Are you thinking of borrowing funds for your business? It can be the most profound decision you will make.
Borrowing is fantastic. It’s the fuel for growth. It can make a step-change to your business, it can set you on a new path. Or it can be a fatal flaw, a bad choice, the thing that becomes a millstone, a weight that drags you down.
So, it requires a lot of thinking, a lot of planning. You need to know exactly where you’re going with your business, and exactly where borrowed funds are going to take your business.
This is especially so because, nowadays, as a company Director, you will probably end up personally guaranteeing any loan you take out. It’s easy to be blithe about guarantees: they’ll never be called in, they’re a signature on a piece of paper, you can sign up almost without thinking. However, they’re real, and if things go wrong, you really are liable. That could have a big impact not just on you, but on everybody around you.
You might be borrowing because your business is under pressure. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; sometimes it’s just what’s needed. But you can’t simply borrow your way out of trouble, you have to be cleverer than that.
I don’t mean to scare you; like I say, borrowing can be the greatest thing for a business. However, you do need to think carefully. There are lots of lenders out there who are desperate for your business, lots of loan executives on tough targets who are very keen to lend, irrespective of the risks to you. That said, we’ve worked with great lenders too; people who really are friends to your business.
At OneGilliland we know how to evaluate those risks, how to evaluate cashflows, how to plan intelligently, how to be strategic. We’d be delighted to chat to you, informally and at no cost to begin with, to see if we can help.
