Financing Working Capital In Canada . Recognize These Implications Of Cash Flow Finance?

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Get out of that ‘ Horses And Bayonets’ Mindset When It Comes To Working Capital Finance Solutions & Approaches



Information on financing working capital in Canada . Business owners/managers must understand the implications of their actions when it comes to cash flow finance . Here is why!

Financing working capital for your Canadian business. Are you still in the ' horses and bayonets' era when it comes to understanding the solutions available for cash flow finance, and the implications of not having the right solution in place?

And excuse that ' guns and bayonets' comment about being old fashioned and out of touch... we just made it up...

Working capital management is a critical success driver for any business. And it not really overly necessary to focus on the word management, it’s simply about adopting a style or consistent manner in which you run your business on an on going basis.

So how do you know when you are successful at financing working capital properly? Are there some benchmarks? There are and some of them might include the fact that you actually have positive cash balances on hand most of the time, although we point out that if you have a bank or non bank line of credit that revolves properly positive cash balances arent always necessary. But what is key is that your working capital facility revolves up and down, a lot, and regularly!

Two other very solid bench marks for knowing you are doing the right thing (or not) is to ensure you understand and have acceptable receivables turnover and inventory management. (If your firm does maintain inventories)

Accounts receivable are your next closest asset to cash. So make sure you know how to measure A/R success or failure, and one of the best ways is to perform a simple ' days sales outstanding ' calculation on an ongoing basis, typically monthly. Bench mark that result against your stated terms to clients and voila! you'll vey quickly know whether you are winning or losing.

You also want to ensure you have access to short term borrowing facilities based on current assets.

They can be bank or non bank in nature, and typically include solutions such as:

Bank business lines of credit

Comprehensive asset based lending facilities

Receivable finance / Invoice financing

Inventory finance programs

Purchase order/supply chain financing

Monetization of tax credits - i.e. your SR&ED claim


When you don't have solutions in place and are unable to meet your general obligations serious problems ensue - at their most extreme you can be judged unable to meet your liabilities - i.e. bankrupt!

How then do cash flow problems present themselves or happen? It's not as complex as the Canadian business owner or financial manager might think. You might be in fact enjoying the double edged sword of ' fast growth '. That typically means you're carrying more inventory and receivables than ever... and exhausting your actual cash resources.

And the ultimate irony? Your accountant tells you that you're actually profitable! It just doesnt feel that way... mainly because cash flows only eventually catch up to profit . Key word: eventually!

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor on how you increase liquidity when sales, receivables and inventory demand it.

7 Park Avenue Financial :
South Sheridan Executive Centre
2910 South Sheridan Way
Suite 301
Oakville, Ontario
L6J 7J8

Direct Line = 416 319 5769

Email = sprokop@7parkavenuefinancial.com

Click here for 7 PARK AVENUE FINANCIAL http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com


Business financing for Canadian Firms , specializing in working capital, cash flow, asset based financing , Equipment Leasing , franchise finance and Cdn. Tax Credit Finance . Founded 2004 - Completed in excess of 100 Million $ of financing for Canadian corporations .

' Canadian Business Financing With The Intelligent Use Of Experience '

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stan has had a successful career with some of the world’s largest and most successful corporations.
Prior to founding 7 Park Avenue Financial in 2004 his employers over the last 25 years were, ASHLAND OIL, ( 1977-1980) DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, ( 1980-1990) ) CABLE & WIRELESS PLC,( 1991 -1993) ) AND HEWLETT PACKARD ( 1994-2004 ) He is an expert in Canadian Business Financing.

Stan has over 40 years of business and finance executive experience. He has been recognized as a credit/financial executive for three of the largest technology companies in the world; Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment and Cable & Wireless. Stan has had in depth, hands on experience in assessing and evaluating thousands of companies that are seeking financing and expansion. He has been instrumental in helping many companies progress through every phase of financing, mergers & acquisitions, sales and marketing and human resources. Stan has worked with startups and public corporations and has many times established the financial wherewithal of organizations before approving millions of dollars of financing facilities and instruments on behalf of his employers.

Stan Prokop

Unique Canadian Cash Flow Financing & Working Capital Loans & Finance Options

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Cash Flow and Working Capital – Today’s New Alternatives !

OVERVIEW – Information on cash flow and working capital financing solutions for Canadian business. Types of loans and finance strategies that can save and grow your business

The Gap. That was the essence of a business story in Canada's national business newspaper regarding business financing optimism in Canadian business.At the core of business finance is financing working capital, generating cash flow and being aware of loans and finance solutions that make sense for your firm from a cost and benefits manner.

The incredible part of the article was that although Canadian business owners and financial managers were more optimistic about their business these days, dramatically so, the incredible part being that 70% of respondents said that access to ' cash ‘ and capital was still a challenge . Wow. do we ever envy that other 30% who seems to have all the cash flow and working capital financing they need!

There are some unique working capital loans and strategies that work for you, it’s simply a matter of understanding what your current needs are, assessing your financial position, and most importantly, understanding your financial alternatives.
When we think of financing working capital you need to focus on the following, receivables and inventory, other assets, as well as your ability to re structure and re organize your firm if in fact that’s required .
In many cases a simple re financing of existing, owned assets is a unique strategy that often makes sense. This can be done via a sale leaseback strategy, or, not as commonly used, a short or intermediate bridge loan of refinanced assets such as equipment, real estate, etc.

At the core of looking at either traditional or more alternative or unique cash flow and finance solutions is simply to understand the cost and benefits of these strategies. Those costs vary with your overall credit quality and can range from a point or two over prime to 1-2% per month, depending on your current financial position.

Many business owners wrestle with how to simply understand working capital, which allows them to then determine their needs. Unfortunately the text book or your accountant doesn’t do a great job of that... in that they tell us go to the balance sheet, subtract current liabilities from current assets, and that’s supposedly your magic number. We wish!

So we tell clients to look at some very rudimentary but useful tools and allow them to assess their cash flow and loans strategies. One is simply the metrics of the operating cycle - understanding how fast you collect your receivables, how your inventory turns, and the average number of days you take to pay your key payables. Simply tally up the total amount of days in your A/R and inventory and you will find you can’t finance that excess just by stalling suppliers/payables.

The shortfall brings us to those solutions you are looking for. You could finance all your working capital if you paid your suppliers every half year or so, but they won't really buy into that plan!

In Canada the traditional solutions for working capital are bank lines of credit - the only caveat being you have got to have decent financial strength, profitability, good owner credit and assets, etc.

Failing bank financing in Canada you have the ability to access just receivable financing - our favorite facility is called CONFIDENTIAL RECEIVABLE FINANCING - a method in which you receive cash for your receivables immediately, and bill and collect under your own control.


Other more robust solutions are what we term working capital facilities or asset based loans. These finance loans (they are not loans per se) combine your receivables, inventory and fixed assets into one revolving line of credit. The more sophisticated a facility you utilize brings you maximum margining of your assets.

Alternatively a more esoteric candidate on the horizon is purchase order financing and contract financing - your suppliers are paid by the lender. It’s more costly, but boy does it work to allow you to generate sales you may never have been able to entertain on your own.


So what's our bottom line - we guess it’s simply don't despair! Understanding your operating cycle , assessing the amount of capital you need, and then weighing those needs against the best solution, traditional or alternative, is clearly your recommended route.

7 Park Avenue Financial :
South Sheridan Executive Centre
2910 South Sheridan Way
Suite 301
Oakville, Ontario
L6J 7J8

Direct Line = 416 319 5769

Office = 905 829 2653

Email = sprokop@7parkavenuefinancial.com

http://www.7parkavenuefinancial.com


Business financing for Canadian Firms , specializing in working capital, cash flow, asset based financing , Equipment Leasing , franchise finance and Cdn. Tax Credit Finance . Founded 2004 - Completed in excess of 100 Million $ of financing for Canadian corporations .

' Canadian Business Financing With The Intelligent Use Of Experience '

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stan has had a successful career with some of the world’s largest and most successful corporations.
Prior to founding 7 Park Avenue Financial in 2004 his employers over the last 25 years were, ASHLAND OIL, ( 1977-1980) DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, ( 1980-1990) ) CABLE & WIRELESS PLC,( 1991 -1993) ) AND HEWLETT PACKARD ( 1994-2004 ) He is an expert in Canadian Business Financing.

Stan has over 40 years of business and finance executive experience. He has been recognized as a credit/financial executive for three of the largest technology companies in the world; Hewlett-Packard, Digital Equipment and Cable & Wireless. Stan has had in depth, hands on experience in assessing and evaluating thousands of companies that are seeking financing and expansion. He has been instrumental in helping many companies progress through every phase of financing, mergers & acquisitions, sales and marketing and human resources. Stan has worked with startups and public corporations and has many times established the financial wherewithal of organizations before approving millions of dollars of financing facilities and instruments on behalf of his employers.

Stan Prokop

The Fix On Business Cash Flow ! Financing And Managing Your Working Capital Problem Via Pigs And Cows!

How To Kill Or Cure 2 Pigs . Turn Your Company Into A Cash Cow, Not A Cash Pig



OVERVIEW – Information on business cash flow in Canada . How financing and managing currents assets affects your working capital position.



Business cash flow in Canada. What in the world would that have to do with pigs, cows, and... Heaven forbid... killing pigs?

Basically, it comes down to this, and all of a sudden our animal analogies will make a lot more sense. And what do we mean by that... just that your current assets in your business, ie receivables, inventory, prepaids, etc are cash pigs. They require and use cash, and if you don't manage them properly bad things happen.

But the good news - when you do manage them properly your company embraces that other barn yard friend, the ' cash cow '! ( We're not re opening the beef vs. pork debate, but todays recommendation is definitely beef via the cash cow !)

The Canadian business owner and manager can easily be forgiven sometimes when it comes to concepts such as growing business assets. That's a good thing, right. Well, sometimes but definitely not always because the constant build up of current assets (again, your A/R, inventory) can be disastrous for your company if not addressed by two actions you can take - managing them, and financing them.

While we're all for working with clients on financing working capital and providing solutions that match their needs its the business owner/manager that can also make a huge dent in their cash flow plan by simply reducing and managing receivables and inventory .

Naturally its human nature for the business owner/manager to feel that if they overly pressure their client base for payment that they might be in a position to lose their customer. Don't forget though that large corporations invest huge amounts of capital in people and systems when it comes to enforcing their payment terms. By the way, that’s one of the ways that they became a large company - and we shouldn't be surprised that the metrics of Days sales outstanding and inventory turns are often keenly related to the compensation of very senior management, up to and including the president. So those big guys just might be on to something!

The same general concept applies to inventory also, and if your business has an inventory component on the balance sheet (services businesses of course don’t) it might already be taking months for inventory to work your way through your system and finally become: ' CASH FLOW '!

While we have focused on the left side of the balance sheet the corresponding current liability on the other side is of course payables, and if you properly manage payables that’s also a great cash flow generator . Again don't our large companies do that great also? Their modus operendi ... pay everyone slowly... because... hey... they're big and they can!

There is a great analogy around managing and financing current assets, and it revolves around running your company like a plane pilot ,

with yourself as the owner of financial manager always watching the controls. And when you don’t... there's a crash around the corner, and the cash flow pigs have in effect won the battle.

Working capital solutions to enhance business cash flow are abundant. it's all about which one is for your firm. They include:

Receivable financing
Inventory financing
Asset based lending
Business bank lines
Supply chain /PO Financing
Tax credit monetization

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advising on barnyard management - turning your company into a cash flow cow

and wrestling down those cash flow pigs!


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 7 years - has completed in excess of 80 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations . Core competancies include receivables financing, asset based lending, working capital, equipment finance, franchise finance and tax credit financing.
Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details :

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

Financing Working Capital In Canada . Recognize These Implications Of Cash Flow Finance?

Get out of that ‘ Horses And Bayonets’ Mindset When It Comes To Working Capital Finance Solutions & Approaches


OVERVIEW – Information on financing working capital in Canada . Business owners/managers must understand the implications of their actions when it comes to cash flow finance . Here is why!



Financing working capital for your Canadian business. Are you still in the ' horses and bayonets' era when it comes to understanding the solutions available for cash flow finance, and the implications of not having the right solution in place?

And excuse that ' horses and bayonets'

comment about being old fashioned and out of touch... we just made it up... NO.. really.. we did...

Working capital management is a critical success driver for any business. And it not really overly necessary to focus on the word management, it’s simply about adopting a style or consistent manner in which you run your business on an on going basis.

So how do you know when you are successful at financing working capital properly? Are there some benchmarks? There are and some of them might include the fact that you actually have positive cash balances on hand most of the time, although we point out that if you have a bank or non bank line of credit that revolves properly positive cash balances aren't always necessary. But what is key is that your working capital facility revolves up and down, a lot, and regularly!

Two other very solid bench marks for knowing you are doing the right thing (or not) is to ensure you understand and have acceptable receivables turnover and inventory management. (If your firm does maintain inventories)

Accounts receivable are your next closest asset to cash. So make sure you know how to measure A/R success or failure, and one of the best ways is to perform a simple ' days sales outstanding ' calculation on an ongoing basis, typically monthly. Bench mark that result against your stated terms to clients and voila! you'll vey quickly know whether you are winning or losing.

You also want to ensure you have access to short term borrowing facilities based on current assets. They can be bank or non bank in nature, and typically include solutions such as:

Bank business lines of credit

Comprehensive asset based lending facilities

Receivable finance / Invoice financing

Inventory finance programs

Purchase order/supply chain financing

Monetization of tax credits - i.e. your SR&ED claim

When you don't have solutions in place and are unable to meet your general obligations serious problems ensue - at their most extreme you can be judged unable to meet your liabilities - i.e. bankrupt!

How then do cash flow problems present themselves or happen? It's not as complex as the Canadian business owner or financial manager might think. You might be in fact enjoying the double edged sword of ' fast growth '. That typically means you're carrying more inventory and receivables than ever... and exhausting your actual cash resources.

And the ultimate irony? Your accountant tells you that you're actually profitable! It just doesnt feel that way... mainly because cash flows only eventually catch up to profit . Key word: eventually!

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor on how you increase liquidity when sales, receivables and inventory demand it.

7 PARK AVENUE FINANCIAL
CANADIAN CASH FLOW FINANCE EXPERTISE

Exactly When Does Your Company Need A Receivable Finance Solution? Financing Working Capital Is About Timing!

Let A/R Finance Get Your Receivables In Overtime Mode!


Information on receivable financing and the proper methods to look at when financing working capital in Canada




Have we got a story for you! There's an interesting old story /legend about a guy named Bernard E. Smith who at the time of the 1929 crash of Wall Street crash simply went around and saw what companies were building up receivables and inventory and maybe not selling enough either . We're not really focusing on ‘sales ' today though. The bottom line on this legend is that by simple observation of build up in receivables (and inventories) he became somewhat of a predictor for companies that would fail.

Receivable finance in Canada. Exactly when does your firm know it needs something new when it comes to financing working capital and understanding what solutions are available and when ?

If you have a strong handle on receivables in your company you're in a position to know a lot about your cash flow and working capital. When we look at what our buddy Bernard Smith was doing he probably would have profited even more (he was ' shorting 'those companies ) if he had simply had solid access to an analysis of any company’s' A/R position.

When you truly understand the relationship between sales and properly managed accounts receivable you're a more effective business manager or owner. That’s because you can only run so long on the concept of sales, and what one analyst called ' borrowing from the future '.

Financing working capital is need when your receivables rise substantially over your sales growth. Poor collections and liberal credit terms are some other causes, and those require separate measures and actions. But today we're focusing on simple ' growth ‘.

So, two things. How can you track such a phenomenon, and secondly what is one solid solution for receivable financing in Canada?

When it comes to tracking set up a very simple chart or spreadsheet around sales / receivables, and inventory. Simply track the actual growth rates over a specific period, say quarterly, even monthly if you want. (We’d say annually was a bit too late!)

If you find that sales are growing at 15% for example, and A/R and inventories are growing at 35% you will quickly start to feel a working capital and cash flow shortage. It's as simple as that!

So if you can’t get support from a bank in Canada on your A/R and growth then perhaps its time to look at another option. That option is known as receivable finance, or invoice discounting is another term. You might not be able to get additional financing because you're growing to fast, or in some cases you simply can’t meet bank criteria.

That's when it comes time to rethink your Canadian business financing strategy. The cost of factoring is often a consideration or concern , and business owners can address this by effectively understand how they can use the capital generated from invoice financing .If you have good gross margins you're even in better shape when it comes to assessing the cost of receivable finance.

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who can assist you in both monitoring working capital needs and assessing quality solutions for business cash flow and growth.

7 PARK AVENUE FINANCIAL

CANADIAN RECEIVABLE FINANCE EXPERTISE




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 7 years - has completed in excess of 80 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations . Core competancies include receivables financing, asset based lending, working capital, equipment finance, franchise finance and tax credit financing.
Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details :

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

Methods Of Financing Working Capital In Canada – Current Assets Leverage For Cash Flow Loans

Isn't it ironic that business can be actually quite good... or even great..? which then becomes a problem only because in business survival and growth it’s all about financing working capital... turning those current assets of your firm into loans or monetization facilities for cash flow.

In a perfect world Canadian business owners want to be able to meet their day to day operations, make any loan or lease payments and be able to plan for upcoming expenses or growth. How could one statement like that induce so much stress!

A lot of that planning comes from the ' current assets ' category of your financials, simply speaking your liquid assets such as cash on hand, receivables, and inventories if in fact your business has inventory. (Some services businesses just have A/R).

Small and medium sized businesses in Canada rely on either capital from their owners personal resources, or their decision to take on loans and debt of some sort.

But what type of loans makes sense when it comes to liquidity? Perhaps a better re phrasing of that question would be ' what is ' good' working capital debt? In our personal credit lives we think of good debt, i.e. a mortgage, and bad debt ' credit cards'!

Naturally considering new ownership or additional equity in your company or business (taking in a partner, etc) is simply a dilution in the long run and somewhat downsizes the overall incentive for all owners to grow the firm.

And when it comes to debt the amount of ' debt' or loans your firm can take on is certainly often limited relative to your own current financials and the state of borrowing in Canada , which vacillates from great to not great as you may have noticed!

So, whats the solution? Is financing working capital the way to go? (As opposed to term loans and more debt) It’s not as complicated as you think. And it all comes back to our friends, those two guys known as ' current assets '!

A large part of working capital financing in your business can come from yourself. Real basics such as ensuring you aren’t paying your payables before you're collecting your receivables... if you're doing that you're simply creating a working capital shortage that you have self imposed.

And let’s discuss your solutions for working capital constraints. We get a huge kick out of receiving newsletters from banks which focus on how to manage your cash surpluses when they are writing about working capital and cash flow. We haven’t had one client come in today with a cash surplus problem, but it's only noon....

Canadian business owners and financial managers challenged with financing working capital have a solid handful of solutions. Naturally in a perfect world (you mean it's not?) you would prefer to not take on a term loan for permanent working capital. But back to that perfect world... that might mean you have an overdraft or bank line of credit. For many small and medium sized businesses that simply is not attainable - or if it is it’s not quite enough.

Real world solutions for financing working capital and current assets, without loans involve what we call the monetization or cash flowing of those current assets, That typically is a working capital facility, non bank in nature (yes they are available and exist!) that allows you to draw daily, as needed on your a/r and inventory in the form of a business line of credit. Larger facilities of this nature are termed ' asset based lines of credit ' - we call them ‘ABL’s ... and them often are superior to bank facilities for a lot of different reasons.

More esoteric working capital solutions, but nonetheless real, are financing your tax credits, purchase order finance, or securitization of your contracts or receivables.

Speak to a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor on the right method of leveraging cash flow from your assets and business. Today would be a good timeframe!





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 7 years - has completed in excess of 80 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations .Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details :


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

Unique Canadian Cash Flow Financing & Working Capital Loans - Finance Options

The Gap. That was the essence of a recent business story in Canada's national business newspaper regarding business financing optimism in Canadian business.At the core of business finance is financing working capital, generating cash flow and being aware of loans and finance solutions that make sense for your firm from a cost and benefits manner.

The incredible part of the May 2011 article was that although Canadian business owners and financial managers were more optimistic about their business these days, dramatically so, but 70% of respondents said that access to ' cash ‘ and capital was still a challenge . Wow. do we ever envy that other 30% who seems to have all the cash flow and working capital financing they need!

There are some unique working capital loans and strategies that work for you, it’s simply a matter of understanding what your current needs are, assessing your financial position, and most importantly, understanding your financial alternatives.
When we think of financing working capital you need to focus on the following, receivables and inventory, other assets, as well as your ability to re structure and re organize your firm if in fact that’s required .

In many cases a simple re financing of existing, owned assets is a unique strategy that often makes sense. This can be done via a sale leaseback strategy, or, not as commonly used, a short or intermediate bridge loan of refinanced assets such as equipment, real estate, etc.

At the core of looking at either traditional or more alternative or unique cash flow and finance solutions is simply to understand the cost and benefits of these strategies. Those costs vary with your overall credit quality and can range from a point or two over prime to 1-2% per month, depending on your current financial position.

Many business owners wrestle with how to simply understand working capital, which allows them to then determine their needs. Unfortunately the text book or your accountant doesn’t do a great job of that... in that they tell us go to the balance sheet, subtract current liabilities from current assets, and that’s supposedly your magic number. We wish!

So we tell clients to look at some very rudimentary but useful tools and allow them to assess their cash flow and loans strategies. One is simply the metrics of the operating cycle - understanding how fast you collect your receivables, how your inventory turns, and the average number of days you take to pay your key payables. Simply tally up the total amount of days in your A/R and inventory and you will find you can’t finance that excess just by stalling suppliers/payables.

The shortfall brings us to those solutions you are looking for. You could finance all your working capital if you paid your suppliers every half year or so, but they won't really buy into that plan!

In Canada the traditional solutions for working capital are bank lines of credit - the only caveat being you have got to have decent financial strength, profitability, good owner credit and assets, etc.

Failing bank financing in Canada you have the ability to access just receivable financing - our favorite facility is called C I D - a method in which you receive cash for your receivables immediately, and bill and collect under your own control.

Other more robust solutions are what we term working capital facilities or asset based loans. These finance loans (they are not loans per se) combine your receivables, inventory and fixed assets into one revolving line of credit. The more sophisticated a facility you utilize brings you maximum margining of your assets.

Alternatively a more esoteric candidate on the horizon is purchase order financing and contract financing - your suppliers are paid by the lender. It’s more costly, but boy does it work to allow you to generate sales you may never have been able to entertain on your own.

So whats our bottom line - we guess it’s simply don't despair! Understanding your operating cycle, assessing the amount of capital you need, and then weighing those needs against the best solution, traditional or alternative, is clearly your recommended route.

More info? Questions ? Ready to begin? Simply seek the services of a trusted, credible and experienced Canadian business financing advisor who can provide you with cash flow finance solutions that make sense.



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 7 years - has completed in excess of 80 Million $$ of financing for Canadian corporations .Info re: Canadian business financing & contact details :

http://www.parkavenuefinancial.com/cash_flow_financing_working_capital_loans_finance.html