Do you find the financing process frustrating? It takes too long, you’re asked for things repeatedly and there is a non-stop stream of questions. It’s a process that can create stress and anxiety. What you need is the capital when you need it. You know what to do to win a customer’s business. Build relationships, […]
With the season of love at hand, there sure hasn’t been a lot of love between banks and businesses this past year. There has been an alarmingly high divorce rate between business owners and their banks. This is a relationship where one partner (i.e. the bank) has the full force of a team of dedicated […]
As a business owner at some point you will be faced with the decision to either take on more debt or restructure the debt in place. Your sales might be growing or slowing but either way there exists an opportunity (perhaps need) to use debt to shore up your cash flow. Whether you choose to […]
Having over 20 years’ experience arranging financing for industrial based SME’s (i.e. small & medium sized businesses), I am reminded yet again of how diversification is so important in all things business including debt. Downside to Asset Based Financing from the Banks Getting asset based financing from the bank at low interest rates may seem […]
The fact some people dedicate their life to working on a new product or idea or strive to improve existing ones is crucial to our quality of life, prosperity and even peace as a nation. These people are the inventors, entrepreneurs and business leaders all around us. Sound like a stretch? Consider the following simple examples before discouraging your kids or […]
Strong communication skills are needed to manage in any economic cycle but when the situation gets tough it can be far tougher to communicate with stakeholders. For many business people, that call to a lender letting them know a payment will be late or go NSF is one that goes way back on the to-do […]
I want to write about my direct experience arranging financing for small business for over two decades and how access to capital differed from one bear market to the next – with a focus on comparing ‘The Great Recession’ of 2009 with the low shaky Oil market today. Let’s start with a few common elements: Oil went from over $100 […]
Content mainly intended for those in the Oil & Gas and related sectors. Your work has been decreased, rates are down but the business cost structure (even after some adjustments) is still heavy. You have been holding your payables as much as possible to keep payroll and equipment payments up to date (can’t have a business […]
We are seeing it again – companies whose revenues have dropped because of the Oil & Gas sector are learning painful lessons about having most or all of their financial eggs in the bank basket. I am not a bank basher, and at Patron West we work with them frequently, however banks were never meant […]