Dealing with Big Stress from Small Business Debt – Guest Post

As an Entrepreneur, you have many things to worry about. You deal with more than just customers; your interaction with vendors, property owners, prospective clients and the community all affect how your business operates.

Entrepreneurs know that the reputation of their business is vital when competing against chain corporate owned businesses. Profit margins are razor thin when competing in the same marketplace as a national corporation. The national corporation obviously has more resources available at their disposal and can even undercut you just to get the edge. While in the trenches of entrepreneurship, you may be spending too much time worrying about your financial health. This financial stress can detract you from fulfilling your core competency as a business owner. If you are dealing with big stress from small business debt, you should make getting out of debt your top priority.

Getting Out of Debt

Finding ways to settle your debts can be a challenge, especially in this anemic, slowly recovering economy. You don’t want to overextend yourself into paying off debt with cash on hand. If there is the chance that your business could just as easily plummet, that's not wise.

So what do you do? How do you achieve successful debt settlement in an uncertain time? Bankruptcy is something of a last-ditch effort. As a small business owner, you also would not want your customers put on notice that you are going through something very public like a bankruptcy. They could either be indignant that their tax money is going to bail you out of trouble or they could view your business as toxic and stay away. Either end would not bode well for your business. This is why if possible if you need to find alternative short-term business lending options in the UK to get you debt free as quickly as possible.

Negotiation: Getting out of debt can be done in a variety of ways. Many entrepreneurs borrow from their friends and family before presenting themselves to financial institutions. Negotiating this private debt should be easier than negotiating with financial institutions. However, if your debt is through credit cards or loans, negotiating with your creditors can be the most proactive measure taken to manage your debt. Negotiate your outgoings; compare energy providers to get a better deal on your bills. If you are able to work something out with your creditors just after you’ve become truant, or even better beforehand, then they are very likely to want to help you get out of debt and they may be willing to work with you.

Consolidation: If you are already truant or you have tried to no avail to work out your debt directly with creditors, you can go with a third party who can give you a consolidation loan of some kind. Many entrepreneurs have found it to be less stressful and more streamlined to consolidate various debts from various lenders into one lender and one payment. Consolidating your debt from multiple sources down to a single payer and single interest rate can actually save you tons of money.

Settlement: If there's no way to consolidate your debts and if most of your outstanding debts are through a single provider and they far exceed anything you could possibly afford right now, reaching out to them for a settlement may make sense. You may need to bring in a third party to bring your creditors to the settlement table. A settlement company can negotiate with your creditors. Settlement is one of the best ways of getting out of debt. In settlement, you pay a fixed amount for a set number of months, and so long as you make all your payments, your debts will be closed for less than you owe.

Small business debt is nobody’s idea of a good time. Getting out of debt proactively before this debt overtakes you is among the wisest measures you can take to manage your finances. Managing your finances with these possible solutions can help you focus more on the mission of your business.

Peter Martinez is a contributing writer with America’s Debt Help Organization- Debt.org.