Not Just Cookies, a wholesale and e-commerce bakery in Chicago is on a growth spurt. Johnathon Bush, the company’s founder and baked goods aficionado, is opening up more sites in Chicago and soon New York to more quickly distribute his brownies, cookies, and pies to dessert-hungry customers.
But his company’s expansion wasn’t without growing pains when in 2019 Bush took on two merchant cash advances to help meet payroll and pay rent on the brick-and-mortar store he operated out of at the time.
“You’re under tremendous pressure because you have people who are depending on you. So you are in ...