The holiday season is a turbulent time for all kinds of businesses, and if you’re not prepared for it, it’ll inevitably result in some cash flow problems. Fifo Capital is here to make sure you can tackle these challenges, and fully take advantage of the opportunities that the season has to offer.
Many businesses rely on the holiday season for a large portion of their annual income. That could be because they’re specifically designed to be seasonal, or just because their goods happen to be in higher demand during the holidays than throughout the rest of the year. Other businesses, often B2B services, experience serious slowdowns because of the approaching end of their fiscal year, people taking vacations, changes in demand, and other complications.
Smaller businesses often feel this strain more than larger businesses, because they’re more likely to operate on a tight budget that’s less tolerant to significant changes in revenue from month to month. Let’s take a look at a few ways that Fifo Capital can help those businesses with cashflow solutions that can address their particular issues.
Hiring seasonal help
Whether your products make great gifts, or people just enjoy your services more during the winter, many businesses need to bring on additional help to accommodate increased holiday demand. Unfortunately, that help isn’t going to pay off in advance. You’ll need to hire and train those workers, and put them to work for a while before you can get a return on the investment. Not everyone has enough cash lying around to simply pay a few extra paycheques.
For a small business, missing out on that kind of opportunity is not an option. That’s why we offer small business loans starting as low as just $5000, allowing you to borrow as little as you need to cover your expenses without long applications and wait times. Instead, the turnaround on your application is just 24 hours, so you can get back to doing business.
Stocking up for the holiday rush
If you know that your products are going to sell like hotcakes, and need to stock up for the holidays, you might need some extra help getting ready. Purchasing and shipping a large amount of goods when your current inventory is still on the shelves can break your budget, but Fifo has got you covered.
To bulk up your inventory ahead of time, you can take out a stock loan, which you can use to cover some or all of your purchasing and shipping costs. Unlike other secured loans, you don’t need to provide your own collateral, since your loan will be secured against the stock itself. Since the term of the loan is up to 3-months, you’ll have plenty of time to prepare ahead of time, and then pay off the loan after the holidays.
Business slowdowns and extra holiday costs
Christmas lights don’t always signal busy times. For many small business owners, the holidays are can mean a major slowdown in customer demand. Customers won’t be focused on buying marketing services for their business, repainting their garage, or joining a gym. Unfortunately, less demand doesn’t mean that the costs stop coming, and you’ll additionally need to cover paid public holidays and potentially, holiday bonuses for workers. Depending on how well financially prepared you are ahead of time, you might need extra funds to ensure that you can get through the year smoothly.
It can be difficult to predict with enough certainty that you’ll have the funds you need. This is why you may want to talk to a representative about finance options that don’t cost anything ahead of time. For example, a business line of credit or a standby facility would both allow you to access financing that would cost little or nothing until you actually draw on it.
Holiday client issues
Many businesses have plenty of work during the holidays, but simply can’t get paid for it. Possibly the most stressful and common problem with doing business during the holidays is dealing with disengaged clients. Not only can it be difficult to get new projects started, but clients often won’t respond to emails and calls, and will fall behind on payments because they’re distracted by their own seasonal finance problems, holiday plans, or travel. While it isn’t difficult to understand why this happens, it can put immense stress on your finances.
Fortunately, this is actually a relatively simple issue to resolve. Simply use Fifo Capital’s invoice financing to get paid right when you issue an invoice. We’ll pay you up front, and recover the payment from the client when it comes due. For repeated payments, Fifo also offers financed payment plans. These similarly allow you to receive payment up front, while we handle the payments from the client as they come in.
The holiday season doesn’t have to be a stressful financial roller coaster, whether it’s about seizing an annual growth opportunity, or just making it through to next year. Give us a call today and we’ll work with you to figure out the best holiday cashflow solutions for your specific situation.
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