Dispelling Common Misconceptions About Personal Loans

The lending market is booming lately, and personal loans are enjoying particular attention. It’s hard to pinpoint the exact reason, as there are many factors that could potentially be playing into this. But one thing is noticeable recently – many people have started to show less trust towards lenders and lending institutions, propagating certain negative myths about them.

And that’s quite harmful for everyone – not just lenders, but also consumers themselves. After all, the ultimate effect of this is that it discourages people from exploring loans as an option for getting out of tough financial situations. This in turn leads to some irrational decisions, further degrading the overall situation on the financial market. It’s important to have an objective overview towards personal loans and understand their full implications properly.

They’re Not Designed to Rip You Off

Is a personal loan something designed to steal your money? Many people seem to think so, especially those in more disadvantageous situations. That’s quite far from the truth, however. A loan is simply a financial tool created to assist people when they need more money than they currently have available – nothing more than that.

It’s true that some lenders try to game the system and come up with deals that are much less favourable than what you would find on the market on average, but those bad apples tend to get their deserved reputation relatively fast. After that, it’s easy to stay away from them. The internet has especially streamlined this process, allowing you to easily verify the legitimacy of lenders you might be considering working with.

Conditions Are Not Set in Stone

While it may look like loans are pre-made products, specifically packaged according to certain conditions, those conditions are much more flexible than you might think. Many people don’t even realize that negotiations are on the table at all. It’s easy to assume that lenders won’t budge if you try to change the terms of the deal. But that’s quite far from the truth.

In reality, a loan is a product that’s very open to negotiations, and you are often free to discuss many aspects of the deal with the lender before putting your signature on the dotted line. Of course, these negotiations tend to work better if you have more leverage on your side – just like any kind of negotiation. In this case, your leverage lies mainly in your credit score and overall credit history. If you’ve been responsible about paying off your loans and paying your bills in time, you will likely be eligible for much better conditions than other people. But you have to bring that up in the first place.

Not Everyone Who Takes Out a Loan Ends up Defaulting

It’s not rare to hear stories about people who’ve ended up dragging themselves down as a result of taking out a loan. But the reason for this has to do with the way news work in general. They’re designed to sell bad stories, since those are the ones that grab all the clicks. The reason you don’t hear anything about all the people who’ve taken out a loan and successfully paid it off with no incident? It’s not a story at all. It’s something that happens every day.

The percentage of people who end up defaulting on their loans is quite small in reality. While there have been problems on that front in certain segments of the lending market recently, it’s still not as bad as the media might try to make you believe. For the most part, many people are able to take out loans and use them successfully without complicating their future situations in any way.

You Don’t Always Need a Loan in the First Place

Last but not least, even though many people are quick to jump to loans as a band-aid solution to many problems, that’s not quite the right approach. Sometimes, when you’re dealing with a tough financial situation, all you have to do is take a look around you and explore some of the alternative options. It’s not all about loans. In some cases you might be able to get out of a tough spot by just organizing your finances better and being more careful for a few months.

It’s all about understanding your own finances and having a good grip on them. Many people overestimate their ability to do that, especially those who’re in a generally worse financial situation (for some reason). This can only come with enough time and experience, and paying careful attention to the way your money flows. And if one day you do reach a situation where you might want to take out a loan, don’t be afraid. It’s something many people do at some point in their lives, and it’s not as scary as it seems. You just need to approach it prepared and know what you’re getting yourself into.

How to Transform Your Side Business into a Full-time Job

Running a side gig can be a great way to make extra cash and supplement your main income. At the same time, you will often discover opportunities to step things up and make something even better out of this business. And while some people are afraid to go the extra mile, those who do usually end up quite satisfied with the results.

It will take some effort, and there will be a significant risk involved. But if you play your cards right, it’s not that hard to see your side business flourishing into a real, full-time job that brings you even more money than whatever you’re doing right now.

Is It a Viable Idea?

The most important question to ask yourself before you begin is if your idea is viable at all. Many people have side gig ideas – practically everyone comes up with something of that sort every now and then. But just because you think you’ve identified a niche in the market that needs filling doesn’t mean that it’s actually a viable opportunity.

Do some market research. Figure out if someone else has attempted anything similar before, and find out what their results were. Did they make any obvious mistakes? Were customers complaining of something that could have been fixed? You can often learn a lot from other people’s failures, but unfortunately not everyone likes to make theirs too public.

Future Earning Projections

Try to draw up some earning projections. Sure, it can be practically impossible to figure out how much your business is going to earn, especially if it’s just a side thing in the beginning. But if you research the market properly and look into similar ventures run by other people, you should notice some patterns that can be exploited.

You don’t have to be extremely precise with those projections. But they should be detailed enough to allow you to make a plan and execute it in an organized manner. You should try to identify the main barriers that would prevent you from growing at each stage, and do your best to anticipate them.

Playing It Safe

In the beginning, safety should be your top priority. Until you’ve reached the point where you’re confident in your company’s ability to generate enough profit, you should take each step cautiously and with a lot of market research supplementing it. Don’t make any risky moves, unless you know you can recover from them easily and continue moving forward.

Sure, risk is part of the game. But what most people ignore in this saying is the implication that every risk you’re taking should be calculated. Don’t just go for things wildly for the sake of experimentation. Try to predict the outcome of each of your actions, and always prioritize the safer steps in the beginning.

Accelerating Your Expansion

After you’ve gained some confidence, you can start thinking about taking things to the next level. The more your business grows, the more opportunities you’re going to see for expanding it. And it’s important to develop a good sense for those opportunities, and know how to identify the ones that can work out best.

Don’t be afraid to supplement your income with external help if you have an idea that will require a more significant upfront investment. There are plenty of options for that out there. Loans are a popular choice for many entrepreneurs, as they can offer you a quick injection of cash that can give you the boost that you need in that moment. But on the other hand, you have to be very confident in your ability to pay that loan back. It’s a type of risk as we described above, and you need to approach it carefully.

Auto-Pilot

You’re probably craving for the moment when things will be running on auto-pilot, and you won’t have to lift a finger to see those profits rolling in. But the reality is that this is a pipe dream. That moment will never actually come, unless you’re extremely lucky. For most people, running a business is constant work, and the required effort doesn’t really decrease as the size of your company grows.

Quite on the contrary, you’re likely going to find yourself with even more responsibilities further down the road. Sure, some of your old tasks will now be run by other people – but that’s not a self-running business at all. The high-level decisions will still be up to you, and it’s important to gain enough experience in the earlier stages of your business, so that you can make those decisions with more confidence later on.