. >> matt roberts and greg owens know what it's like to be small business owners on the brink. >> how are we going to survive? how are we going to hold this together? what are we going to do? >> matt and greg found themselves in a place no business owner wants to be, filing for chapter 11. that certainly wasn't the plan when they bought the company, carol manufacturing, from industry giant oneida five years earlier. >> we manufactured for oneida and other flatware marketers. >> when the recession hit in 2008, orders for forks, knives, and spoons simply dried up. >> they stopped buying from us or in some cases they would buy things they didn't have a whole lot of. it was dribs and drabs of orders. >> it was a disaster, and with barely any cash coming in, the pair took drastic action. they closed the factory, let 100 employees go and shifted production for their remaining clients to mexico. >> we were left with a severely reduced revenue stream and really a revenue stleem couldn't support the amount of debt that we had. >> we were slow paying people and we were behind on our bills. we r