You can't grow a $5M business with a $500K team
You're the buyer, the PPC manager, the forecaster, and the customer-service escalation path. The constraint on growth stopped being capital for inventory a while ago — it's hours in your day.
Payroll is the scariest recurring bet in commerce
Inventory is a comfortable bet: worst case, you discount it and recover most of the cash. A hire is different — a recurring commitment that starts costing money immediately and pays back over quarters. Which is exactly why sellers who happily wire six figures to suppliers freeze at a $90K operations manager.
But look at the ledger honestly: what does it cost that your PPC is managed in your spare attention? That forecasting happens in a spreadsheet at midnight? Underhiring has a price; it just doesn't arrive as an invoice.
Funding a hire with debt makes sense under one condition — the role generates or protects more than it costs, on a timeline you can name. A PPC manager who lifts ROAS 15% pays for themselves; so does the ops hire who prevents the stockout. That's the case a lender needs to see, and frankly the one you need too.
The structures that fit this moment
Honest pros and cons — none of these is right for everyone.Term loan
Hiring is a multi-quarter investment, and a fixed monthly payment you can budget against matches it. The predictability is the point.
- Predictable payment you can put in the budget and forget
- Longer terms fit investments that pay back over years, not months
- Often the lowest headline cost of capital on this list
- –Slowest underwriting — expect full financials and sometimes a personal guarantee
- –Fixed payments don't care that your sales are seasonal
- –Prepayment penalties exist; read that clause before signing
Line of credit
If the worry is making payroll during the ramp rather than funding the salary outright, a line covers the gap months without borrowing the whole year.
- Cheapest way to hold dry powder — pay only for what you draw
- Reusable: repay and the capital is available again
- Bank lines build a lending relationship that compounds over years
- –Bank lines want 2+ years of history and clean financials
- –Limits are often lower than what a big inventory buy needs
- –Variable rates move with the market — budget for the top of the range
What lenders will actually look at
No mystery underwriting. This is the review, in the open — so you know where you stand before anyone else does.
The questions sellers actually ask
Is borrowing for salaries actually a normal thing?+
Outside of ecommerce, it's routine — service businesses finance headcount constantly. Sellers just aren't used to it because every spare dollar has always gone to inventory. The test isn't the category, it's the payback logic.
How much should I borrow for a hire?+
A common approach: 6–12 months of fully loaded cost for the roles, so the hire is funded through ramp-up without touching inventory cash. Borrowing a 3-year salary upfront rarely makes sense.
What if the hire doesn't work out?+
You'll still have the payment, minus the salary you're no longer paying — which is why we'd rather see a modest facility plus a solid hiring process than a big number and hope. Model the miss before you sign.
Would you honestly tell me not to do this?+
Yes. If margins are thin, revenue is choppy, or the role is really 'I'm burned out' wearing a job description, debt-funded hiring makes things worse. That conversation is free and we have it often.
See which lenders fit this exact situation.
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