Eric's Credit Community

The Purpose:  I am seeking a small business loan to help us grow our online business. We have doubled in sales each year, since 2004. We are now at the point (actually, past the point) where we need to streamline our operation with specialized programming for our website, in addition to our back end operation, which also requires some special computer equipment.

Our business specializes in printed personal greetings, invitations and announcements.

This loan through Prosper is about 40% of the estimated amount it will cost to complete this project over the next 3-4 months. I will be using a combination of personal funds, money from the business, and funds from this loan to pay for this expansion.

My Finances:  I am a very good candidate for this loan. As you can see in the numbers above, my credit card usage is less than 1% of my available credit - and I wish to keep it that way! (I'm so fastidious about it, that I pay my balances 2- days prior to a statement being generated - hence the low percentage.) I would much rather pay a slightly higher interest rate here (and work with & support "regular folks"), rather than get punished by the CC companies for using them for any extended period of time. Regardless, I do have resources to pay this loan back at any time.

Result:  Based upon over 2 years of customer feedback, I believe that this expansion has the potential to double, if not triple our sales and conversion rate within 2-3 months of completion.

• Very Excellent Credit
  
  
• Other than home and 2 cars, I am debt free
  
  
• Less than 1% credit card usage
  
  
• 8% DTI before loan
  
  
• $5900 monthly mortgage (30 yr. fixed)
  
  
• $1900 auto payments
  
  
• No dependents (other than 2 cats)
  
  
• Business has no long-term debt
  
  
• In printing business since 1997
  
  
• 2006 web sales 680,000
  
  
• 2007 web sales 1,145,000
  
  
• 7 employees (4 for 10 years)