Preston’s $50K Lesson: How an Online Dream Became a Business Credit Nightmare

Preston was a smart guy — hustler type, always reading books, listening to podcasts, and talking about “breaking out of the rat race.” He had a stable job in Health Care but wanted more. He wanted freedom. And online, it looked like everyone else had already figured it out.

One night, scrolling through YouTube, he found a charismatic guru in a talking about how to build a six-figure business in a few months — with no experience, no product, and no upfront cost. Just business credit. “Use the bank’s money, not yours,” he said. “Leverage is the new rich.”

That hit home.

Preston applied for every business credit card he could get. He used his LLC, boosted his business profile with some tips from the course (which cost $2,000, by the way), and within a few weeks, had $50,000 in available credit.

Then came the moves — a Shopify store, branded dropshipping, custom packaging, influencers, Facebook ads, an automated VA from Upwork, and another course promising to “scale to 7-figures with AI.” Opened SLocal store and filled it with merchandise.

He was all in.

For a minute, it felt like it was working. Sales trickled in. The Shopify dashboard flashed green. But behind the scenes, margins were razor thin, , ad spend was out of control.

Then — boom — no more customer for upto a few weeks ata time. mothly lease, insurance, phone, electric and water $2000 a months.

Meanwhile, that $50,000 in business credit? Maxed out. Interest kicked in. He was paying minimums on multiple cards, with no revenue to cover the debt.

The guru? Still posting Lambos and motivational reels. Preston tried to DM him once. No reply.

That’s when it hit: he wasn’t building a business he was building a cash burner, it had to stop.

Preston shut the store down. . He has a job and will slowly start paying down this debt.

Now? He tells people the truth: “You can borrow money, but you can’t borrow experience. I paid $50K for that lesson — hopefully you don’t have to.”

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