Small Business Financing

High value capitalized equipment is one of the easiest things for a business to finance because lenders secure the loan against the equipment, which falls into common categories with known value and depreciation. It’s also one of the easiest categories for businesses to target. You know when demand exceeds your current capacity, and you know when equipment will allow you to take on more work. 

Bridge loans are used to fund a gap between the sale of one building and the purchase of a new building. The loan is leveraged against your current property, giving you funds to close fast, accessing a new property in a matter of days or weeks. The buyer can then sell their old property to pay off the bridge, or seek permanent financing for the new property.

Businesses often measure stability based on their ability to manage working capital – the available cash on hand to fulfill client needs and to market and run your operation. When a large portion of a business’s value is tied up in assets such as real estate, working capital financing can restore liquidity to the business, allowing it to operate smoothly. 

If a business has a balloon payment due at the end of a term loan, high interest rates compared to what is now available, or oversized monthly payments that are hurting the company’s cash flow, then refinancing can reposition a business for success. Depending on the situation, our consultants use refinancing to help clients lower their costs, improve their terms, and accelerate growth.

Commercial real estate ownership is an area that many businesses bypass, citing the cost and effort to maintain a commercial property. But the benefits are numerous – the ability to customize workspace without negotiating with a landlord, appreciation, owning an asset that can be leveraged in future financing, paying money into a property that adds to your balance sheet instead of rent that strips value from your business. Owner-occupied commercial real estate is harder to qualify for than equipment financing but easier than working capital. 

Historically, bridge lenders provided only high interest loans to borrowers with poor credit, leading to a derogatory perspective. With stringent requirements applied to bank lending, private loan rates have come down, and the industry has professionalized, resulting in a broad array of high-quality loan products that serve a diverse range of borrowers.  Hard money can serve businesses seeking to improve properties, acquire assets, fund purchase orders with a one-time credit product, or even reduce interest rates by backing a secured line of credit.

When businesses start looking for a new location, many owners bypass the opportunity to build from the ground up. Construction seems too challenging, too time-consuming and too costly. But in many markets, especially those that are most attractive to movers and shakers, property values are skyrocketing well above the cost of construction. Many commercial properties are built on similar models, with poured concrete pillars and floors bordered by a curtain wall. Most buyers end up customizing the interior anyway, making aging properties, in the end, less attractive than new construction.