Finding Cash for Your Business: Easy or Tough?

Clipboard01Banks love businesses but there are times when finding money for your business needs can be tough. Our business had no way to access short term loans or find Unsecured Credit Lines to provide the capital for expansion in 2004 when we moved to new premises.

We had to fund the entire move, which cost almost double the initial investment, from the business’ own cash flow, and our own pockets. And we were an ongoing business with a clientele and even a profit margin! We also had been in business for more than three years, so we had established ourselves. We were lucky though, as our business was 100% cash up front, and we were able to use that money wisely to fund the move, while we continued to run the business at the old premises. We did however, close for an extra two weeks, but when we reopened things were fine. You might not be so lucky, so you will need extra planning in financing your move, perhaps through affordable and appropriate levels of borrowings.

Of course, availability of loans is no use unless they are backed up with a suitable process that allows the business owner to keep running his or her business. Paperwork is too often the bane of most small business owners’ lives. It detracts from core tasks, but doesn’t always add to productivity or sales success. So, it’s essential that the process be as easy, as fast and as convenient as possible. If your business is looking for financing, you might be wise to look at the services provided by EzUnsecured.com.

You may find that you can consolidate existing business loans and cut your interest payments, a nice saving that would go to the bottom line. You may need extra funding for capital investments, help with invoice factoring or even just creating an emergency line of credit for times of need.

Of course, such loans will require interest payments, and documentation before they are approved. You’ll need to make sure that borrrowing such money does not place extra stress on your business financials.

So, get out your pencils, calculators and spreadsheets. Then decide on what kind of financing, the level need, and the timescale of borrowing and repayment. If you’re not sure, do your calculatiosn again! And talk it over with your partners! They may need to know this kind of information.

LCD TV vs. Credit Card Debt – Is it really worth 12 years?

Business Week Magazine recently featured a story in which it claimsCredit-Card Balances Are Ballooning:

Consumers are turning to their credit cards to keep shopping now that most households can’t use their home equity as a virtual ATM. Solid hiring and wage gains have let people rack up larger debt balances with few problems. Now relying on plastic could place more stress on consumer finances, which ultimately could lead to a pullback in spending.

Well, it looks like consumers are continuing to fund their lifestyles by borrowing more on credit than before. However, with interest rates on credit cards going up to 20% or more, this is surely foolhardy spending on many non-essential items.

As I posted on my blog a few days ago, it can take quite a while longer than you would expect to pay back even small sized loans. So I dug a little further, and was horrified with what I found.

Example: let’s assume that a borrower has $1000 outstanding on credit cards (whether it’s recent or not… it doesn’t matter). Now let’s also assume that a credit card interest rate of 17% is being charged, and that the borrower is paying the minimum every month of 2.5% of the total outstanding amount. I was horrified that it will take you from 61 months to, according to BankRate’s own calculator

payoffcreditcardloans2

It will take you 144 months to be rid of your debt.
In that time, you will pay $979.14 in interest.

aquosOk, let’s put it another, that Sharp Aquos LC32D62U 32″ 1080p LCD HDTV currently retailing for about $998.88 could take more than 12 YEARS to pay off, and in that time, you could use the interest payments on the TV to buy another one!

In fact, that is approximately double the length of the expected life of the LCD you bought anyway! So basically, after 7 years, you still have the debt and your TV is bust!

Now, fine. You may be saying to yourself: well, I’ll have enjoyed the TV for a period of 7 years, and anyway $1,000 won’t be worth that much in 7 years time. And you’d be right…

I wonder, though, if you bought that TV and things would probably be fine. But it’s all the other things that might accompany such spending that would begin to cast doubt on using credit card debt at 17.5% to find your entertainment lifestyle: the new HD DVD player, surround sound system, bigger chairs, digital cable TV with extra channels (sports, movies, and all the frills), … If you began to add any or all of these to the same credit card, then you’d be finding that 144 months a long time!

651px-Amstrad PCW512I wish I could say that I was Moses on the Mount when talking about these kinds of things… It’d be much easier, but I have to confess that I did indeed buy a PC (one that I hardly ever used) on a credit card, justified all the expenses (and there were a lot), paid a lot of credit card interest over the year that I owned it, and eventually sold it at a loss (of course, it’s really devalued after about a year!) to my friend.

You can do the math yourself on how much interest I paid on that machine! If I remember, it was an Amstrad PC8256 running on the CP/M system.

Have you ever done anything silly with credit card debt? If so, do let me know.

Credit cards: have you checked your wallet or purse lately?

Well, have you? Have you noticed how you are spending your money on your credit card? Have you seen your rates go up? Your bonus points erased? … Perhaps it is time to look for a new credit card.

In a busy market with lots of competing offers, CreditNet offers visitors a way to sort the wheat from the chaff. You can choose credit cards that have Bonus Points, Smart Card features, no annual fee (my favorite), 0% or, if you haven’t good such a great credit record, even credit cards bad credit. There are even sections for UK and Canadian visitors (finally recognition, that not ALL traffic is U.S. based!)

creditnet

I particularly liked the search tool which speeds up the search process delightfully. In fact, I entered several criteria to see what came up, and found 11 offers for someone with OK credit ratings, 0% interest for 12 months.

searchtool

Play around with it, and do check out the actual offers and credit card agreements just in case the offers change. And they can.

Information and links provided by CreditNet.