Are you starting a new business? Or maybe you have already? Well, here is my advice to you...

Forget VCs, forget the SBA, forget the bank loans, forget Visa/Mastercard/AmEx... You don't need them.

Take the CASH you have, and start building your business one customer at time. If you don't have the CASH you need, then it's probably not time for you to be starting your venture. Forget the beta and forget free. Get your product out in front of everyone and start charging! Now is the time for a business model that makes money. (is the freemium model dead?) Save the money you're making and don't blow it on stuff you don't need. When you do need something, pay for it with the cash you've saved. Sounds like common sense right? You would think. However, here in DFW we're already seeing business that depend on short-term credit starting to falter, as noted by Alex Muse in this post today on the Texas Startup Blog. There is a financial guy on the radio and I love one of his sayings:

"... where cash is king and the paid off home mortgage has taken the place of the BMW as the status symbol of choice."

A lot of people in the business world drive BMWs I'm sure, but how many operate their businesses without debt? Of course, in the business world there are many situations in which credit of some sort is a necessity and it would certainly be difficult to completely eliminate it. If you have to use, do so wisely and with careful consideration.