The good news is that since the Great Recession of 2009, bank financing has become more available. The bad news is that the requirements are still pretty tough — particularly if you’re a small business.
If you want a loan from a traditional bank, the money’s there at reasonable interest rates — but you’ll more than likely need to produce solid collateral, reliable historical financial statements, personal guarantees, and a strong assurance that you can meet debt maintenance and other financial covenants. Still, the money’s there if you can qualify.
There’s also capital available at community and independent banks, which have increased in popularity and offer a good alternative to the giants. But don’t get too excited — these are still banks, and their requirements are not so different from the major institutions.
If you run a store or restaurant, then it may interest you that retail payment services like Square and PayPal offer their merchants cash advances based on their sales. Even some retailers — like Sam’s Club and Staples — have gotten into the small business lending game and offer loans to their members.
Then there’s another alternative: online lenders.
Led by companies that include StreetShares and Kabbage, the online banking industry has exploded over the past few years, and the reasons are pretty obvious. Many of these services loan amounts as low as $5,000 to companies with as little as $60,000 in revenues, and often provide the cash on the very same day. Wow, right? But, like all good things, there’s also a catch: According to this recent summary from financial blog NerdWallet, interest rates can range from 6% to 76.5% a year.
Wait…what? 76.5%…a year? Is that a misprint? Nope. It’s true and it’s legal. What insane business owners would do this? Oh, I know a few — and they’re not as insane as you think.
Here’s one example:
John owns two coffee shops in my home town (the guy’s real and so is his story, but I’ve changed his name for this article). Things were going well and about a year ago he had the opportunity to lease space at a new, prime location for a third store. There was a lot of competition for the space and the landlord required a heavy security deposit — first, last, and an additional month’s rent — paid in advance to secure it.
John knew that the location was a moneymaker so long as he could get it. Unfortunately, so did a few other competitive merchants. The landlord gave John just 24 hours to come up with the cash, but unfortunately he didn’t have it all. What to do? A traditional bank would’ve taken at least a few days to approve this funding, if not more. So he went to an online banking service and had the funds in his account that day.
This lender charged about 40% annual interest. Did John pay that? No. He only borrowed the money for a couple of weeks from the online lender until a more formalized long-term line of credit with his bank could be established and then he paid off the online lender. Sure, he paid a steep interest rate for that period of time, but not for the entire year. In return, he was able to put the money down on the property and secure a prime downtown location.
He’s still there today. I recommend the mocha cappuccino.
Sometimes I meet business owners who shy away from online lenders or even from taking advances from their credit cards because they’re spooked by the high interest rates. They should be. Their concerns are reasonable.
But those interest rates are only insanely high if you maintain that debt for a long period of time. Don’t do that. But do consider these sources of financing if you need the cash right away and your intention is to pay it back within…say 30 days. Yes, you’ll pay a premium for the money. But at least you’ll have the money.
And if, like John, you can still realize a profitable return on investment — even when factoring in the higher financing costs — then you’ve made the case. Sure, 76% interest is super-high. But the cost of losing out on a long-term moneymaking opportunity is much, much higher.
Would you consider taking out a short-term, high interest loan for your small business?
View Comments (19)
Although this article doesn't mention the term, this sounds like a Merchant Receivables Purchase and
Security Agreement. Basically what that means is the company is "selling" its receivables to the "lender". The "lender" advances the funds to you and you pay back, usually daily via pre-authorized ACH debits from your business bank account. The amount that your business pays back is calculated using a "factor", determined by the "lender", of typically 1.20 to 1.49. To illustrate, let's say you "borrow" $100,000 and your factor is 1.30. That means you would pay back $130,000 ($100,000 x 1.30 factor). That $130,000 would be paid back daily over a period of time, usually 45 to 180 days. These "lenders" cannot withdraw funds from your business bank account on the weekends so the 45 day payback period is actually about 33 days (just look at a calendar and count the business days (exclude Saturdays and Sundays) over a 45 day period or about 128 business days over a 180 day calendar period. So the $100,000 "loan" with the $130,000 payback can be paid back from $3,939/day ($130,000 divided by 33 business days) to $1,015.63/day ($130,000 divided by 128 days). You should only do this is you absolutely positively know that your receivables will cover the "loan" payments and also provide you with enough capital to cover your business' other operating costs. Never sell your receivables unless you are absolutely sure you can repay this type of "loan". If you are a construction company waiting for a huge progress payment but are short on cash then it makes sense to do this but beware. Most of these "lenders" operate out of New York where the banking laws are the loosest. These "lenders" don't have to comply with usury (excessive interest) laws because they market these types of financial arrangements as a purchase of your receivables instead of calling it a "loan". One of the requirements of these "lenders" is that the business owner signs a Confession of Judgment. In other words, the business owner personally guarantees the "debt". If your bank account does not have sufficient funds to cover the "lender's" daily ACH debits, then these "lenders" infiltrate every aspect of the owner's life -- not only the company bank accounts, but the owner's personal bank accounts and quite possibly his family's. What they do first is freeze the funds in the owner's personal accounts. So, not only does the business not have money, the owner does not either. I understand the high interest rate associated with these "loans". It is Economics 101. The greater the risk, the higher the interest rate. However, these "lenders" nail you with a high interest rate AND then file the confession of judgment if and when they don't get their repayment. I know there will be a ton of responses to this post from the YoBo's in New York trying to rationalize what they do. Once you talk to one of these YoBo companies, then you get a flood of phone calls from similar companies. It is like the mortgage business of about 15 years ago where there were many brokers selling the banks' products. In this case, the YoBo companies are brokers selling you the merchant advance or "lender's" products. You can get denied and still receive many phone calls from brokers looking to lure you in. They will call you and lie to you stating that they received an application from you. But the reality is that your name and business name get bounced around to see which broker can satisfy your need for cash -- just like it was in the mortgage business where brokers were the creative ones that found a way to fund your mortgage. The moral of the story is don't get one of the merchant receivables purchase security agreements unless you (to quote the Munchkinland Coroner in The Wizard of Oz movie) "absolutely positively undeniably and reliably" know that you can repay.
Thank you for the comment, Stephen!
My partner and I decided to purchase property in British Columbia to expand our business. Everything was going smoothly with the Canadian Bank (CIBC) until we traveled to Puerto Rico for a ten-day business trip, at which time CIBC decided to change to 20% down-payment requirement to 35%. This was particularly stressful because, according to banks, PR is considered a "foreign" country. We were limited in our access to...well, everything.
We were shocked, and really dismayed...the property was absolutely ideal for us. We emailed an immediate refusal, saying we simply didn't have to ready cash, and for about 15 minutes we sat in a state of depression. But then the mortgage broker emailed, asking, "Isn't there any place you can get the funds?" Then I got a weird shot of adrenaline, and thought, "Let's see, dammit!"
Forty-five minutes later we had confirmation of two loans, one through USAA (I'm a long-term member for 30+ years) for $40,000, and one through Kabbage for $27,000. We were still short by another $40,000, so we emptied our business checking account and also...you guessed it...borrowed money from my MOM!
The interest rates were crazy high, but after the dust cleared and we paid Kabbage off, we borrowed from Kabbage again to pay off my mom. She got her $25,000 back in one month. Now we are repaying back both loans, and have a fantastic commercial property in Squamish, BC.
Wouldn't do it any differently!
The problem is that far more aspiring entrepreneurs think they have a golden opportunity than in fact do. If the opportunity fails to materialize, the debt cannot be repaid and a hardship ensues. Borrowing for expansion is one thing, borrowing risk capital is another.
The lenders we have dealt with all have had an early pay-off penalty so you have to pay the same amount of in interest regardless of when you pay it back. The don't even use the words "loan" and "interest" so they can circumvent lending laws. They "purchase" a percentage or fixed amount of your daily credit card revenue for a fee, usually about 1/3 of the amount they give you. Then they just take their payments out of your bank account every day. We have done this a couple of times out of desperation, but I don't recommend it.
I have been in business for 35 years and occasionally use other people's money for different things. I have looked at many options and most of these companies charging these high interest rates are insane.
Also many companies charge an origination fee for this very reason. They do not want to lend money for a very short term even at a high interest rate, just to have it paid off in a month or two and make very little. So they charge the upfront fees to get there money immediately. Be aware of this as you are looking around.
There has to be a better option for people that do not want to give their first born to the bank to secure some funding or to pay loan shark rates to a company that will break you. Somewhere in the middle where there is a reasonable rate for a reasonable term with reasonable fees up front. Does anybody know of such a place?
Interesting to read the responses of people. The fact is the fee that most people pay on traditional loans is much higher than the interest rate quoted. I also think you missed the point about opportunity costs. I costs more money in lost opportunity than it does to pay the high fees. Here is a conservative view of the situation.
I have a traditional Line of Credit I can call on at a moments notice it Costs me $150 / year just to have it on stand by for up to $50,000. It also cost me some fees to set it up, but we will leave those out of the equation for now.
If I borrow $10,000 use it for 30 days to fund securing a premium location -- I am paying 8% plus the $150 -- which works out to $217 total for 30 days. If my math is right that is about 2.17% a month or annualized it is 26%. -- so essentially if I don't borrow any other money that year I paid a rate of 26% -- higher if you add in the setup costs.
Why would I do that? As a business owner I recognize I don't pay interest rates, I pay cash to settle debts. If my projection is that the location is going to realize me a better return -- it is worth it almost at any price to secure the location. Say i decide it is going to net return conservatively a $100 / month more for the next 5 years than any another available location -- my added return is $6,000 on a $217 investment -- if you look at rates that is a 350% a year return on the $217 -- you can see that even if I doubled that cost to $450 the return is still significant on a modest increase in the return. Since in retail / particularly coffee shops -- locations is the highest differentiation between success and failure -- I would be insane not to give my business every chance to succeed.
In the question about cash flow -- the issue in the story was immediate need. I plan where every dollar is coming from and going over a period of time. Sometimes there are opportunities or requirements you don't expect. If you are holding cash in reserve -- and it is not working for you then it is costing you money. You can't always bring it together immediately. There are lots of times where I need $50,000 for payroll one day and get paid $100,000 the next day. The next day isn't when I need it. So it costs me money for one day to borrow $50,000 -- cash is always moving in a business -- you should not be overly concerned with rates when you need money short term.
Thank you for your response, Tom.
It is interesting that so many people fault the guy for his action, even though it did work out for him. Sure, everyone should have 6 month to a year of personal cash or liquidity as a safety net. Do you, not many do. Some for stupid reasons and some because they are risk takers and producers. I imagine if you look at many of these ultra successful start ups, you'll find that many were where this guy was at some point in the game. If it weren't for these risk takers, our world in the US would look much different. As to the legality, I cannot say. My thoughts were that Usury laws were for the public consumer and not necessarily for businesses. Loansharking works because people cannot get money through legal way, not because of the interest rates, the "juice" as it were. For those people there is no other choice, and most of them are in that shape because of their own bad decisions, not to expand a going business. And, the banks that are referenced here will take your business if you don't pay, not your limbs or life. It would be interesting to see something on the legality of these type loans.
Who is paying you to post this? The normalizing of what in the past would have been criminal interest rates should not be justified. This article gives really bad advise. If you are not prepared to be in business at the get go you will not be ready for the unexpected that comes next. Loan sharks charge less. This article should instead be warning small business owners of dangers of these predatory loans.
Thank you for your feedback, Dane.
Don't have this problem.
If I need money I collect from customer's
We have lots of open account to regular customer and over 7 digits out there one week is more than enough time.