Here’s How You Can Get Out of Business Debt.
Written By: Ted James – https://www.tedknowsmoney.com/
A healthy bottom line is integral to the success of any business, and good debt management plays a big role in achieving this goal. As a small business, you may not always have an abundance of funds available for business needs, this is where debt can help fuel your expansion plans, increasing business production, product development, and more. But, facing an excessive debt burden can prove to be a huge challenge that threatens the success and survival of the business. To help keep this burden in check, this article by https://www.tedknowsmoney.com/ explores four effective strategies you can implement starting today.
Review Your Finances
Reviewing your financial statements will provide a clear picture of the strong and weak areas of the business, this can include credit card bills, bank statements, and more dating back at least a year. On review, you’ll identify where you need to curb spending and assets which can be liquidated to increase your repayment capacity.
Next, create a new budget for the coming six months that prioritizes repaying debt, while ensuring you maintain enough cash to afford business expenses. This will provide two benefits – first, each month the debt burden will reduce, second, you’ll protect your business from undertaking additional debt.
If you’re struggling in the budgeting process, consider hiring an accountant who can help review statements, curb expenses, and create a financial plan for the business.
Reduce Expenses
While this is an obvious solution, it’s not the easiest to execute. But, a review of your financial statements will provide clarity regarding areas of business where spending should be curbed.
To further simplify this process, divide your expenses into categories such as:
- Essential Expenses: This includes taxes, utilities, rent, salaries, and other expenses which cannot be eliminated. Your new budget will need to have provisions to cover these each month.
- Negotiable Expenses: According to the US Chamber of CommerceIf you have good relations with suppliers, try to negotiate an altered repayment schedule. This can include making payments in installments, or a lump sum on a mutually agreed future date.
Beyond these, you’ll have expenses that you will be compelled to reduce, such as selling expensive office space, getting rid of unused assets, or reducing the number of employees. None of these decisions will be easy to make, but they will help repay debt and secure the future of your business.
Consolidate Debt
As reported by Debt.org, debt consolidation is the act of taking a new loan to pay off existing debt. The process is straightforward, you visit a lender and provide the details about all your current debts and business finances. If they approve your request, they’ll undertake the responsibility of repaying your existing creditors. Going forward, you will be liable to pay your new lender the amount equivalent to your debt, but you’ll enjoy lower interest rates and affordable monthly payments.
Debt consolidation does not erase your debt, but it can make repayment easier. Lenders such as banks will often issue secured loans i.e. the loan will need to be backed by an asset such as your home, car, etc. If you choose to utilize this option, invest time towards creating a repayment plan to avoid taking on any additional debt.
Establish an LLC
Running a business as a sole proprietor puts your personal assets and finances in jeopardy as you and the business are considered a single entity. By registering your business as a Limited Liability Company, it will become a separate legal entity, safeguarding you as the owner from business-related debts and liabilities. For instance, with an LLC, a creditor will not be able to seize your home in case of non-repayment and only use business-registered assets.
Additionally, an LLC allows you to use business expenses as tax write-offs which can help save thousands of dollars a year and be used towards debt payments. As LLC requirements differ based on state, it’s best to delegate this task to a formation service.
Through these strategies, you’ll gain greater control over business debt, resulting in inefficient utilization of resources, healthier cash flow, and securing the long-term success of the business.
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"As a one-on-one financial coach, Ted James has seen and helped it all. He created his site, Ted Knows Money, to share money tips and help people get complete control of their finances."
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