Are your operating costs increasingly becoming a huge burden, risking business closure? Or perhaps your business is drowning in a financial crisis, and you don’t know how to access business finance to save it. Well, you’re not alone.
According to Reuters, nearly 55% of firms are in ‘fair’ or ‘poor’ financial condition. Even so, there are proven hacks to access business finance and give your business a new life. Are you eager to know them? Keep reading this article to save your business from closure. Let’s start!
Don’t Borrow More Than You Can Manage
Firstly, never borrow more than you can handle. Business loans aren’t flexible like student loans; they tend to be stricter regarding repayment options. A simple blunder can easily lead to a heavy debt burden. Excessive debt will automatically lead to a heavy burden on your business finances. For instance, high debt levels will lead to a surge in interest payments, straining your business cash flow and limiting growth.
With excessive borrowing, there’s a high risk of default. In fact, according to CNBC, in 2023 alone, about 153 companies defaulted on their debt! Failing to honor company loans leads to severe consequences affecting your business. For instance, defaulting will lead to a lower credit rating, meaning you’ll have fewer chances to access business finance. Also, some lenders may decide to take legal action against your business or, worse, become bankrupt.
Overborrowing will weaken your financial flexibility. For this reason, investing in new opportunities or meeting sudden expenses that may need an emergency response will become nearly impossible. Moreover, it will be tough to navigate economic downtimes, which may easily lead to business failure. Besides high interest costs, borrowing more than you can handle will strain your relationship with the lenders, damaging your reputation. As a result, you won’t be able to access business finance when you genuinely need it.
Optimize Employee Benefits
Let’s agree. An employee check up ensures that the current benefits package aligns with their needs and remains competitive. Did you know optimizing employee benefits is beneficial when planning to access business finance? Here’s how.
It’s a fact that lenders will assess the creditworthiness of your business when considering your loan application. You may not know that ensuring your employees have a competitive and well-designed employee benefits program will enhance your overall business financial profile. It demonstrates that you prioritize retaining top talents and employees’ well-being. As a result, lenders will positively perceive your ability to repay loans and your business’s stability.
Let’s face it. Offering benefits that support employees’ health and wellness reduces the risk of workplace accidents, illness, or injuries. For this reason, the benefits will help mitigate potential financial liabilities linked to workers’ compensation claims or possible legal disputes. For this reason, lenders will conclude your business as properly risk-mitigated and well-managed, making it a lower credit risk and increasing your chance of quickly accessing business finance.
Commit to Financial Reviews
Whether you’re a startup or an experienced metal roofer company, committing to financial reviews will help you access business finance easily. Regular financial reviews show that you’re committed to financial accuracy and transparency. Typically, lenders heavily rely on such information when evaluating your loan application. Committing to regular financial reviews ensures that your business financial records are accurate, organized, and available, which helps lenders easily assess your company’s financial health to make informed decisions.
Lenders need to know that you’re good at financial management to ascertain your eligibility for a loan. Mostly, they’ll want to be confident that you can manage borrowed money effectively, finance relevant projects, and easily make good returns capable of honoring timely payments. Financial reviews will help you access business finance easily and, at the same time, help you stay on top of your business financial performance, identify areas that need improvement, and make the necessary adjustments promptly.
Regular financial reviews will help you to identify and mitigate any potential financial risks in your business. Addressing such vulnerabilities will help you minimize any financial challenges hindering your ability to repay loans easily. For this reason, financial reviews become your risk mitigation strategy that will enhance your creditworthiness. Also, it will increase the lenders’ confidence that you can meet your financial obligations.
Keep Detailed Records
There’s no way around it. Lenders highly rely on your records to see your business’s financial history, including expenses, liabilities, income, and assets, to determine your creditworthiness. By maintaining and keeping accurate and timely detailed records, you can easily showcase consistent financial performance, increasing your odds of quickly accessing business finance.
Keeping detailed information helps you to build trust and credibility. Mostly, lenders want to work with businesses they can trust, and having accurate and timely records means you’re honest with your documents and information. To access business finance, you must be transparent and honest with keeping records. Showing you possess a well-organized financial system that makes it easy to track financial records proves that you can be trusted and deserve financial support.
All businesses from all sectors of the economy must keep detailed records as a measure of compliance with the regulatory requirements. Whether you own a proprietor business, such as a bakery, or a limited company, like a roofing company, you’re expected to keep detailed, accurate, and timely records to be on the right side of the law. Lenders like working with businesses that are compliant with tax and financial obligations. Moreover, detailed records will help you to file tax returns accurately and produce financial statements quickly.
Follow Rules and Regulations
Let’s face it. Risk mitigation is integral when lenders review your application to access business finance. Primarily, rules and regulations are crafted to protect the interests of all stakeholders, including lenders. Following such laws and regulations will win lenders’ confidence by demonstrating a solid risk management framework. Moreover, you’ll showcase that you have minimized possible risks of encountering legal or compliance issues.
Did you know most lenders require you to comply with environmental regulations and get involved with environmental remediation services? Ensuring that your business addresses existing environmental issues through remediation, you can fulfill requirements to access business finance easily. Moreover, it can help mitigate potential risks associated with pollution incidents, improving your business risk profile in an appealing way to lenders.
Moreover, most lenders require your business to be a legal entity to access business finance. Depending on your jurisdiction, you can register your business entity as a sole proprietorship, corporation, or partnership. Becoming a legal entity gives you the legal standing to access business finance. Also, some lenders’ rules require a comprehensive business plan, up-to-date financial statements, necessary documentation, creditworthiness, regulatory compliance, or collateral to access financing.
Avoid Expensive Litigation
Does your business have a clean legal record? Do you have a competent civil litigation lawyer to represent you in case of a dispute? These are questions that most lenders assess to determine whether you qualify to access business finance. If your business has a clean record and avoids litigation, most lenders consider it reliable and trustworthy. For this reason, you must maintain a clean record of ethical and responsible business practices.
It’s a no-brainer: expensive litigation will tie your business cash flow for a lengthy period. As a result, funds that would have been more useful for business essentials such as operational needs, growth initiatives, and, more importantly, debt servicing will instead be allocated to potential settlements and legal fees. For this reason, most lenders may consider your business not eligible for financing. To qualify for financing, you must prove that you have a healthy cash flow capable of repaying loans.
After a financing application, lenders will assess your risk profile. Litigation is often considered a red flag, indicating that your business may have potential operational and financial risks. Avoiding litigation means presenting a lower risk profile to most lenders, meaning your company can access business finance. Typically, this will lead to lower interest rates, favorable loan terms, and higher chances of loan approval.
Look Into Market Trends
A pro tip to access business finance quickly is to understand investor preferences. When you analyze the market trends, you’ll understand the types of businesses or industries most investors favor or where lenders quickly give out loans. For instance, you may notice that many lenders prefer lending to established brands like Yamaha dealerships rather than regular dealerships. So, information for checking the market trends will help you to structure your business strategy and financing needs with the current demand to increase your odds of attracting investors and securing financing.
Looking into the market trends will help you to assess the market risks. Such data will reveal the potential risks and challenges that will lower your chances of securing financing. For example, when there’s a downturn or increased competition in your industry, most lenders may shy away from financing your business. So, market trends will help you address such risks promptly and develop ideas to mitigate such challenges.
What’s more, market trends will help you to identify growth opportunities. When you’re equipped with information about your industry’s growth areas, you can position yourself to take advantage of such new opportunities. Also, you’ll be better able to demonstrate to lenders and investors that your business has growth potential and deserves financing.
Comply With Taxes
Without a doubt, whether you’re operating a small coffee shop or a huge construction dumpster rental company, you must comply with taxes. If not, you’ll attract heavy legal and financial consequences such as penalties, fines, and legal issues. According to the Internal Revenue Service, tax evasion by corporations could attract a fine of up to $500,000.
Typically, such problems will automatically negatively impact the financial stability of your business and your ability to access business finance. Lenders and investors often shy away from working with companies with non-compliance issues. So, tax compliance means easy access to financing.
Tax compliance builds your business’s positive reputation enabling you access business finance. Most firms in the US strive to maintain their positive image, which is why, according to the IRS, the associated voluntary tax compliance rate is about 85.1%. When your business complies with taxes, lenders know that you value ethical business practices, making you the right candidate for business financing.
When you comply with tax, it means reporting the stated income of your business is accurate, which is a critical component when applying for financing. Lenders and investors make financing decisions by analyzing your revenue and profitability to determine whether your business can generate cashflows to repay loans.
Be a Good Negotiator
There’s no way around it. You must be an excellent negotiator to access business finance easily. It doesn’t matter whether you’re seeking financing for a small venture such as a café or a midsize secure shredding company. You must know how to talk yourself into the funding. As a good negotiator, you can advocate for the best financing terms, such as favorable interest rates, repayment schedules, and collateral requirements.
Excellent negotiation skills will also help you to navigate any challenges that may come up during the financing process. For instance, when a lender raises any concerns or requests for additional information, you can talk yourself out of their reasons to deny you financing. As a good negotiator, you can overcome any obstacles that may present themselves.
Additionally, being a good negotiator demonstrates your business acumen and your talent for strategic thinking. It shows that you have a vision for your company and understand the financial landscape. For this reason, lenders and investors will have confidence in your ability to manage finances.
Cut Unnecessary Expenditures
Before financing, lenders will want to know more about your cashflows to evaluate your ability to repay loans. That said, the quickest tip to improve your cash flow is to cut on unnecessary expenditures. As a result, you’ll have available funds to cover operational costs and invest in business opportunities. A healthy cash flow means lenders may quickly find you eligible for funding.
Also, it’s wise to invest in services that prevent unnecessary expenses. For instance, hiring a drain cleaning company for inspection and diagnostics helps avoid excessive drainage or sewer repair costs. Preparing to handle disasters early before they become expensive damages would be best.
In Summary
To access business finance, you must prepare to prove to lenders or investors that you can repay the loans. To do this, you must have a healthy financial cash flow, become tax compliant, and always be up to date with the current market. Also, it helps to avoid legal battles as they may damage your reputation and lessen your financing chances. To know hacks on how to access business finance, check our website for valuable insights and tips.
