Situation: A company has a significant monthly payroll, and business is growing. Accounts payable collections are 90-120 days. Their challenge is to finance the gap. They have tried, but can’t get their bank to provide financing. An SBA loan will help. How do you manage cash flow gaps?

Advice from the CEOs:

• Look for private non-bank financing.
  • Your AR is safe, low risk, and from reputable companies.
  • Non-bank financing offers better rates than banks, with access to cash from the lender on reasonable notice.
• Investigate Lendingclub.com. They offer business loans up to $300K at 5.9%. Lendingclub.com operates by spreading the risk over thousands of investors.
• Talk to lots of banks – not just those with whom who’ve worked in the past. Given your cash flow needs and good credit history, if you offer to shift all of your business to another bank you may get a more positive response. Once you have talked to other banks, let your current bank know your plans. They may become more responsive.
• Change your service policy so that you give your best service to customers who pay you fastest. Once the purchasers at companies with whom you work learn about this, they will pressure their AP people to speed their payments to you.
• Put more focus more on services which pay up front.
• Going forward switch as much business as possible to ACH payments.
• Offer customers early pay discounts – 1% net 10 or ½ of the Lendingclub.com rate to your biggest clients.
• Befriend lower level employees in client companies. Particularly those with whom you have regular business contact.
  • They can tell you how to get to the top of the AP pile.
  • Let them teach you their company’s practices.
• Plan finances going forward so that you can finance the gap yourself.

Category: Finance, Operations

Key Words: Payroll, Financing, Accounts, Payable, Bank, Lendingclub, Non-Bank, Service, ACH, Payment, Early, Pay, Discount

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