Business Debtors Anonymous (BDA)
Solvency Immersion Conference
All DA Members Welcome Here
BDA is a distinct but not separate part of DA. Unfortunately, most of us who eventually find deeper, or at least additional, recovery in BDA — 12 more spiritual, conference-approved tools if nothing else — first spend years in DA focused on recovery from debting and overspending, while our income and earning remains a mysterious problem for us, which continues to make us feel powerless, unmanageable, and sometimes insane. BDA is the #1 DA solution to dissatisfaction with our income and earning, and the BDA tools are a huge help in managing our time, especially our work time.
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In one of our member's experience, he was 2.5 years solvent when he joined his first BDA home group in March 2017. At the time, he was living on an average of $8,000 per year — not a typo — and had been living on that annual amount since 2012, without debting since August 2014. That didn't change significantly in 2017 or 2018. Then in 2019 his annual net income increased to $23k, based on a new willingness to earn and guidance from his BDA sponsor and peeps, followed by $36k in both 2020 and 2021, during the pandemic, and it's been smooth sailing ever since. For a mostly retired person, working for pay an average 8 hours per week, he considers his resources generous, and he loves sharing them with others and with DA and BDA. And his financial results are small, if compared to most BDAers, because he's not motivated by money. In his own words:
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"While maintaining my emphasis on solvency first — twelve years free of new unsecured debt in August 2026, thank you, God and DA and BDA! — and Steps second (and everything else third or later), including having a DA sponsor and working with others to service to debtors both in and out of the program, I have allowed BDA to change my life, including how I earn and receive money. I have completely surrendered my life, financial and otherwise, to my Higher Power, not just my spending, not just my relationship with money, but all of my life, through BDA. And the Higher Power has provided more in terms of happiness, wholeness, and freedom than I ever could have hoped for. These are the experiences that motivate me in my recovery. BDA was the missing element. Now I have to share about this miracle of my recovery in order to keep it."
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All DA Members Welcome Here
There are some folks in our virtual BDA community, including regular ongoing registration and attendance in each cycle of the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference, who have made significant growth to both their business revenues and personal incomes.
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One of our committed members joined BDA in late 2019, after a couple years in and out of DA, unable to get his spiritual needs met or even to get solvent while looking only at his spending. He has stuck with BDA since 2019. In 2019 his gross income was $85,000. In 2020, having taken the Steps and engaged with all elements of the DA and BDA program through the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference, and having claimed and maintained his solvency date since July 2020, his gross income grew to $120,000. In 2021, he continued his own DA and BDA program work, supported various BDA recovery events through service and participation, has contributed generously to DA and BDA at every opportunity, and has formalized the separation between him and his business.
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In fact, he was working his a** off in pursuit of his own business and personal visions, now that he knew what they were, and enjoying the sanity and satisfaction that comes with working and knowing his and his business's numbers. As a result of his recovery and hard work, his gross business revenue for 2021 was $550,000 and his net, post-tax personal income was almost $200,000. That's cash money, almost $200,000 in cash money in his pocket for 2021, while leaving $115,000 in his business's savings and prudent reserve accounts, and paying all business expenses in cash too. His BDA recovery made this possible.
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This member joined our steering committee in 2021 and has been a Step guide and participant in all of our service offerings ever since, at this update in 2026.
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All DA Members Welcome Here
Yet it's not all about the money. In our experience, practicing the combined DA and BDA program is about surrendering our lives and businesses to our Higher Powers. Our Higher Powers are our employers, and we are their agents. If we generously offer our services to the world and do our work well, we will be well-compensated and well taken care of. That is our experience in DA and BDA.
One of our committed members says that his spiritual awakening (see Step 12) through AA, more than 30 years ago, was that he no longer wanted to kill himself, to remove himself physically from the planet. His spiritual awakening through DA and BDA, specifically through the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference is an unlimited sense and experience of worthiness. He feels worthy of everything he wants that he's also willing to work for and toward. He says "yes" to money, gifts, experiences, and opportunities without hesitation and feels worthy of and receptive to everything his Higher Power chooses to offer him. He gives credit for this new awakening and attitude to his recovery in BDA, specifically to his recovery work in this conference.
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All DA Members Welcome Here
Most of us recovering debtors need to wake up and realize that we are worthy of everything good that's in our lives already and, usually, so much more. When we stop incurring new unsecured debt, one day at a time, no matter what, at home and work, we have the opportunity to see the world through whole new eyes. We might call those the "eyes of sanity." When we stop living beyond our means and do the work of the DA and BDA program through the 12 Steps, the other 24 principles, the 24 tools, and 12 promises — for us, as offered through the BDA Solvency Immersion Conference — we can increase our ability to see sanely, and to develop and manifest our visions, not to the power of 10 or even more, but to infinity.
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All DA Members Welcome Here
If you have DA’s A Currency of Hope, you will find many stories of DA recovery practiced by debtor business owners and self-employed debtors to solve the riddle of spiritually-based, recovery-oriented, principle- and values-driven income, earning, business operations, and employment. Although BDA is not always mentioned, all of the stories below include references to business ownership and / or self-employment by our fellow recovering debtors (that's 16 out of the 38 stories offered, and we may have missed some):
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From Desperation to Daily Gratitude
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An Underearner Discovers Real Recovery
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A Twelve-Step Journey out of Debt
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Less Is More
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Thank God for a Long, Slow Recovery
God Is My Business Partner
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A Focus on the Basics
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Watching a Fellowship Grow in the UK
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An Entrepreneur Finds DA and BDA Recovery
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Surrender and Service
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From Chaos to Clarity in Business
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Debt Was Hazardous to My Health
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The Escape Artist
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From Fruitless to Fulfilled in DA and BDA
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Loving as Money; Money as Love
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Recovery in New Hampshire
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