Archive for April 19, 2010

SERIES: Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business – Part 4

Welcome to the latest series on JosephSangl.com – Lessons Learned While Starting A Small Business.   Starting a small business can be tremendously exciting and frightening at the same time.   One of the most common trends that we see among small business owners is that they are very good at providing their product or service, but they are not so skilled at the business side of doing business.   This series will focus on some of the key lessons we have learned from meeting with many small business owners as well as truths we have learned as we have built a small business.

Part Four – Growing a business without debt requires great amounts of patience.

There are many costs associated with starting a small business, and it is very enticing to use debt to pay for them.   I have made a commitment, however, to grow my business without any debt.   I believe that I could certainly grow a business faster by using debt, but I also know that it can be harder to sleep at night when one has signed up for a tremendous amount of debt.   In my personal budget, I have found that our commitment to live without incurring debt causes us to seek out better deals, save money more consistently, and simplifies our lives by reducing financial stress.   I have discovered that this is also true with the business.

I must say that I have been tempted to obtain debt – on more than one occasion.   But each time I consider doing so, something about my past experiences with debt causes me to pause and consider why I want to obtain debt.   It forces me to ask myself this question, “Is this expense really necessary and is there another solution that would allow us to avoid debt?”       To this point, we have always found a way to avoid debt.   Sometimes it has meant that we have to press the “pause” button on a project (that stinks!).   Other times, it has meant that we have discovered an amazingly better alternative solution!

One of our fundamental business principles we operate by is this:   If we operate with cash in the bank and zero debt, we will have a sustainable business that will impact millions of people – and our team will be able to sleep at night without piles of debt hanging over us!

Read entire series

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