You know, Chris - he sounds totally depressed. He doesn't sound as if he's in a fit state to do the fighting for his business on his own. What he could do with is a bit of energy/enthusiasm from his reception staff ... that happened to us when we were feeling totally overwhelmed by a lot of difficult personal and business circumstances. We were extremely lucky to have dedicated caring staff who took the initiative and did a bit of prodding and re-arranging for us.

:-) there's always another approach to a problem ... may not help much, but at least it's another thought.

Best
Margaret