It takes money to make money, and that’s the exact theory that underpins business loans. While you’ll probably already have an idea of what you could spend on if you’ve applied for a commercial loan, it’s worth thinking about what you stand to gain from the use of the money.
It’s essential to carefully plan how to make the best use of business finance, and without doing so you’ll stand little chance of gaining the maximum benefit from your loan. While it can be tempting to simply buy inventory or pay suppliers, there are other options available that could secure future growth opportunities.
With this in mind, here are four of the very best ways to use a business loan with a view to securing better results for customers and business owners alike.
1. Improve Your Marketing
Regardless of how good your products and services are, they simply won’t sell without good marketing. Even if your business can undercut the rest of the market while still making a profit, you need to tell consumers about it for them to take interest.
These days, marketing is no longer an exercise in sign painting and newspaper advertising. The internet has made it possible for any business to reach across the world and to attract consumers from far-flung countries. The important thing is to master social media, copywriting, and search engine optimisation.
By using a loan to increase your advertising budget or go on a marketing course, you could dramatically improve conversion rates and increase sales.
2. Consolidate Other Debts
Consolidating debt could help you to improve your financial position and even pay less in interest! By using a business loan to pay off numerous other debts, you could consolidate your liabilities under a single regular repayment. If your commercial loan has a lower interest rate than some of your other debts, you could even end up paying less overall.
This is a great option for businesses that are struggling to cope with the admin of multiple credit accounts, and could leave you with more money to spend on serving customers and improving your offering.
3. Train Your Staff
In business, people are everything. No matter how good your products and services are, they’re nothing without effective sales staff, marketers, and anyone else who creates value in your business.
By investing in your people, you’re placing a vote of confidence in the future of your business. Training courses, bonuses, and incentive schemes can make a real difference to the overall performance of a commercial venture, and you may be able to acquire some highly sought-after skills to deploy in the market along the way.
4. Bring Your Digital Strategy to Life
Technology could bring your business plans to life, but you need to execute a quality strategy with the right digital solutions first. By using a business loan to develop a digital strategy, you could get ahead of the competition, make your firm more efficient, and seize previously untapped opportunities.
The key is to use your money wisely, and to invest in tech solutions that are genuinely useful to your business and its customers. By conducting analysis, assessing the risks, and working with key stakeholders, you could join the digital revolution – and make a lot of money from it, too!
Business Loan Alternatives
Despite these great potential use cases, it isn’t always easy to convince the banks to accept a business loan application. Even if your company is in great financial shape, traditional lenders may be reluctant to extend new lines of credit – particularly in the current climate.
Fortunately, there are plenty of fast and flexible short-term loans on offer from personal loan providers and lenders. In many cases, they won’t even need to know how you plan to use the money and so a company director could apply the funds in any way they see fit.
With large sums available, there’s plenty of scope for business growth that encourages and supports success.
The Bottom Line
While loans are generally associated with financial troubles, they can in fact be used to boost your business prospects and lay the foundations for future growth.
Provided that you spend the money wisely and make repayments on time and in full, a loan could be exactly what you need to take your business to the next level.
