Debt-Free Business Growth

It’s tempting to go the debt route when building your business or asset base, but be careful — debt can kill your business just as quickly.

- Alan Knott-Craig

Q I’ve been offered debt secured against my shares. I can use the debt to buy a house or buy more shares in my company. I really believe in my company, it’s growing fast. What should I do? — Bob

There’s no such thing as free debt. It always has a catch. In this case, the catch is that if you don’t pay back the debt, then you lose all the shares in your company that you’ve worked so hard to build.

In other words, if your share value doesn’t go up, then you will lose the shares you have.

Maybe you don’t think that’s possible, and maybe you’re right. But you never know what black swan is swanning your way. The president could be assassinated. Russia could declare war on America. North Korea could send a nuclear missile to Japan. There could be another credit crisis.

All of these things would have massively negative impacts on the economy and sentiment.

The economy affects your profits (sales drop). Sentiment affects your ability to sell your shares (no confidence = no buyers).

Suddenly you find yourself staring down the barrel of a debt repayment deadline, and BOOM! You’ve lost your company and your wealth.