What do the following businesses have in common?
● A gardening company in Stockton, Cheshire, that needed £2,000 to buy a new vehicle
● An electronics shop in North London that required £7,000 to relocate their business
● A hairdresser in Dorset that needed £1,200 to pay for advertising.
All of them needed an injection of money in a hurry – and none of them chose to go to a bank for a loan.
In a UK-wide survey carried out by Hitachi Capital earlier this year, small business owners identified cash flow as the single biggest problem they face and almost 30 per cent admit these troubles are damaging the development of their business. The survey also showed that a third of small business owners in the UK rely on personal funding due to restrictions caused by the conditions of traditional lenders.
That being said, small business finance is becoming increasingly easy to access, as you don’t always have to go through a bank. Since the financial crash in 2008 there are an ever-growing number of alternative financing options cropping up to help SMEs grow. These include;
● Peer-to-peer lending
● Crowdfunding
● Business Angels and
● Business Cash Advances.
A business cash advance is a simple way of raising finance if your company takes card payments, as it’s based on your monthly credit and debit card revenue. They are offered by many alternative finance providers, such as Quick Capital, which can provide this fast and easy service to customers who take payments through card terminals. In fact, all of the businesses previously mentioned are customers who were granted a cash advance by Quick Capital to grow their business as they saw fit – without intense scrutiny as to where every penny would be spent.
The funds from advances like this are usually accessible to small businesses much faster than would be expected from going down the more traditional routes such as banks. This is because alternative finance providers like Quick Capital do not require business plans and forecasts to make a decision, as a bank would, and funds can be secured in as little as 72 hours.
Not only are the funds deposited more quickly than a traditional bank loan, but they are paid back faster too. Typically a business cash advance only takes around six months to repay which is vastly quicker than your average bank loan. Plus, unlike bank loans, there is no fixed monthly cost. Instead repayments are set in line with your card turnover. Which means when business is good, you pay back more, but in quieter months, repayments move down to reflect your daily credit and debit card sales.
If your business is in need of stock, extra staff or a refurbishment and you need to access funding quickly, don’t sit around waiting on the traditional methods. There are plenty of alternative means for you to get hold of the cash you need, so get researching to find out which option is the best for you.
Mike Prendergast is the finance director of Quick Capital. If you feel a business cash advance could be the flexible alternative that you require call 0800 3777 402 or visit www.quickcapital.co.uk for more information on how much you could raise.
