What if taking on debt could help you grow and expand your business to new levels and be one of the best things you ever did?
There is a way to reframe your beliefs around borrowing and debt that can actually support your growth and enable you reframe debt as expansion. Yes, you read that right. You might even grow to love debt! We are conditioned by society to feeling shame around being in debt, schooled by our parents to save money, and not borrow – apart from to go to college or buy a home. Some of us also have shame of running up credit card debt in the past.
Yet these fears hold us back from growing our business. Clearing this past money shame and money drama is essential to be able to expand your definition of borrowing, and to trust yourself to be a responsible custodian of debt. Polly Alexandre– the leading Money Mindset Coach, shares 6 powerful ways you can reframe debt to grow your business and feel expansion.
To get ahead in business you are going to need to buy time and expertise. This could mean hiring other people to work on and for your business or investing in learning, coaching or and mentoring. To get to your next level you are going to need to invest in the knowledge, skills and information you need to get there & that investment will require capital upfront.
Buying time and knowledge means investing ahead of the increased profits and revenue that this extra knowledge and support will bring. Not everyone has friends or family ready and willing to invest, a nest egg waiting or willing investors. So with limited options, responsible debt is how you are going to raise that investment.
Getting good at debt means borrowing consciously, with a specific purpose in mind and a conscious commitment to repayment – and most importantly doing it without shame, guilt or fear.
Borrowing money through business loans or if you are a solo entrepreneur, on your credit cards, can literally be a gamechanger and cut the timeline of your growth, making it easier and quicker to grow your business.
Credit cards are a great way of managing cashflow in your business, and can often the flexibility of repayment in a way that suits you, whereas loans are usually a standard monthly repayment for a fixed term.
So how can you do a mindset shift around having debt?
Here’s 3 tips:
- Release: Release the shame of past money mistakes and make a decision to forgive yourself. Journaling and EFT are both great tools for this. Make a list of all the mistakes you made around money in the past and let them go.
- Reframe:Make a list of all the reasons why borrowing money is a positive move. If you feel fear coming up, deal with it head on. What’s the worst that could happen? How likely is that, and how would you handle it?
- Repay: Make a plan for repayment but also grant yourself flexibility where needed. For example, whilst you are learning, you might leave the debt with just the minimum paid off for the first 6 months, then pay off an increased set amount per month, once you start making more money.
An alternative is to give yourself a year to raise the full amount and pay it all off in one go. See the interest as an investment in your business that takes the stress and pressure off for a year, and allows you to fully focus on scaling your business. If it’s a loan, you will likely spread the cost of the investment over a fixed term, so you have affordable repayment amounts each month. It’s time to release the fear of being charged interest, not being able to repay the debt and see the bigger picture: the tremendous opportunity available to you. After all there is no better investment than yourself.
