Get Your Business Funded: Creative Methods for Getting the Money You Need

Using Your Own Credit Cards for Business

There are both upsides and downsides to using personal credit cards to fund your business venture. On the plus side, credit cards are easy to use and flexible:

• They provide quick access to ready capital.
• Depending upon your situation, you may have access to a lot of credit.
• You can transfer balances in order to get low interest rates.
• Repayment occurs monthly, over a long period of time.
• You don't have to wait to get funding; in fact, you need no one's approval at all to get started.

Those are all significant benefits and fine reasons. It is easy to see why entrepreneurs so often turn to credit cards to fund their dream.

Having said that, the list of potential problems when using credit cards for your business is equally impressive:

• It is sometimes easy to get in over your head with credit cards.
• Interest rates can jump.
• Credit lines can be terminated.
• Because you need not prove your plan to anyone before using your available credit, the cards have the chance of being run up on ideas that have no business getting funded.

There are two more major problems that come with using personal credit cards to fund business endeavors. The first is the many dangers that come from commingling personal and business finances. First of all, if things go south, commingling endangers your personal assets and personal credit. In addition, if you are ever audited, commingling is not something the IRS likes to see. Similarly, if you are ever sued, commingling ...