Since I am back into the blogging business I also try to find interesting articles to read and (believe it or not) it’s pretty hard. Everyone and his cat has an Entrecard / Twitter / Digg / Adsense etc. blog to teach you how to get maximum profit / visits / clicks or debate how to make money online in blogs that don’t earn 2 bucks a month. Yeah, I am mean right now since I’m tired of reading about “millionairs” and “get rich yesterday” gurus.

Still .. we’re not talking about the low quality of information or the fact it takes 10 spam blogs to find a good one, but we’re gonna chat a bit about the advice I read in one of the few decent ones I laid eyes on these days: don’t stay on a small budget or “tight money”, but go there and find a good loan for your business.

Don’t know how it’s in your country (I assume it’s not good either), but in mine the banks have stopped loaning money and, if they do loan, the interest rates are sky-high and the conditions very very strict. And still, while many firms close their doors now being hit by the recession, some still think it’s a good idea to start a business with a bang by getting a good loan to kickstart it.

I don’t have anything against the idea of loaning money as long as YOU KNOW you will succeed. If I am almost sure my small company will hit big and the loan would help me maximize this profit and be able to pay for it fast, consolidate the business and also be on a “plus”, I see no reason for not going to the bank now. Be it strict, the loan still helps you a lot and all the added costs are covered by the huge profit you’ll be making.

And still … how many of us are that sure? How many of our business plans work THAT WELL so that we can ignore the world crisis, the huge interest for the loans banks still give and go get that money?

Many people still consider a small “family business” as something you need to be ashamed of. Of course it’s better to have a huge office in the central area, a 100,000 USD car (at least) and 10 huge castles to visit each month (well, make it 12, so that we cover the entire year). But in real life this is not possible. And I would rather still live in my small apartment and run my new but not that cool car, while not having to worry that I’d lose my firm, house, life for not being able to pay for that huge loan I just took to “consolidate the business”.

I’ve written about this in a past article that had an excellent response from you, my readers: Start low or get a 200K loan? and Is a small business pathetic?

For me the answer is clear: I keep a low profile and work as much as I can. I SAVE MONEY for 2-3 years while being able to live a nice decent life and still eat well. I do make a good living and, even if not being able to wear expensive jewelry (not interested in this anyway), I do buy good clothing when needed and all I need for a nice pleasant life. This way I can still afford a meal at a restaurant from time to time, a nice perfume or a vacation. I also save money for my business and try to expand as much as I can while still keeping that budget under control.

After I get some good money in my accounts I can consider expanding. I need to be able to pay for some months upfront and also be able to cover my future employees wages for at least 6 months even if the firm won’t make ANY money then. In this business we all have good or bad months and I won’t grow my business so that I get bankrupt after 2 months. For a small firm this step is a very hard one. Since we’re also facing these economical problems we do need to be careful with the timing and all the details.

So, what’s your take on this?Are you interested in a loan for your business these days? Is it better to keep a low profile till things start going better?

Filed under: Web business by ramona