If You Think Capital Is the Problem, You May Be Looking in the Wrong Place
- Zel McGhee
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
By, Zel McGhee | America's SBDC at Texas Tech University - Abilene
The Conversation That Starts the Journey
It usually begins the same way. Someone walks into my office, sets down a folder, and says with a sigh, “Zel, I’d be fine if I just had the money.”
There’s always that pause afterward, the kind that carries both frustration and hope. They’ve run the numbers in their head, probably more times than they can count. A new truck. Better equipment. Enough working capital to get through the slow months. It all makes sense on paper.
I nod, because I understand. But then I ask the question that tends to change the rhythm of the meeting.
“What would you do differently if you had it?”
Nine times out of ten, there’s silence. Not because they don’t know, but because they’ve never had to articulate it. That’s where our real work begins.
Capital Is Fuel, Not Direction
Capital, in all its forms, is like gasoline. It’s powerful, essential, and, when used properly, can take you far. But it doesn’t tell you where to go.
Skill is the navigation system. Without it, that fuel doesn’t just sit idle, it can drive you straight into the ground.
I’ve seen entrepreneurs with $10,000 make something last. I’ve seen others with $100,000 lose it in months. The difference wasn’t the amount of money, it was what they knew and how they used it.
When a business owner masters the fundamentals, pricing, cash flow, customer understanding, they learn how to make money without waiting on a lender. They begin to generate their own momentum. That’s the point where outside capital stops being a crutch and becomes an amplifier.
The Turning Point
There’s a moment I look for in every advising session. It’s when the client stops asking, “Where do I find the money?” and starts asking, “How do I build the skill?”
That shift is powerful. It’s not about minimizing financial need, it’s about maximizing capacity. When skill precedes capital, the entrepreneur becomes what lenders call capital ready.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) defines that readiness through what’s known as the Five C’s of Credit:
Character – Your reputation for following through. Do you do what you say you’ll do?
Capacity – Your ability to repay debt through consistent income.
Capital – The resources you’ve personally invested, the skin in the game.
Collateral – Assets that help secure the lender’s confidence.
Conditions – The environment in which you operate: your market, economy, and industry outlook.
When I explain these five points, I often see relief on a client’s face. For the first time, the process feels structured yet attainable. Character encompasses more than reputation, it reflects an entrepreneur’s integrity, reliability, and history of honoring commitments.
Through skill development and sound business practices, you reinforce that trust and establish a foundation lenders can rely on.
Money may open the door, but skill earns the invitation to walk through it.
A Story from the Field
Let me tell you about a client I’ll call Maria. She runs a small cleaning service, steady customers, long hours, tight margins. Every time we met, she’d bring up the same worry: she couldn’t grow because she didn’t have the money to hire help.
One afternoon, instead of diving straight into financing options, we looked at her pricing. She was charging below market by nearly 20%. When we adjusted her rates and restructured her scheduling, she added an extra $1,000 a month in net income, without taking out a loan or adding hours.
Three months later, Maria came back, not to ask for capital, but to discuss how to use her new profits to expand. She had, through skill, created her own capital.
That’s what “making money without money” really looks like. It’s not magic, it’s management.
The SBDC Way
At the SBDC, we work from a simple principle: education before elevation. Our goal is to help you learn the skills that allow you to build, manage, and grow, long before you sign your first loan document.
Through one-on-one advising and free workshops, we focus on the areas that form the backbone of business health:
Crafting clear and flexible business plans
Building financial projections grounded in reality, not hope
Understanding your market and identifying your most profitable customers
Streamlining operations for efficiency
Developing strategies to adapt when things don’t go as planned
Every session is customized. There’s no “one size fits all,” because no two entrepreneurs are the same. What they share, however, is potential, and our job is to help them uncover it.
Skill as a Multiplier
When I say “skill before capital,” I don’t mean that funding isn’t important. It absolutely is. What I mean is that capital should be a tool for growth, not a rescue rope. If your business depends entirely on external funding to survive, you’re not building independence, you’re building dependency.
Skill multiplies whatever you touch. If you’re strategic, capital accelerates your progress. If you’re unprepared, capital accelerates your problems.
That’s why SBDCs across the nation, alongside our partners at the SBA, focus on skill development. The SBA offers a comprehensive online Learning Platform filled with self-paced courses on business planning, funding, marketing, and more.
Add to that the collective expertise of our SBA Resource Partners:
SCORE, providing mentorship from experienced business professionals.
Women’s Business Centers, supporting women entrepreneurs through training and networking.
Veteran Business Outreach Centers (VBOCs), helping veterans and military spouses turn experience into entrepreneurship.
Together, we form a nationwide ecosystem built around one mission: equipping entrepreneurs with the knowledge to build sustainable success.
The Hard Truth About “If Only”
“If only I had the capital.”
It’s a phrase that’s been uttered by dreamers for as long as there have been businesses. But here’s the hard truth: capital doesn’t solve operational weakness, it exposes it.
If you don’t already know how to budget, an influx of funds won’t teach you. If you’re unsure who your best customer is, more advertising dollars won’t fix that. If you haven’t yet learned to track your numbers, a larger bank account only multiplies the confusion.
Money is an amplifier. It magnifies what’s working, and what isn’t.
That’s why the SBDC exists: to help entrepreneurs identify what’s working, fix what isn’t, and prepare for what comes next.
A Conversation Worth Having
I often tell clients, “I’d rather help you learn how to make $10,000 than give you $10,000.” That statement usually earns a puzzled look until I explain why.
If I hand you $10,000, it’s gone once you spend it. But if you learn how to make $10,000, you can do it again, and again, and again. Skill creates repeatability, and repeatability creates freedom.
It’s not about denying the need for financial support. It’s about ensuring that when the time comes to pursue it, you’re ready, not guessing.
The most confident entrepreneurs I know are those who can explain exactly what they’ll do with the money they seek, how it will generate return, and what safeguards they’ve put in place. That confidence doesn’t come from a loan application; it comes from preparation.
Guidance from the SBDC
If you’re at the stage where you’re still saying, “If only I had the capital,” it may be time to reframe the conversation. Start by asking yourself these questions:
What skills could I strengthen today that would improve my business tomorrow?
Am I using the free training and advising resources already available to me?
What systems or processes could I refine before seeking external funding?
Every entrepreneur’s journey begins with learning, not lending.
You can start right now by visiting your local SBDC, or exploring the SBA’s Learning Platform. You’ll find everything from short courses on startup planning to in-depth guides on government contracting, exporting, and growth strategies, all designed to help you turn knowledge into momentum.
Last Word
I’ve sat across from hundreds of small business owners, veterans, teachers, dreamers, makers. Some arrive with money in hand, others with little more than grit and a good idea. The ones who thrive aren’t always those who start with the most resources; they’re the ones who learn the fastest and apply the lessons the best.
If you can make money without money, you’ve proven you can build value. When the capital finally comes, and it will, you’ll already know how to use it wisely.
So, before chasing capital, invest in skill. It’s the one investment that never depreciates.
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