By Gregory Keyes, the president and CEO of Affant Communication, Inc., a managed service provider based in Orance County, California.

“You’ll be out of business in three months.”

That’s what the bank person said. Alison was her name. We had been in business for a few years, and while we were doing a few million in revenue, we had meager profits. At the time, we were banking with one of those “big banks,” and we didn’t have any business loans; we were pretty cash conscious. If we had a venture that required more cash than we generated, I funded it as the owner.