Marshal and Princess Serene,
I have experienced exactly what you two have described. When I began my enterprise (Globex -check it out now), I ran up a debt in excess of $5T.
Initially, I was also hesitant about collecting debt, however after discussing this with several experienced players I found out that to get the required number of corps needed to create a stable, profitable and versatile enterprise needed to both repay the debt and be a long-term investment in the future, I needed to spend big within the first month or two of operation. I kept a strong eye on upgrading, supplied quality, profit-margins and build up to 100 corps (my memory can be faulty) within 3 months which racked up over $5T in debt. I however found that after I stopped building my corps were already profitable enough that my debt ran down to zero in a month (with several small cash injections from my empire). Today, I would aim for 50 corps within two months of setting up.
Debt initially is nothing to be afraid of. Just note that you don't want to get too far into debt, because it is essential that your enterprise make money eventually so it is worth the 30GCs a month. $5T was my maximum, and it eventually worked out perfect.
As for who the profits benefit (Marshal), kinda tricky. My enterprise seems to fluctuate on the same settings- periods of marge growth in corp value (assets) followed by periods of large profits for my enterprise and a relative stagnation if not decline of corp value. Key is to let both parties benefit over time.
Please reply if this has not cleared anything up
Cheers,
T