You’ve Secured a Small Business Loan. Now What?

15. August 2011

Here’s a scenario I’ll bet you haven’t looked too closely at. Let’s say that you’ve gone to the bank and you’ve secured a small business loan. Now what do you do? Up to this point, all of your efforts have been focused on getting the money you needed to get your business off the ground. Now that you have it, what are you going to do with it? Many new business owners have a plan of some kind in effect, but some don’t have a clue. Which category do you fall in?

 

Don’t worry. If you’re stumped right now and feeling a bit overwhelmed, you’re not alone. The past few years have been so difficult for small businesses to get business credit financing that most newcomers aren’t thinking past getting the money. Now that you’ve secured it, it’s time to step back and survey your objectives once again. Think about what you want to do and you can start making some plans. The first decision is to choose where to spend and how much to put away for a rainy day.

 

There’s a saying in business that you need to have money to make money. Well, you now have money, so how to you use it to make money? If you go out and spend it all in one big spree, you won’t have money anymore, so you’ll be back at square one. The trick to this step in your business evolution is to put enough away so that if you need another business loan you have the security to get it. You can even apply right away and use the bank’s money to cover your start-up expenses.

 

Evaluate each of your expenditures thoroughly before you write a check for it. There are certain things you just don’t need and others which can wait until you’re more financially solid. Use the recession of the past two years as motivation to save and do not make foolish decisions. Start small and build gradually. You don’t have to become Bill Gates overnight. Even he had to put his time in before he became the success that he is today. You have a little bit of money. Spend wisely now and it will eventually become a lot of money.

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