Taking the plunge: time for expansion?

My advice so far in this blog and to anyone who asks is that you should do as much as you can without spending any money. I have steered clear of upfront investment and favoured organic growth. But now my business has come to a stage where I feel that an injection of capital could really push it forward.

At what point do you take that step? If there is a clear project which needs investment then the answer might be more straightforward. In my business I sell maternity and baby products online so there is no pressing need for investment. Except that my stock sells out and I feel that I could gain additional sales and grow the business if I had more to invest.

What I have done is to write my business plan for the next 3 months (I now keep it as an online document so it can keep being updated and I have diary reminders for when the next plan is due) and am outlining what exactly could be purchased so that I know what size of investment would be healthy for the business. I will also need to keep a close eye on what the cost of borrowing is, to make sure it won't push up the price I charge to customers, and of course I need to be sure that I can meet the monthly repayments. The theory is that the rise in income should more than cover the repayments so some projections for turnover need to be included.

Once I have this information I can apply for a loan for a reasonably short time (1-2 years) and I'll know exactly how the money will be spent. My fear in doing this is that I'll be saddled with debt repayments without seeing the requisite increase in turnover. But, I should at least be able to recover the cost price of my stock, so it should be a worry-free strategy!

Maternity top with the background removed

The real background - putting the stair gate to good use!