Do you lend money to your business friends?
In this post, I will be sharing my personal experience with regard to lending money to my business friends.
Business friends wish to borrow money
I don’t like to receive SMS or phone call after midnight especially when I am deep asleep. Because usually, it is an emergency and not a good sign.
Last night, I was quite shocked when I got the SMS from a business friend asking to borrow some cash from me.
And I never expect she would think to borrow from me as we are not that close. We only have a business link. The company where she works is our customer and what she said influences the company’s decision-maker.
Furthermore, she is a senior staff and she holds quite a high position. So, I never expect she will be short of cash.
How I turned down her request to borrow money from me
Today, very early in the morning, she called me. Actually, it was not easy to say ‘NO’ as the company where she works is one of our major customers. But, at that point, I know I had to reject her in a nice way.
So, I said ‘I am sorry to hear that but I don’t have the cash‘. She still insists that she needs it for some emergency and will return the cash to me within one to two weeks time.
She said she has no one to look for, that’s why she turned to me. I repeated again, ‘I am sorry, I don’t have the cash‘.
I can sense she’s quite disappointed. In one way, I feel quite bad that I didn’t lend her the cash. But, on the other way, I can’t accept the fact that she would borrow from me out of many of her friends and colleagues.
Furthermore, my quick mind tells me that If I lend her RM5000 today, next month she might come to me again and requesting for another RM5000. And this sensitive-money-lend-borrow issue will somehow affect our business relationship.
So, I decided to recommend her to a friend who is doing a legal money lending business. She said she still prefer to get the cash from me, moneylender would usually require a lot of documentation and takes time.
Finally, I told her, that would be the best solution for us as I prefer not to involve personal matters and work-related matters.
Final thoughts
As of the time of writing, I am not sure whether she got the cash she needs or not. I hope she managed to solve her financial emergency issue.
And I also hope that she will learn to build an emergency account so that she will not turn to others for help when unexpected financial needs arise.
Lastly, do you lend money to your business friends or customers because you want to maintain your business relationship with them?
This all depend on yr individual choice..
Azizi Ali repeat this many times "Never ever Borrow $$$ to other but Give"
If he ask RM5k, just give say RM100(depend) & tell me no need to pay back & don't come to ask for money anymore 😀
This works & U still will maintain "Good" relationship 😀
Hi Alan… If the amount is acceptable and it's family member or close friends, I might give them. Still I believe they'll come back for more as we are willing to give…
Hi Yan. Did she tell you what is the purpose of borrowing such amount of money? i dont have good impression of her as she did not find the right time to call people for borrowing money.
Hi Margaret… She said it's something related to her family member. I just find that it's weird that she would borrow from me. We are not close…
I personally think that you made the wise decision for not lending her the money. My experience tells me that it is more difficult to make decision if a close friend borrows money from you.
Thank you Margaret 🙂 Yes, I know what you meant. It's difficult when someone close wish to borrow from us. Hard to say 'No'. If you lend them, in most cases, someone will get hurt.
I think it is more difficult for a not-so-closed friend to borrow money from you than you rejecting her. Probably she came to a point where she really has no other choice but to ask from a not-so-closed friend. Having said that doesn't mean you should borrow her money because that won't solve the problem, as you said it probably won't be the last time. So in the end i think you made the right choice by showing her the way, which is getting a loan or something, but it better be legal 🙂
Hi Zen 🙂 Thank you for your words. Made me feel much better 🙂 Yes, it's a legal loan business not a loan shark ;p