that dreams often wilt in the harsh sun of reality], Peter joined Barclays Bank [now First National]. He left them a few years later to chase a career in the computing world.

In 1984 Peter was lucky enough to be fired from a job as a software project manager. Faced with starvation or the challenges of entrepreneurship, he opted to start a small software company. By 1990 Link Technologies cc was amongst the 3 most admired computer firms in South Africa , and had branches in the major centres in this country. In order to grow this beast, however, Peter had signed away everything he owned, [usually with the reassurance that this was normal for the aspirant entrepreneur].

In 1992 he was forced to close. [It's a long story, which he has subsequently discovered is awfully common. He shares the details in his ever-popular CrashProof your Business seminars .] Within a year of the closure Peter was worth somewhat less than nothing. Most of his erstwhile friends had vanished - which wasn't too bad because he had met a really nice group of folk at the local magistrates court [a facility he frequented weekly for about 18 months as every document he had ever signed came home to roost].

Peter's family lost everything that they had worked for - all because he signed a few documents that he was told were 'standard' and 'everyone signs them' and 'you won't be able to borrow unless you sign these'. He never looked any further because there seemed no point. After the business closed Peter spent the next 3 years selling life assurance to small business owners - mainly so that he could ask them what they were doing to prevent the kind of disaster that had overtaken him.

With just a single exception, nobody was doing anything - for exactly the same reasons he hadn't. We all assume that there is only one way to borrow money - and that's the banks way. And it's a wrong assumption.

Why does he care? Since 1992, Peter has counselled thousands of business owners in the throes of closing their businesses. He remains astounded at a few things. Most of the time the closure is easily prevented - but we business owners are usually too proud to ask for help until it's too late. He knows because he did exactly that.

And most of the time our families suffer way more than we do. They don't often know all of the details and for them the fear of the unknown is worse than the reality. This is a time when many families break up - which simply adds to the disaster.

Apart from writing a free weekly e-zine for small business owners sharing business thoughts that he is told are useful; consulting with small business owners on reducing risks and cancelling sureties; speaking to groups of business owners as well as addressing private seminars on Internet and marketing issues, Peter has recently formed a community of business-owners called Business Warriors, and he is championing their causes on many fronts.

Peter is now based in Umhlanga Rocks, but spends large chunks of time traveling.

Click her to view his book: Crashproof Your Business