Businesses drowning in credit card debt
last updated: August 06, 2008 02:53:45 AM
WASHINGTON — When Andrew Uribe started building his salsa-making venture, he, like many entrepreneurs, turned to plastic for startup money.
But the business didn’t take off as quickly as he had hoped. Now the Ellicott City, Md., entrepreneur has three credit cards that carry a combined $30,000, is behind on his bank loan and has moved out of the industrial space he had leased.
Working out of a commercial space in Baltimore’s Lexington Market that friends let him use on weekends, he has the capacity to pack only 1,600 jars of salsa a month instead of 14,000.
His minimum credit card payments run $325 a month, about 15 percent of his total monthly expenses, which he says mainly covers just his interest payments.
"It’s horrible because any small profits that I am making, I’m using them to pay the credit cards," the maker of Emy’s Salsa Aji, said over the phone from New York, where he was meeting with potential investors. "It’s hurry up and pay, and swim or sink."
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