They gave you the money. Now what do you do? You’ve spent the past few weeks desperately trying to secure some working capital financing and now you’ve succeeded, so how do you proceed from here? You’ll want to make sure you use that money wisely. It would not be pleasant to find yourself back in the same position again in a few months, particularly if you haven’t even paid off the loan you just took out yet. It’s time to come up with a plan of action, far past time actually. So what’s next?

The first step if you can afford to do it is to cut that small business loan in half by putting fifty percent of it into an interest bearing account of some kind. Get it out of sight and use the other half to follow through on your bailout or expansion plans. Don’t worry about it being enough and don’t touch that other half under any circumstances. That’s your guarantee that no matter what happens you’ll be able to pay the bank back. Coming up with half is a whole lot easier than finding the whole thing.

Small business working capital comes in two forms, cash and credit. The first half of the loan you just took out is the cash portion and the other half is collateral for secured credit if you need it. That’s why you keep it in the bank. Use it to establish some lines of credit with venders and suppliers so you don’t have to spend your cash money resources. If you’re buying inventory wholesale and selling it retail, don’t pay cash for it unless there’s a significant savings attached if you do so. You can get a secured line of credit through the bank using your reserve fund and pay the bill when you sell the merchandise. That’s how successful established businesses do it.

Examine every spending decision thoroughly before making it. Have someone else play devil’s advocate and second guess you. This may seem annoying at times but it will save you significant money over the long run. You just had to borrow money to stay open. You now need to change some things if you don’t want it to happen again. Use what you have wisely and as little as possible. You’ll be amazed at how many expenses are completely unnecessary.

Business Loans, General working capital loans, business financing, small business financing