I consider myself a safe driver. After all, I spend a lot of time behind the wheel of an RV that weighs a couple tons. Interestingly enough, the most dangerous I’ve been behind the wheel was in a Dodge Durango on a Thursday night. My wife and I decided to take the kids to the mountains for a long weekend, so we went a few hours north to the Appalachian mountains. I’m a big fan of caffeine, and I had plenty of it to fuel the drive without any stops. By the time we reached the steeper section of winding mountain roads it was nighttime, and the kids had fallen asleep.
We were a couple thousand feet up already, and I got comfortable in the slalom. Curve left. Curve right. Curve left again. The problem with letting yourself get comfortable in the cycle is that a small change can throw you completely off. The next left was just a bit stronger than the others. I hit the brakes in my best effort to stop the car from rolling right over the cliff and tumbling down the mountain. It worked. The kids woke up confused but oblivious to their near death experience, and I paid a lot more attention for the next twenty minutes until we reached our hotel. I had a hard time sleeping that night. I came way too close to driving right off a cliff.
Do You Need to Drive Off the Cliff?
Running a business is a lot like driving in those winding mountain roads. You keep going the course and once you’re comfortable, there’s that bump or that sharp turn in the road that will drive you dangerously to the edge. Now when I watch “Thelma and Louise,” I can’t help but think of the time I almost drove off a cliff. I don’t think I would’ve made the same decision they did, but I guess they didn’t have as many options.
It’s important to see the options you have and choose the best fit. When it comes to funding your small business, there are a lot of options. Not all of them will be the best fit for your needs, though. Different industries have different pain points when it comes to their working capital needs. For instance, manufacturing businesses may rely more on equipment financing, and staffing businesses may rely on invoice factoring services. This is obviously because working capital cycles and the strain on cash flow are different depending on payment terms and customers. There is no one-size-fits-all financing, but when it feels like there are no good options, you don’t have to just drive off the cliff.
One of those sharp curves in the road right now for business owners is declining revenue. Not only is your business probably hurting from the steep drop in revenue this year, but your customers are probably hurting, too. There are a few ways to prepare your business for riding out this time of depressed revenue, but financing is one of the most reliable. Just be sure you are meeting your cash flow needs rather than prolonging that drive up to the cliff.
Do You Get What You Settle For?
At Eagle, we try to alert business owners that when you choose the fastest option to fund your business, things might be okay at first, but then you’ll realize you get what you settle for. You can get an MCA or a short-term online loan, but those repayment terms can trap you in a debt cycle. Soon your business is going to be trapped between a rock and a hard place. Don’t settle when it comes to your financing. There are fast funding options that can be tailored to your specific needs. Eagle’s factoring services are completely custom financing plans for each client, and we can do this very quickly due to the decades of experience on our team.
You’ll Be Glad You Came…
About a year after our mountain drive, I heard they put up several signs warning of sharp turns in the road. I don’t intend to drive that road again, but it’s nice to know it is less stressful for the next mountaineer. If you’re seeing warning signs in your business, you can handle the turn with ease. You can take some stress off your shoulders when you improve your cash flow through invoice factoring. It’s not the end of the road. We understand the winding roads ahead. With our expertise in credit management, we can give you a warning sign of one of those sharp turns your business may be driving up on. You will be glad you signed up with Eagle when suddenly you have: cash on hand to cover your expenses, better protection against customer non-payment, and direct access to our team of advisers that know your situation and can help.