Everyone uses finance at some point in their lives when they need capital supplied by another. Often, this term is used for the study of economics and how money is controlled. A more general and accepted definition is the control of business plus public sector assets and money. This of course requires the use of specialist trained in money matters often referred to as finance managers.
These managers arrange funds to be lent to individuals or business using their company's assets where possible and if not sourcing the money elsewhere. The whole basis of optimization is to enable the maximum return from your finance whilst ensuring the cost to arrange it stays at a minimum.
Because the world revolves around finance, when there is a problem with bad debts and depressed markets, production and sales start to decrease as it is a very fine line that is walked. It is for this very reason that finance managers are very careful with finance they agree too and where it is funded from.
A well know marketing and management guru Lee Iacocca said that finance managers always looked at the cost involved in a finance deal and not the future return. The big difference between finance managers and sales managers is the direction they are facing; a sales manager is looking forward, towards the future. Many small business owners forget that the business loan they have arranged is not for personal use; a distinction which gets blurred regularly. When money is lent under these circumstances, lenders feel quite aggrieved as they have lost control of where the money is being invested.
Although resisting the tendency to use funds this way may dampen someone's enthusiasm in the short term, it will focus the attention of the borrower and perhaps instill more discipline in the future. Small businesses can be very flexible, however, and call upon friends, other businesses, family members, even their own bank for finance.
Lenders prefer to use money from elsewhere because it lowers their risk but still allows for a healthy profit to be received by the finance company. Banks have always been known as institutions that prefer to lend money to those that least need it which is why if you are already wealthy and require a loan it is often arranged at a preferential rate of interest.
