“40% of companies with annual sales of less than $500,000 financed their operations to a degree with personal credit cards.”

—From survey by Arthur Andersen Enterprise Group

One of the most popular ways to finance a small business is through the use of personal credit cards—where interest rates are normally anywhere from 18% to 23%. Even though it’s expensive, getting money through credit card financing is easier than wringing money from a bank or spending the energy and time for a business plan—and then seeing investors demanding a 30% return.

So we’re hearing more and more from bankruptcy lawyers and judges…they’re saying such financing actions (through high-interest credit cards) are coming back to haunt a growing number of small business owners. Some of whom wind up in court with multiple cards, and debts that are out of control.

For many cash-starved business owners, the need or lure is just too great to avoid the easy credit card financing. Sadly, many business owners are unaware of another financing method that can ease their financial straights—working with a local trade exchange, and making barter an important financial arm of their business.

There’s A Better Way

Tragically, far too many business owners still are financing their business with “very expensive” credit-cards! They’re sadly unaware of, or greatly underestimating, barter. It’s a powerful financing and marketing tool that can eliminate their number one problem—lack of capital.

What’s needed for a change to move forward in a better way? Set up a meeting with your local trade exchange, and outline the ways you can substitute barter purchases for those “expensive” credit-card backed cash purchases.

The BarterNews FastStart Program provides you with a roadmap for barter success…
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 5:28 am and is filed under Entrepreneurs & Small Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.