Small Business Funding
January 15th 2019 at 1:59pm Published by sharpshooteradmin
Small business owners rarely let the lack of resources prevent them from generating new business ideas. Newly established companies that went on to become big names only did so due to the ability of their owners to dream big and do big.
This does not mean that businesses that run low on cash should consider winding up. Many credit agencies offer small business funding geared towards helping organizations manage liquidity crunch or undertake certain investments.
Knowing the troubles of capital generation during the early days of your business, here we mention all that you need to know about small business funding.
How Can Companies Use Small Business Funding?
Small businesses can use small business funding for multiple purposes, including:
Business Expansion
Expansion and growth are two of the most important goals for all small, medium-sized, and large businesses. To expand your business, you need a better business model that can help you focus on revenue generation and financing your expansion plans while paying off funding. The long term funding you acquire can help you in revenue generation.
Inventory Financing
Inventory downtime or shortfall is one of the biggest dangers that can impede the progress of a small business. Imagine you have a queue of customers wanting your product, only for you to experience an inventory shortfall due to lack of funds. This will scare the customers away and lead to a bad rapport.
Marketing and Advertising
Even a product or service that can change the world won’t achieve much without advertising or marketing. You need to tell people what you’re offering and how it benefits them. Educate them through multiple means and build a brand presence for yourself in the meantime.
Managing Business Operations
There is a reason why cash is known as the oil that keeps the engine of your business moving. Cash is necessary for financing business operations and for ensuring that you’re able to meet your daily business expenses and goals.
Generating Employee Payroll
Payroll is a periodic expense that you will have to account for after you have set up your business. Employee payroll is often neglected when you don’t have sufficient reserves, but that isn’t the right thing to do. If you want your employees to contribute positively towards your business’s bottom line, you will have to pay them regularly from day one. Acquiring a small business funding to pay your employees is a good way to keep them focused and motivated at all times.
Equipment Financing
As your business grows, you’ll start contemplating a shift from labor intensive to capital intensive methods of production. You will obviously need cash reserves to finance this move, as you can easily mess up the whole process if you don’t have adequate cash in hand. The new equipment you intend to purchase should be perfect for use and optimize your manufacturing processes.
What You Should Expect
No funding or credit agency will hand you funding without running a proper background check. If you’re looking for funding for your business, you will want to meet the criteria set by the funding agency. Many different agencies use different methods, and here we mention a few for your understanding.
Positive Cash Flow
The cash flow is often considered as an ultimate authority of how much money your business is bringing in periodically. Don’t be confused by profits at the start, as profits cannot be realized but cash can. You can have a high amount of profits, but if you’re not able to realize that profit in the form of cash, then there is little you can do to develop and maintain a positive cash flow.
What you can do to improve your cash flow is to get in touch with all your debtors and give them an ultimatum for returning the dues. Stop selling on credit for a while so that you’re able to build a positive cash flow.
FICO Score
A FICO Score is basically a credit score rating for businesses. It defines the number of funding that a business has taken in the past and how it has paid them back. A business with a good FICO score is often considered as a perfect recipient for funding, without any flaws whatsoever.
Time in Business
The time you have spent in business will also concern business funding agency. You cannot expect funding if you’ve just been around for a couple of weeks.
Revenue Generation
Finally, your revenue generation will also be taken into consideration. The revenue generation over monthly or yearly periods will define whether you have the capability to pay back the funding in the guaranteed period through revenue generated?
Documents Required for Small Business Funding
Any agency or bank funding you a small business funding will require certain documents before they can proceed with the funding amount.
Bank Statements
Any agency funding you small business funding will most definitely require your bank statements. The statements will be necessary for determining the recent transactions you have made and how often you use the bank. This information will be deemed necessary because if you’re transacting money to your personal accounts, then that would be a serious breach of agreement between the owner and the business.
Business and Personal Tax Returns
The tax returns will be helped to identify compliance with the rates set by the government. No funding agency would want to be associated with a business that isn’t paying the due taxes.
Balance Sheet and Income Statement
The balance sheet and income statement will be necessary for running through everything of value that the business owns. The balance sheet in particular will give an understanding of equities, assets and liabilities.
With the information above you are better placed to proceed to the market and get small business funding for your brand.