You might not think to refinance or consolidate a merchant cash advance (MCA), but it might just happen to you if you are carrying a balance from an advance and decide to take out another. If you are considering or will ever consider taking out a MCA, this article is a must read!

When dealing with non-traditional financing options, it’s really important to understand what you’re giving and what you’re getting. This is especially true when it comes to taking out a second advance or loan from some of these alternative finance options.

We’ve seen Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) and Cash Flow Loan providers follow 
a weird practice that results in deeply hidden fees charged to the business owner.
First we’ll talk about this practice with MCAs Like loans, with MCAs you get a set amount of cash up front, called the advance. But instead of getting charged an interest rate, you agree to pay back the advance amount plus a good chunk more, e.g....

Business credit scoring is based on how you pay your bills. If you pay the majority of reported accounts on time or early, you will have a good score. Most business owners have little to no credit reporting. So, even one negative account can have a BIG impact on their business credit score.

It is essential that you continuously build your business credit profile just as you do with your consumer credit. One of the best ways to battle negative information on your report is to offset it with LOTS of positive information. So continuously build your business credit profile just as you do with your consumer credit

You may be facing a choice between applying for an unsecured working capital loan or a conventional bank loan, and weighing the pros and cons. If so, then one of the key aspects you definitely want to analyze is collateral.

Why Banks Demand Collateral

As you may know, banks offset the risk of lending onto borrowers by demanding that they collateralize the loan with assets such as property, vehicles, equipment, securities and so on.

However, an extremely important point that some business owners aren’t aware of when they apply for a collateralized small business loan from their bank, is that they might not see eye-to-eye on certain aspects. Specifically, there are 3 common stumbling blocks that many business owners trip over -- and often through no fault of their own:

1. Disagreements on an asset value.

If you’ve ever shopped for a home, a used car (or even sometimes a new one!), or any other “big ticket” item, you’re aware that prices can vary; and...

One of the most shocking things that small and mid-sized business owners discover – as with talk with them on a daily basis – is that the bank business loan application process is excessively long. We’re talking several months here, not weeks.

What’s behind the massive delay? It’s that banks frankly don’t want to give business loans to small and mid-sized business owners. They want to focus on larger businesses with deep pockets, and of course, boosting commercial and residential mortgages, selling mutual funds and other investments, and promoting their beloved HELOCs. 

Of course, banks don’t want to come out and tell small and mid-sized business owners to take a hike. It’s not good public relations. And so they’ve made their business loan application process excessively, and in many cases prohibitively long. At the same time, they’ve dramatically hiked their business loan requirement criteria, and the due...