Borrowing money is part and parcel of running a small business. There are extremely few people who can set up and maintain operations with their own money. After all, when you’re first starting out, you aren’t generating money, but you still have to speculate in order to accumulate. If you fail to invest in product development, manufacturing, marketing, or advertising, you’re not going to have anything to sell and nobody would know it existed if you did! Once things are up and running, you may also find yourself having to invest borrowed money during lulls in consumer interest – this could be used to boost interest and exposure in your brand and get things back on track. As you can see, borrowing in business is entirely normal and expected. Problems begin to arise, however, if you fail to be responsible with your borrowing. Very few professional loans come with zero percent interest rates and if you don’t pay them back quickly, or if your business fails to take off and you find yourself unable to pay them back, you may quickly begin to struggle. If this sounds familiar, here’s what to do to prevent your business from slipping into further debt.