I've took the plunge and have set the ball rolling for me to open my own unit The Unit itself doesn't need much doing, maybe just a bit of paint here and there. I need some furniture, fixings and display stuff. I have around £20k (retail price) worth of stock at the moment and will probably need some more.

Now, I feel as though a small loan is needed, probably only £10 - £20k which I have no doubt I could pay back fairly shortly but wondered whether I was able to have a personal loan for this use or whether I need a business loan? Either way, who are the best people to see about this? I bank with Bank of Scotland Business.

I would imagine it'll be a business loan as it would be backed by your business although how easy it is to get a £20K loan without owning the shop or other high value assets I'm not too sure.

Also if you want to pay it off early, that's almost certainly going to add quite a bit to the repayments or hit you with an early settlement penalty, but personally I'd have words with whoever you deal with at the bank and see if they have facilities for this kind of thing plus they have instant access to your financial history.

Maybe even an overdraft facility would be allowed?

It would indeed have to be business finance of some sort, as using personal loans for business purposes is a breach of the terms and conditions of the loan, and could result in you being in serious trouble. Although it does go on, as a respectable business person wanting to make a real go of things, I wouldn't take the risk.

Depending on what you want to buy with the 20K, there are many different forms of business finance, of which a bog standard business loan is just one (and admittedly probably one of the more expensive options).

Without knowing exactly what furniture, fixings, etc you are after, it is difficult to advise you of the best option to take, but if it would be of benefit to you, please feel free to e-mail me a line at the e-mail address below, and I will be happy to get in touch and discuss some options with you, the sort of thing you are describing in your post sounds like exactly what I deal with every day, and I'm sure at the very least I could point you in the right direction.

Finally, if I do give you any advice on the matter, it won't cost you a penny.

Thanks fro your offer finstar. It may well be something I will take up at a later date. For the time being I have decided to see just how far I can go without any finance. I guess the key here is to start off small and just buy the essentials then as money comes in I can start buying things that will make the place look good and will add carisma If I do need a little more money then I'll just use the plastic as its a lot easier to pay off. But then again I'll try to minimise this as much as possible.