Working Capital and Business Lending in Canada Without the Voodoo!

The other day one of the major U.S. banks released a report around the current ' optimism ' in small and medium sized businesses. God knows we love a good survey about what our competition is thinking!

It's tougher than ever to read through some of the smoke and mirrors, dare we call it voodoo? .. and get a sense of where working capital and business lending is at here in Canada. We're going to do that for you. More importantly we'll give you real world solutions to cash flow challenges.

Optimistic? You may or may not be bullish about your business as many of our clients are still slowly coming out of the recent recession, and from a cash flow and working capital perspective you're more or less hanging on for your life.

If you are forecasting and planning your cash flow needs, say on a 12 month basis your biggest challenge is often how you do get that liquidity squeezed out of receivables, inventory, and purchase orders and contracts. That has been and still is the real challenge.

When looking at your cash flow and financing needs you need to focus in on several key issues and determine how they fit together - typically those issues your ability to collect your receivables and how you are financing them, what your sale growth is going to be, and what type of longer term capital do you need for things like equipment, real estate, etc. Naturally all that has to be benchmarked against how you are currently financing your company.

The U.S. survey we talked about probably mirrors Canada quite a bit... 25% of firms are going to spne on euqipment... most felt cash flow from customers would imporove , and that sales growth and hiring would again resume an uptrend .

As a Canadian business owner you read these types of surveys, see the business news, and yet at the same time still feel a sense of smoke and mirrors, mostly around the fact that working capital and business lending still don’t seem achievable to the extent you want them to be .

You want solutions to your cash flow challenges in working capital. Let's leave the surveys to the pundits and your competition. You want to get back to growing our business and now worrying about working capital pretty well every day.

There are great solutions for working capital via creative business lending in Canada. When we meet with clients they typically are looking for one solution, the ' holy grail' so to speak. In reality we show them that a number of solutions, possibly combined, can get you where you want to be in Canadian business financing.

Those solutions include receivable financing. Heard about factoring but not sure you like how it works... then consider confidential invoice financing... allowng you to bill and collect your own receivables .

Looking at new equipment while at the same time conserving working capital. Want a 5.5% rate and no full owner personal guarantee... consider the government BIL /CSBF loan... great rates, terms and structures .

Have contracts upcoming, worried about financing them. Talk to an expert on purchase order and inventory financing... despite the myth it really is available!

And finally, consider an asset based lending facility... it combines the power of receivales, inventory and equipment... with your firm borrowing against those assets on a daily basis as you need the working capital .

Is business lending dead in Canada. Is it all just voodoo? We don’t think so. You have solutions, investigate them and speak to a trusted credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor about getting your business on track!

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Stan Prokop - founder of 7 Park Avenue Financial -

http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com

Originating business financing for Canadian companies , specializing in working capital, cash flow, asset based financing . In business 6 years - has completed in excess of 50 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations .Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details :

http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com/business_lending_working_capital.html