A loan is about the most garunteed way to lose friends and family. If you want to help someone you care about, give them money, or help them, but never loan them money.

That aside. Im very curious, how much does he get paid for his art already and why does he need $20,000?

Where is this money all going?

Referralls are your best bet when youre small. If you know who youre marketing to, contact them, but also contact people you know who may know people youre marketing to. This de-risks the offer for whoever youre marketing to because they already know you, or trust the person who reffered you. And once you get to know more people youll start to have too much business, which is a very good problem. 😂

But when you get a little bigger and dont have enough time to get all your customers via refferrals, definitely find a good marketing / advertising agency and work with them to automate things. Id reccommend doing this once you bring in at least $5000 / week in your business.