Four Metrics to Monitor for Profit

To monitor your bottom line profit you need to put some fundamentals in place.  Once those foundational elements are implemented, you next need to create a monitoring schedule to check in on your profits.

Again, we’re not suggesting anything that is revolutionary in the world of running a business.  But we’re presenting these suggestions based on our real world conversations with business owners as we interview them to begin searching for credit financing solutions for their businesses.

In other words, as obvious as this advice might seem, we’ve encountered many business owners who don’t have these fundamentals in place for their business. If they do have these building blocks established, we discover their systems for implementing and monitoring are only one step removed from “back of the envelope” calculations.

We want you to do incredibly well with your business!  We’re presenting this obvious advice to help you organize these basics in a way that you can almost say to yourself, “Set it and forget it!” This leaves the system in place and removes so much anxiety and impatience from the day to day operations of your business so you can dig in to the two things that count most: loving what you do and building your business to even bigger scale!

The 4 fundamentals to measure profitability.

Timeline.  What is the sales/production cycle for your business?  Create a realistic expectation of when the cash hits your bottom line by reviewing your past three years performance.  Look at your previous cycles.  Calculate the turn times on when you delivered your product/service, and when you realized the cash injection to your bottom line.

Production Costs. While your production timeline might be, for example, three weeks, you must ask yourself if any production costs linger after the production cycle.  Are there delayed payroll expenses?  Are there residual expenses for cost of deliveries (freight costs, internet marketing costs, re-tooling expenses for next production run, Accounts payables to outside vendors necessary for the production cycle)?

Receivables.  Review your Accounts Receivables aging reports for the past three years. What is the true timeline when you receive better than 90% of the cash income from your receivables after you’ve sold your product or service?

Delays.  With each of the above three fundamental criteria, add a percentage variable to account for delays. What happens if there’s a slowdown in your ability to deliver your product/service? Add that into your calculation. Same for cost overruns that could lead to extended time periods of production costs

(What if your current freight delivery provider can’t manage the extra volume of a large order and you need to bring in another provider? What if you needed to add three more freelancers to complete video/content/production or implement design elements?) 

Same with your receivables. Assume the worst for your slower paying receivables and add delayed payments to your calculations.

Time To Check Your Profits.

Once you implement the above four fundamental monitoring elements, now create a schedule to check in on your profits.  Get it in your calendar!  Lock the door!  Give yourself (and your management team) time to focus solely on this aspect of your business.  No interruptions, and answer the question: where do we stand with profit?  If you’re profitable, what’s your bottom line number and does that match your expectations from your Business Plan?

Throw in the additional calculation: margin. Compare profit to expense. On a per product/service delivery price, what is the exact percentage in your profit column?

In the final analysis, literally, you’ll have a clear understanding of your profit.  When you comprehend in clear terms how you derive profit for your business you can then think about how to improve profit.  You may find yourself discovering new opportunities for profit centers and thus new products/services.

You may be pleasantly surprised that you’re more profitable than you thought you were.  Then you can decide what to do with that extra income, to plow it back into the business, to create cash reserves, maybe make bonus payouts to ownership, make charitable contributions, or take a vacation!

Again, what we’ve found is that many business owners lack a clear picture of their profitability in terms of hard numbers, metrics that you can see on your computer screen.

These fundamental systems may seem daunting in terms of the investment of time and money to implement, but, like any other feature of your business, once you’ve put them in place, not only will they help you with clarity of your profitability, but you’ll only need to tweak these existing systems in years to come as you grow your business by leaps and bounds!

We Anticipate Problems to Create Solutions

Our Process Anticipates Problems, Creates Solutions

The good news is that Banks are lending again on a limited basis for non-disaster loan requests.  The bad news is that the loan products are limited and the underwriting guidelines are very, very restrictive.

Many industries/businesses are excluded from loan programs.  Banks simply cannot determine yet the viability of the businesses to survive the pandemic. Risk is too high and thus doors to the lending vault are tightly shut.

Today we spoke to a Bank on four different loan scenarios. Each of these businesses has challenges on their loan applications of different sorts, whether it’s credit, cashflow, type of business, COVID-19 impact on the ability of the business to earn income.

In the hour-long conference call with the Bank, thanks to our qualification process here at Aurora Consulting, we easily addressed the Bank’s concerns and answered their (often) difficult questions as they assessed the risk on each loan scenario. In three out of the four scenarios, we received positive feedback of interest from the Bank. While this interest does not guarantee a loan approval, this, in our experience is a giant hurdle we overcame. 

The rest of it is the loan process.

We also spoke today with a prospective new client in a follow up to our initial call last week.  This client seeks over $4Million in funding for a unique business, a business for which many Banks and Lenders do not provide funding due to their lack of understanding of how this business operates.

We had already identified a Lender for this financing request.

In our follow up call today, the prospective client indicated they would soon make a final decision on moving forward with Aurora Consulting to secure the financing. They also indicated they were working on their credit.

STOP. RIGHT. THERE….BEFORE we go any further. (Meatloaf medley playing).

A client should not “work on their credit” without proper guidance. Luckily, we provide that kind of guidance here at Aurora Consulting. While we don’t believe in credit repair/restoration, we do have decades of expertise with credit and we also know the appetite of commercial lenders when it comes to credit. Note: We have not yet seen this person’s credit.

Our process at Aurora Consulting includes running a credit report as soon as we sign a consulting agreement with a new client. We do this so that we can anticipate any issues that could slow down or prohibit the lending process. We do this upfront so that we can provide advice that leads to a positive result for our clients.

The same holds true for our entire process. We review all financial statements, business plans, marketing plans and any other pertinent items in the early days of working with a new client.  

We do this to anticipate and resolve problems a Bank or Lender may have in the future.

When you apply directly to a Bank/Lender for commercial financing, these items, credit reports, financial statements and the like, are not seriously reviewed until the very late stages of the loan application process. By then the applicant has spent time collecting and submitting documents and spent money on application fees, appraisal fees and other associated costs.

Literally most Banks/Lenders do not run a credit report until the very final stage of the application process, weeks or months after the initial application. At that point, if a credit issue arises on the credit report, all those weeks and months of work are quite literally flushed down the toilet and the loan is declined.

Our role as your financing Broker is to review all relevant documents, including a credit report, in the early stages of your request, before the application, before we’ve even considered conversing, in depth, with a Bank/Lender.

That’s why today, we hit the mark with 3 out 4 of our loan scenarios getting the green light from a Bank to move forward to the application process.  

We were prepared for every question and concern the Bank had because we’d reviewed credit and documents. We anticipated problems in advance and could converse honestly with the Bank on possible workarounds for those problems.

It’s what we do, because we are the business-owner’s advocate. We work for the business-owner. We would be remiss if we didn’t share with you that banks call us when they can’t underwrite the loan. So we understand their process.

Ask us any questions when it comes to business loans. If you want your business to survive, and THRIVE despite the worst crisis we’ve seen in our lifetime, please call us with your questions.

Email Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz

The Dreadful Disorganized Document Disaster

Our resident Chief Financing Rock Star, Trevor Curran, was a Mortgage Banker for 30 years. His specialty was helping first time homebuyers with low down payments to achieve the American Dream of Home Ownership. From the early days, with no computers, no internet, no email nor a beeper on his belt—until the day of his retirement in 2018, a mortgage loan application was all about the paper. Documents to support the application needed to be submitted, reviewed, dissected, parsed, and collated. Trevor’s clients submitted their documents in many and varied ways, including coffee-stained tax returns, crumpled paystubs pulled out of an old wallet, and badly-scanned PDFs. Considerable time was spent by Trevor and his loan processing team to put these documents into a manner acceptable for review by an Underwriter. And of course there was the pushback from clients. “Why do you need that (document)?” “I can’t find my tax return.” “The dog ate my homework.” Oh, wait, wrong story. Trevor’s response, time and time again, including in the early days when he would literally drive to the clients’ home, workplace, a McDonald’s parking lot, or the real estate office, to pickup their required documents, was, “We need these documents because the bank requires it since you’re asking the bank to lend you several hundred thousand dollars.” This obvious message was delivered in a kind and patient but firm manner. Still, it always seemed incredible, time and time again, how people could be so cavalier about their loan application requirements. “Don’t they want the house?” he would often ponder in the moments of extreme frustration. Now, as the primary processor for Aurora Consulting, Trevor’s manages the document flow and the loan applications for our business clients. When we launched this business we remember discussing how this document issue is going to be so much better because we’re dealing with serious business people. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. Especially over the past eight weeks as we have assisted over 30 businesses to apply for and receive Government Disaster Relief financing, the poor quality of document management is mind-blowing. Especially at a time like this, when the desperation of keeping a business alive requires this emergency infusion of cash. You’d think business owners and their representatives (CPA’s, mostly) would be sharper than ever to get documents submitted in an organized and prompt fashion. Again, mistaken. Moral of the story for anyone thinking they want to ask a Bank or Lender for money—whether you’re buying a house or financing a business—it’s all about the paper. Organize your documents, submit them in a clean, efficient manner, and submit them promptly. Rant over. Send us a message with how you’ve successfully managed your team to understand your high level of standard when it comes to managing your documents.

Download our Documents checklist

Quick Access to Working Capital

If you are aware of factor financing, you may know that you can leverage your Accounts Receivables with a Factoring Lender to get quick access to working capital. However, you may be concerned what your Customers will think when they have to send their payments to a different address.

  • Lending aspect aside, it is not unusual for Businesses to create a different location to receive payments on Invoices, whether a physical location or an electronic ACH location.
  • The Factoring Lender works hand in hand with you to ease the transition for payment destination on your Invoices.
  • Many of your Customers are already sending their Invoice payments for other B2B purchases to Factor Lenders whether they know it or not.
  • Factor Lending, while a niche financing solution, has been utilized by businesses in need of quick capital for 30 years.
  • Businesses frequently leverage Assets, Property, Income and other collateral to obtain working capital whether it’s a traditional Bank loan or other financing solution; leveraging your Invoices is no different.
  • The fact your business is borrowing money demonstrates strength, not weakness.  You’re demonstrating your faith in your business by borrowing money to continue to grow your business.

Factor Financing is an affordable, fast, financing solution to help you leverage important aspects of your business–in this case your Accounts Receivable–to obtain the working capital you need.  It’s easier to qualify for Factor Financing than traditional Bank Loans, especially during the pandemic paradigm when Banks are making loans difficult to obtain.

Factor Financing Qualifying Criteria:

  • You must sell your Product/Service B2B
  • Your Customers must pass muster for basic creditworthiness on their ability to pay Invoices
  • Non-Progressive Billing
  • Startups Acceptable
  • Consistent Accounts Receivable practice

Let us ease your worry about what your customers will think. Learn more to see how this could be a solution to keep your business going during this pandemic. Email us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz.

Plan Prepare Prosper with a Business Plan

There are business owners that are still focused on how they can conduct business today based on the old normal. We’re here to say that you might as well flush that notion down the toilet. It’s a sad reality indeed. We’re not saying that a business cannot be prosperous in today’s climate. No! We are merely saying that there are conditions that must be considered on how you can market your business. We need to reconcile in our minds that this is a “new normal” paradigm.

It’s an apocalypse of sorts. The old normal isn’t coming back anytime soon, if at all.

In our experience as financing brokers we discovered that with the more than two dozen businesses we spoke to ranging in revenue from $60,000 a year to $6,000,000 a year, not one of them had a written business plan. And that was during normal times! It’s a bit crazy that people run their business without a written business plan. It is an essential document for your business. It’s a working, living, breathing document of your business.

And here we are now during the pandemic paradigm.

Now more than ever you need a business plan if you plan to go back to business or keep your business alive. A business plan is a written guide book, that not only helps you to survive this crisis, but also prepares you for new, unexpected challenges as they arise. Those challenges are coming! And those challenges are unknown! The consequences of those challenges are uncertain.

Too many business owners have seen how, in this pandemic environment, a sudden challenge can arise in an hour, a day, a week, a month. And they’re not prepared to deal with that challenge. Even if they had a business plan that they created during normal times, that business plan is mostly useless if not completely useless under this new paradigm, under this new normal.

We are promoting the idea that you need to create a written business plan right now that helps you to survive and helps you to face every unknown challenge that could come your way.

Contact us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz to discuss how you can plan, prepare and prospect during this pandemic.

Cobble-Together Business Loan Strategies

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When Linda Rey was building her Independent Insurance Agency, she had a mantra that goes back 20 years ago. We think it still applies: “There’s no immediate gratification in a long term Strategy.“

Different Solutions Cobbled Together.

When confronted with challenging circumstances for our clients to find a business loan, one of the creative solutions we lean towards is to bring together different financing solutions. What do we mean?

We cobble together financing solutions to come up with a higher number. 

Maybe that number meets their original request, or maybe it only comes close, but maybe it gives the client sufficient capital to get started on a short term, “cobbled together” solution for our longer term financing strategy. 

Our thinking is that it is better to start somewhere. Follow the yellow brick road.

What it is about us that allows us to cobble financing solutions together? No, we’re not talking about shoe repair! We’re Brokers and we work for the client, not the bank. That’s first and foremost.

Secondly, as a Broker, we have access to multiple products with different lenders.

An important consideration we’re mindful of when cobbling together the financing is to be mindful of the client’s longer term horizon. Depending on what’s on that horizon, there may be risks and challenges with certain types of short term solutions today, especially with something like seasoning.

When we talk about seasoning with cobbled-together-financing, we mean if you have a short term solution today that gets you over the hump and gets you started with your financing strategy, that short term solution may have to be seasoned for at least a year and showing on tax returns and other financial documents if you want to come in with a certain type of financing product on the other end of it. 

So this is an important consideration because what solution we find today could affect your ability to access other finance products tomorrow.

We’ve discussed previously about how you should be preparing your financials with the thinking ahead of time that you may be securing financing. We think of ourselves as brokers but with a very long-term focus for our clients because we love business success stories.

Sometimes you have think short-term to achieve long-term goals. ~ Linda Rey

For example, we have a client who just purchased a commercial property recently with our assistance and our advice based upon cobbling together a short term solution on a long-term strategy. 

This client did not have sufficient down payment to qualify for a commercial mortgage to purchase the commercial property. We referred that client to a colleague of ours who does residential mortgages. That colleague refinanced the client’s house and the client paid cash for the commercial property. Now we’re working on a smaller financing package to provide some working capital to decorate the new office space and do some much needed improvements and renovations on the property including a new roof. This is a good example of a successful cobble-together-financing solution.

In the longer-term, we’re going to to find a way to finance their commercial property to take out the short-term financing, and return the client’s primary residence back to a zero mortgage replacing everything with financing on the commercial property because tax wise, it’s a smarter move for the client’s business.

When you think something isn’t possible, call us or email us and make sure because you don’t want to wait too long for something that can be done RIGHT NOW.

Email us at Solutions@AuroraConsulting.biz.

5 Mistakes Business Owners Make

Let’s get it out of the way right now. We say 5 mistakes, but there are more. Don’t shoot the messenger. Part of the reason we post our blogs & vlogs is to raise awareness that financing doesn’t have to be as difficult. Don’t get us wrong, it can be a long process, but you have more control than you think.

These are the top 5 mistakes we’ve experienced with business owners when they are seeking financing.

1. Thinking the Bank knows everything about you.  You have all, or most, of your accounts with your local bank, including your operating account, savings, personal account, maybe even merchant services & payroll. It’s easier to bank in one place.  You think the bank maintains a detailed file on your financials, that they know how much revenue passes through your accounts every month.  This would be an incorrect assumption. The bank will still ask you for your full set of financial statements and much, much more.

2. Old Financials.  A business plan that’s five years old won’t fly. If you’re updating your Accounts Receivable aging report or your Profit and Loss statement on an infrequent basis, you will have some work to do and this most certainly will delay the process. You control the timeline when you apply for credit financing. Having updated documents at the ready lets you submit them with all speed and alacrity to move your financing request along.

3. Incomplete Financials.  No business plan? Many businesses don’t have one whether it’s a new business or an existing business. There are many, MANY financial forms that a lender will require. It will be your responsibility to provide complete, comprehensive information that many businesses, unfortunately, do not have easily accessible. Lender’s will have a debt schedule form and if this is inaccurate, it will slow down the process and delay your approval.

4. Too Busy, Too Rushed, Too Overwhelmed…Too Late. Bad decision-making often arises from lack of time and a local preparation. However, it happens that then you’re faced with a sudden, unexpected need for working capital. This sounds like opportunity, but if you’ve not been minding the store in the meantime, you will be faced with a high probability that you could be without options or very few options if any at all.

Bad decision-making begets more bad decisions by way of choosing financing options that is super expensive and over priced such as Merchant Account Financing (Merchant Cash Advance – MCA), hard money, equity investors, refinancing a personal residence and/or hitting the credit cards. This leaves you vulnerable to a lack of income & profit taking away any joy in running your business. We bet that you didn’t get into business to be broke and stressed out.

5. Failure to Fight.  Your Banker wants to make the loan work for you, because they truly value your relationship with the Bank.  When you get bad news, don’t take it lying down.  Dig in with your Banker—in person whenever possible—and get to the solution-seeking.  What do you need to do to flip this decision from a negative to a positive?

We have seen good people who own good businesses make bad decisions. We are truly fortunate and grateful that we have forged many valuable relationships with Bankers & Lenders. They know that sometimes they can’t do the deal, but they value the relationship with their client. If the Bank doesn’t make a decision favorable to your business, that doesn’t mean you should make a subsequent bad decision.

The more proactive and prepared you are, the more options you will have.

It’s Not Your Bankers Fault

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If your credit score is low and your financing request isn’t approved,  it’s not the Banker’s fault when she delivers the bad news of a loan denial to you.

Your Banker wants to be your friend, your “go-to” financial resource to help you build your business.  But there are are areas out of the Banker’s control, not the least of which is your credit history and subsequent credit scores.

Certainly you should be aware of your credit score…with the caution that, as a consumer, you cannot access the true credit scores used in financial services-related decisions.  This score is otherwise known as the “FICO CLASSIC” and all the credit monitoring services in the world cannot provide you with access to this score.  Thus there can be wide variances between the scores you find online and the “true” score your Banker will pull when you apply for credit financing.  In our experience at Aurora Consulting, we’ve seen variances in either direction, positive and negative, as much as 100 points in the scores.

But if you have very low scores, chances are very good that you are aware of your credit history circumstances.  That is, scores less than 620, and certainly any scores that are in the 500’s.  Many consumers with scores at 620 and above, where they’re not hitting the high-700’s or even the 800’s, tend to believe they have “bad” credit. This is not always the case, and often that kind of score range, down to 620, will qualify for business credit financing.

But if you are fairly certain, even with the incorrect consumer-access scores, that you have credit circumstances that are pushing your scores down below 620, you need to be aware and to disclose that to your Banker.

And you should be specific with your Banker about those circumstances.  For example, “I’m currently delinquent on the mortgage on my other house,” or, “I have several small collection accounts from three years ago that I have not yet paid off.”  If you’re clear and honest with your Banker about your potential credit history, it helps to manage those expectations, both yours and hers, when presenting a financing request application.

At Aurora Consulting, our process with each client includes a credit report that we run at the very outset of our relationship with the client. Because we’re working on behalf of the client, we have a different perspective on the credit review process.  And we actually have successfully placed loans with credit scores in the 500’s.   The options in that range can be limited. But there are options.  And, like with your Banker, we find it very helpful when the client is clear with us upfront about concerns for their credit history and scores.

Finally, being aware of your credit status is important for you personally and professionally to be aware of how you are managing your money and your bill-paying as you grow your business. When the Banker denies a loan request due to low credit scores, the issue is the lack of awareness of this money-management, not the Bank’s lending protocols.

You can find out more about the “Myths Of Credit Repair” by downloading our free white paper.

WATCH OUR VIDEO HERE.