Can't believe the mess!!!

Fitzy29

Hi,

I ran a small business when I was very young, only 21, and used personal finance to fund all the over heads!! Needless to say after one year I had to call it a day and move on, with all my debts!!

Now, 8 years later, i've been working as normal and have built up a fair amount of equity through buying 3 properties, I currently have 120k in equity. That said i am still in around 22k personal debt, this isn't the old business debt but new stuff just to keep my sloppy spending habits in tow (why does it take so long for the penny to drop, saving money can be so easy) Anyhow, as said from others above, from my experience you really need to keep your personal and business debts very seperate!!

If you project 50% increase in business growth through forecast why not compile all this info and show it to you business relationship manager at your local bank, assuming you have a business account that is if not get one!! The bank then may agree to lend you expantion funds, now i know you're thinking 'oh no more debt' but borrowing for sound investment in my view is sensible as long as you belive in your plan and follow it through. It would be very easy to let your personal debts rule your business decisions, that's what I did and closed my business looking back there would have been further options if i could have just 'thought outside the box'.

If you can see real growth, go for it and as your business grows you will at the same time been addressing all the CC debts in your personal lifer, and with the help of these boards and all the kind people here, reduced them to a sensible if not zero level.
:beer:
Make a plan to grow the business and slash the CC debts, get to the bank and see about business investments, remember the bank will only back good plans so if they belive in you, you should too! Gor for it.:beer:

LittleL_4

Hi Fitzy,
Thanks for your advice, seems like you learned the hard way.

My story is as follows. I'm a staff nurse but became really unwell through chronic fatigue (ME type thing) and was struggling in my job. So for therapeutic reasons I started to make hand-made cards and wedding stationery, long story short I'm now in business, have 2 agents, one in Scotland, and just recently one in London. My cards sell really well, my agent up here only works 2 days p/w, but gets me orders when she has appointments. The London agent reckons I'll do well in the big stores like J.Lewis etc but wants to make a few changes to them. So I know I have a good product but I've just not quite made it yet. And not got the finance to deal with potentially massive orders.

So I think I'll take your advice and approach my business manager. I'm gonna do that next week, I'll let you know how it goes.

I have a personal account and a business account with the Abbey. I can't believe I used my c/c to finance this whole thing but I'll get it sorted hopefully when the money starts rolling in by the million!!!!

Yeah right !

Thanks again

lesley

ps, are you a property developer now?