growth vs fiscal responsibility

As I listen to news about the Greek and Spanish Debt Crisis, I wonder at what point should I worry about debt. Running a small business has been interesting this year. We have generated more income in the first half of the year than we did all of last year. I started learning a new accounting system to track income, expenses, profitability, and viability of the company. Last year when I got a check I was excited because I was not spending my own money and not taking personal funds to pay for new equipment. Upon advisement of my board of directors I took on debt in the form of an American Express card. The interest rate wasn't that much but it was more than I had the previous year.

After paying finance charges for a year on about $10K in debt, I question the viability of floating loans. Is it better to conservatively grow and buy equipment when you have cash or should I manage the amount of debt so that we can grow the company. New equipment means more potential for earning money. New equipment also means more debt. The question that I am facing now is how much new equipment follows new expenses? Looking at QuickBooks, I do notice that some of our accounts tend to generate more income than others. Some of our early deals loose us money for each transaction. I think I figured out how to leverage the equipment and have it drop the price of other customers screenings.

As my focus changes from how do I make payroll for a new employee to how do I grow the company fast enough to minimize debt and maintain monthly income and expenses. The fledgling company that we started 18 months ago is almost ready to step out and walk on it's own. We still need a little help when it comes to climbing the stairs and getting out of holes that we fall into but given another 18 months it will be interesting to look back and realize that $10K in debt wasn't much to worry about and ordering two new machines is something that hopefully happens on a regular basis.

We are on our way to screening 20,000 students this year. The spring was an excellent start to this goal but we need to start screening more and more in the fall to make this target.