Franchise Finance Lenders – The 4 Most Critical Things You Need to Know about Franchise Lending

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Looking For Real World Franchise Finance Possibilities? We've Got Them !


Information on franchise finance lenders in Canada. Solutions to franchise financing loan success are explored in this article

Clients are always asking us, who are the franchise finance lenders in Canada. At that point they have made the decision to invest their time and money in a new entrepreneurial business, and have chose to either purchase a new franchise, or, in some cases and existing unit. (There are a number of reasons why current franchisees want to sell their unit to you – but you should carefully explore the reason for the sale for the obvious reasons)


So what are the 4 most important things you need to address, assess, think about, and action in your decision to finance a franchise. We feel they are as follows: They are by no means in order of importance, but at the same time you probably won’t be successful until you are in a position to have satisfactorily addressed all the issues:


You should have some experience in the industry, of feel confident that you and the franchisor have the ability to get you up to speed in training if it is a new industry for yourself - ( We caution you that the number of franchise lenders in Canada place a certain amount of focus on management experience ). However, if you can demonstrate good business acumen and previous success that certainly will help the franchise financing process.

2. You must demonstrate that you have a solid business plan - yes this had to be; written out’ so to speak. If you do not have the interest or ability in generating such a document you should seek the services of a trusted, credible and experienced business financing advisor to prepare such a plan.

 In our opinion the reasonable costs associated with such a plan are in the 750-1000$ range , which is a small portion of your overall investment and if it produces the financing you need, as well as delivering on a reasonable financial action plan that surely is money well spent .

3. Location / Location/ Location! That phrase is of course used a lot in real estate business – if your franchise is one in which a location is important you should clearly seek out a location that will assist you in driving revenue and sales growth for your industry.

We caution many clients that their own belief in the value of the franchise and their own skills in taking the business forward cannot always overcome a bad location. So if that’s a key element in the franchise you are considering purchasing then one of the ways in which you can address that issue is usually free – it’s simply speaking to a local real estate agent, preferably one with business, not consumer experience, and getting advice and opinions on the location you are contemplating.

4. Capital – Money! The financing of your franchise in Canada comes from the two key elements of business. These two key elements are the same for your franchise as they are for a mega corporation such as IBM – The two elements are:
Debt
Equity


The equity portion of your investment is your own personal resources. You should never entertain the thought of obtaining 100% financing for a franchise – while that generally wont fly with any franchise lender, at the same time you would probably be over leveraged and a suitable candidate for business failure .


So how are franchises financing in Canada. Who are the franchise finance lenders?
The best and most popular program is a government loan that is underwritten by the federal government, the technical name for the program is the BIL program, and most Canadian business people know the program as the Small Business Loan.

It goes up to $ 500,000 in some cases and is by far the most popular method of obtaining franchise financing, in tandem with you own investment, which can be anywhere from 10-50% per cent of the total amount you require . In recent years the bar has been raised on your personal equity contribution into the business.


In summary, franchise lending in Canada is a somewhat of a unique boutique type of finance. Work on our four fundamentals we have presented – also seek out the services of someone who is a trusted, credible and experience franchise lender who can assist you in your transition to franchise purchase and franchise financing success.




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

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

Franchise Finance In Canada : Need Some Help ?

Canadian Business Financing For A Franchise? Just A Thought – Do It Right The 1st Time With Franchising Lenders

Information on business financing for a franchise in Canada . The lenders and the offering

We guess they call it ' crunch time '. As far as you are concerned your chances of success are excellent... now it's time to find the business financing you need for your franchise... from lenders that provide the funds you need.




Let's ensure you've got the basics covered, starting with the amount of funding you need, and solutions for each part of that capital. I guess we're saying also that in many cases you need to potentially cobble together a solution from a number of financing sources. It's somewhat rare that one franchise lending solution is going to cover all your financing needs, simply because we're talking about different classes of assets.



So what makes up a franchise structure? Typically there are several components - the franchise fee itself, potentially inventory, and equipment and leaseholds. Any business, whether its a franchise or not requires working capital for ongoing operations ; and remember also that a key component of that working capital are the royalty fees that you pay back every month to the franchisor . Typically royalty fee arrangements that we see all the time are in the 8% range, but that varies per size and type of franchise of course.



In order to determine your strategy and chances of success you have to spend some time checking one specific person out ...that’s YOU! So that should be easy to do, right? Your ability to position your personal finances and your background and experience plays a huge part in franchise approval. One of the documents you'll need is a PNW statement - a statement of personal net worth. A simpler definition - what you have; what you owe!



Your PNW form is assessed as a key part of the credit approval decision, in conjunction with your personal credit history. Remember that as successful or well known as your franchisor might be... from a lenders perspective you are still essentially a ' start up ‘. If you're buying an existing franchise, we guess you could call it a re-start!



In Canada, similar to the U.S. your personal ' score' at the credit bureau has to be over a certain threshold. The entire system is run on a scoring system with 800 being perfection at the credit bureau. So what’s a satisfactory score - we'll share with you that in Canada the majority of lenders, of all types of business and personal financing rely on a score in the 650 range. And trust us... higher is better. This whole exercise also allows you to determine what amount of capital you can put into the business, as it's not possible to get 100% financing for all your franchise financing needs - typically 10- 40% should come from yourself.



In assessing your overall financing situation take into consideration that the lender will quite often being factoring in a ' worst case' scenario , one that assumes that perhaps your sales and profit and cash flow ( out of which you repay your franchise loan ) might not be as optimistic or real as you have positioned



Our theme today is of course ' doing it right the first time ‘. That’s where your business plan or executive summary comes in play. It should be clear, understandable, at the same time positioning you and the industry in a positive light. We advise clients that a key goal here is simply realistic financial projections, and don’t forget to include repayment of franchise debt! We're often dismayed by how much none financially oriented clients spend for a business plan - a slick proper one should not cost you more than 1k in our opinion.



Doing some careful preparation in the areas we have discussed will help you ensure both final financing approval, as well as a shorter timeline than we see many clients suffer ring through. And help is only a call away via a Canadian business financing advisor who has credibility, experience, and can be trusted - ensuring you final business financing approval from your franchise.




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

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 .







7 Park Avenue Financial

Direct Line = 416 319 5769

Office = 905 829 2653

Email = sprokop@7parkavenuefinancial.com


' 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

Secrets For Success When Financing a franchise In Canada – What Franchise Lenders Won’t Tell You

The dream is becoming a reality . You have selected a franchise in the Canadian marketplace. That franchise is either an existing unit, or a resale from a currently successful (hopefully!) franchisee.

When you are contemplating the purchase of a business the cost and financing of that business becomes a potential major obstacle . Let's examine how financing a franchise works and is done in Canada .Who are the franchise lenders and what do you need to do to get your business financing past the goal line .

We recently read an article entitled 'How to Buy a Franchise With No Money Down '. Lets be clear on that point, that franchise financing is not available on the 100% OPM plan! OPM of course stands for other peoples money, and you should fully expect to make an equity investment or contribution into the business . That is driven from the fact that in business no lender will take all the risk and allow yourself to take none, which seems fair to us!

In your personal finances hopefully you are living within your means, as the expression goes. When it comes to business , and financing a franchise you should have a general sense of the overall cost of the franchise acquisition and whether that number makes sense to you from a personal net worth and owner equity contribution . Bottom line; don’t expect to buy a 700k franchise with a 10k owner investment - that wont work.

So what is the magic number then? Fortunately, or unfortunately, that magic number of your equity contribution seems to have increased over the last several years. We advise clients realistically that they should be prepared to put in anywhere from 25-50% of the purchase of the business.

The bottom line is that a solid equity contribution from yourself equals less debt on your opening balance sheet, and that's a good thing.

We spend a lot of time with clients constructing the cash flow portion of the business plan re their franchise acquisition. That is because your revenues and expense must be accurately reflected, and out of those calculations flows your ability to service debt, i.e. make your loan payment!

By far the most tried and tested method for financing a franchise in Canada is a program that is underwritten by our good friends in Ottawa. That’s the government by the way. A program that is technically referred to as the BIL/CSBF program, (aka ' Small Business Loan ‘) is the most popular vehicle for financing a franchise.

Clients are always asking what qualifications are required for the program. We can broadly summarize them as follows - a solid well prepared business plan, some industry experience ( we don't recommend that computer programmers buy a restaurant!) , a decent personal credit history, and a , relatively speaking good personal net worth, i.e. home owner , etc.

One mistake many potential franchisees make is to think that their franchisor will become a franchise lender. That’s not the case - in case you haven’t figured it out now they are in the business of selling a franchise, not financing your dreams.



Financing is tough, whether you are General Motors or buying your first franchise in the entrepreneurship dream. Speak to a trusted, credible, and experience business financing advisor who can assist you in your franchise finance strategy for success.