Bankruptcy at 23

not sure if this is the right sub - pls remove if not allowed

Hey! So I’m 23 and I went into business with my partner & a friend last year. It was a whole situation that I’ve learnt a lot from. We were pretty desperate to get out of where we were & move to where we are now so we decided to take on a 3 year lease for a small business (bar/cafe).

The rent is 6.5k a month in a regional town. 3 hours from the closest city. Small venue, almost all outdoor seating. We struggled through winter with rain, etc. This town is also a tourism location so winter is much quieter than summer. We should’ve negotiated on rent & not jumped into this whole thing so quickly, but you live and you learn and life goes on. My sister was dying and I wanted to get here as quick as I could. My other sister had just died & we held her wake at this venue. Grief does crazy things I guess & you probably shouldn’t trust every idea in such a hard time🤣

We lost our friend within the business about 6 months in - he packed up and left for a multitude of reasons - not going to get into it as it’s not relevant. Anyways. My partner & I have been working our butts off to try and get this place somewhere. It’s just not happening. Hospitality is tough & we are struggling. We are struggling to make enough money to cover rent, our house rent, bills, etc.

Our landlord is a lawyer, and a very hard one at that. It’s known around town she’s very tough to deal with. Our lease ends December 2026. We don’t think we will make it through winter so our plan was to operate to make as much as we can over the next few months, pay back creditors & leave hopefully only really owing on the lease.

I believe after all of this it’s likely we will have to go bankrupt. I took out a 30k loan with the bank to get this place up and running (silly I know), and I have 24k left to pay. I feel like that, on top of the debt we will inevitably be in when we end our lease early & close business my only option will be bankruptcy. I don’t feel bad about this & it actually feels like it would be a huge weight off my shoulders and a fresh start.

I know a lot of people will say I am ruining my life, but I’m all honesty as a 23 year old who has just lost 2 of her older sisters very tragically (they were still young women), I believe there is more to life than worrying about owning a house, etc. I’ll deal with that when I get to it. I have spoken to a few people I know who have gone bankrupt before & I know it’s possible to recover.

My question is however - what should I expect in regards to bankruptcy? Am I really never going to be able to rent, etc?

I will call the national debt hotline once we have walked away. I just want to gain an idea of what I should be doing before we have to close the doors. Sorry if this makes no sense or I’m rambling. Just a situation myself & my partner haven’t been in before. We don’t own any houses. Just a car.