Never enough money: How many times have you said that. You need capital to get sales, buy inventory, pay your employees, purchase assets, pay taxes, you name it you need money for it. Your need for capital is a continuing one. To just stay in business or to expand, the small business owner needs capital, but where do you get it?

In order to secure the capital they need, small business owners must understand the various sources of money that are available to them such as the following:

• Capital generated internally.
• Capital available from trade creditors.
• Borrowed money.
• Sale of an ownership interest in the business to equity investors.

Each of these capital sources has unique characteristics. These characteristics must be fully understood by the small business owner so that he or she will know what sources are available and which source is best suited to the needs of the business.

This section has been designed to help the small business owner in the following ways:

There are many factors that can create a need for additional capital. Some of the more common are as follows:

• Sales growth requires inventories to be built to support the higher sales level.
• Sales growth creates a larger volume of accounts receivable
• Growth requires the business to carry larger cash balances in order to meet its current obligations to employees, trade creditors, and others.
• Expansion opportunities such as a decision to open a new branch, add a new product, or increase capacity.
• Cost savings opportunities such as equipment purchases that will lower production costs or reduce operating expenses.
• Opportunities to realize substantial savings by taking advantage of quantity discounts on purchases for inventory, or building inventories prior to a supplier's price increase
• Seasonal factors, where inventories must be built before the selling season begins and receivables may not be collected until 30 to 60 days after the selling season ends.
• Current repayment of obligations or debts may require more cash than is immediately available.
• Local or national economic conditions which cause sales and profit to decline temporarily.
• Economic difficulties of customers that can cause them to pay more slowly than expected.
• Failure to retain sufficient earnings in the business.
• Inattention to asset management may have allowed inventories or accounts receivable to get out of hand.

Combination

Capital needs can be classified as either short- or long-term. Short-term needs are generally those of less than one year. Long-term needs are those of more than one year.

Short-term Financing

Short-term financing is most common for assets that turn over quickly such as accounts receivable or inventories. Seasonal businesses that must build inventories in anticipation of selling requirements and will not collect receivables until after the selling season often need short-term financing for the interim. Contractors with substantial work-in-process inventories often need short-term financing until payment is received. Wholesalers and manufacturers with a major portion of their assets tied up in inventories and/or receivables also require short-term financing in anticipation of payments from customers.

Long-term Financing

For example, a business can generate capital internally by accelerating collection of receivables, disposing of surplus inventories, retaining profit in the business, or cutting costs.

Basically, there are three principal sources of internal capital. These are as follows:

• Increasing the amount of earnings kept in the business.
• Prudent asset management.
• Cost control.

Increased Earnings Retention

Many businesses are able to meet all of their capital needs through earnings retention. Each year, shareholders' dividends or partners' drawings are restricted so that the largest reasonable share of earnings is retained in the business to finance its growth.

As with other internal capital sources, earnings retention not only reduces any external capital requirement, but also affects the business' ability to secure external capital. Lenders are particularly concerned with the rate of earnings retention, since the ability to repay debt obligations normally depends upon the amount of cash generated through operations. If this cash is used excessively to pay dividends or to permit withdrawals by investors, the company's ability to meet its debt obligations will be threatened.

Asset Management

Many businesses have non-productive assets that can be liquidated (sold or collected) to provide capital for short-term needs. A vigorous campaign of collecting outstanding receivables, with particular emphasis on amounts long outstanding, can often produce significant amounts of capital. Similarly, inventories can be analyzed and those goods with relatively slow sales activity or with little hope for future fast movement can be liquidated. The liquidation can occur through sales to customers or through sales to wholesale outlets, as required.

Fixed assets can be sold to free cash immediately. For example, a company automobile might be sold and provide cash of $5,000 or $8,000. Owners and employees can be compensated on an actual mileage basis for use of their personal cars on company business. Or if an automobile is needed on a full-time basis, a lease can be arranged so that a vehicle will be available. Other assets such as loans made by the business to officers or employees, investments in non-related businesses, or prepaid expenses should be analyzed closely. If they are nonproductive, they can often be liquidated so that cash is available to meet the immediate needs of the business.

Any of the above steps can be taken to alleviate short-term cash shortages.

On a long-term basis, the business can minimize its external capital needs by establishing policies and procedures that will reduce the possibility of cash shortages caused by ineffective asset management. These policies could include the establishment of more rigorous credit standards, systematic review of outstanding receivables, periodic analysis of slow-moving inventories, and establishment of profitability criteria so that fixed asset investments are more closely controlled.

Cost Reduction

Careful analysis of costs, both before and after the fact, can improve profitability and therefore the amount of earnings available for retention. At the same time, cost control minimizes the need for cash to meet obligations to trade creditors and others.

Before the fact, a business can establish buying controls that require a written purchase order and competitive bids on all purchases above a specified amount. Decisions to hire extra personnel, lease additional space, or incur other additional costs can be reviewed closely before commitments are made.

A planned program of trade credit extensions can often help the business secure extra capital that it needs without recourse to lenders or equity investors. This is particularly true whenever the capital need is relatively small or short in duration.

A planned approach should involve the following:

Borrowing Term

The terms under which money is borrowed may vary widely. Short-term notes can be issued for periods as brief as 10 days to fill an immediate need. Long-term notes can be issued for a period of several years.

Payment Schedule

When the terms of a debt are negotiated, a payment schedule is established for both interest obligations and principal repayment.

Discounted Notes

Short-term borrowing usually requires repayment within 60 to 90 days. Notes are often renewed, in whole or in part, on the due date, provided that the borrower has lived up to the obligations of the original agreement and the business continues to be a favorable lending risk.

Availability

Commercial banks are the ordinary source of short-term loans for small businesses.

Credit Lines

When a business has established itself as being worthy of short-term credit, and the amount needed fluctuates from time to time, banks will often establish a line of credit with the business. The line of credit is the maximum amount that the business can borrow at any one time. The exact amount borrowed can vary according to the needs of the business but cannot exceed its established credit line.

Long-term debt is borrowing for a period greater than one year. This general classification includes "intermediate debt" which is borrowing for periods of one to 10 years.

Small Business Applications

For small businesses, borrowed capital for periods greater than 10 years is usually available only on real estate mortgages. Other long-term borrowing usually falls into the "intermediate" classification and is available for periods up to 10 years. Such loans are called "term loans."

Mortgage Payment Schedules

Principal and interest payments on mortgages usually involve uniform monthly payments that include both principal and interest.

Each successive monthly payment reduces the amount of principal outstanding. Therefore, the amount of interest owed decreases and the portion of the monthly payment applicable to principal increases. In the early years of a mortgage, the portion of the monthly payment applied against the principal is relatively small, but grows with each payment.

Term Loan Payment Schedules

For term loans, payment of principal and interest is ordinarily scheduled on an annual, semiannual, or quarterly basis.

Repayment Schedules

Loans may be secured or unsecured. In a secured loan, the borrower pledges certain assets as collateral (security) to protect the lender in case of default on the loan or failure of the business. If the business defaults on the loan through failure to meet interest obligations or principal repayments, the note-holder (lender) assumes ownership of the collateral. If the business fails, the note-holder claims ownership of those specific assets pledged as collateral before the claims of other creditors are settled.

Typical Collateral

Basically, accounts receivable financing falls into two categories as follows:

• Assignments. The business pledges, or "assigns," its receivables as collateral for a loan.
• Factoring. The borrower sells its accounts receivable to a lender ("factor").

Although these arrangements are not loans, in a pure sense, the effect is the same.

Receivables Assignments

When receivables are assigned, the amount of the loan varies according to the volume of receivables outstanding. Normally, the lender will advance some specified percentage of the outstanding accounts receivable up to a specific credit limit. For example, look at the schedule below. The company can borrow up to 80% of assigned receivables, up to a maximum of $100,000.

Accounts Receivable Amount Borrowed

100,000                                $80,000

125,000                                100,000

150,000                                100,000

On the first line, accounts receivable are $100,000 and the amount loaned is 80% of $100,000, or $80,000.

On the second line, outstanding receivables are $125,000. The amount loaned increases to $100,000 ($125,000 x 0.80).

On the third line, accounts receivable are $150,000. Eighty percent of this amount would be $120,000. However, this exceeds the established limit of $100,000. Therefore, borrowing is restricted to the $100,000 limit.

In many industries, accounts receivable financing is considered a sign of weakness. However, it is quite common in others. This is particularly true in the garment industry and in personal finance companies.

When customers must pay invoices directly to a factor, it may create doubts about the company's financial stability and, therefore, its ability to deliver.

When accounts receivable are assigned, the borrower is still responsible for collection. Upon collection of any receivable, the amount borrowed should be repaid. Interest is based upon the amount borrowed and the time between receipt of proceeds by the borrower and repayment.

Factoring Accounts Receivable

When accounts receivable are factored, they are sold to the factor and the borrower has no responsibility for collection. The borrower pays the factor a service charge based upon the amount of each receivable sold. In addition, the borrower pays interest for the period between the sale of the receivable and the date the customer pays the factor.

The secured creditor's risk is reduced by the claim against specific assets of the business. In default or liquidation, the secured creditor can take possession of these assets to recover any unpaid amounts due from the business.

Holders of unsecured notes do not enjoy the same protection. If the company defaults on a payment, the unsecured creditor under normal circumstances, can only re-negotiate the amount due, perhaps by seeking collateral, or force the company to liquidate. In liquidation, the holder of an unsecured note would normally have no rights that are superior to those of any other creditors.

Restriction on Business

Therefore, when accepting an unsecured note, the lender will often place certain restrictions on the business. A typical restriction might be to prevent the company from incurring any debt with a prior claim on the assets of the business in the event of default or failure. For example, a term note agreement might prevent a company from financing its receivables or inventories since this would result in a prior claim against the assets of the business in liquidation.

Such restrictions may have no effect on the business' ability to operate. However, in other cases, such restrictions could be severe. For example, a business may have a chance to sell to a major new customer. The new customer may insist upon 60-day credit terms which will require the business to seek additional external financing. Normally, this financing might be readily available on realistic terms from a factor. However, the restriction of the unsecured note could prevent the business from taking advantage of this significant opportunity for sales and profit improvement.

Personal Guarantees

The liability of a corporation's shareholders is generally limited to the assets of the business. Creditors have no normal claim against the personal assets of the stockholders if the business should fail. Therefore, many lenders, when issuing credit to small corporations, seek the added protection of a personal guarantee by the owner (or owners). This protects the creditors if the business fails, since they retain a claim against the personal assets of the owners to fulfill the debt obligation.

Interest Rates

The equity investor shares in the ownership of the business and is entitled to participate in any distribution of earnings through dividends, in the case of corporations, or drawings, in the case of partnerships.

The personal liability of equity investors for debts of the business depends upon the legal form of the organization. Basically, the investor who acquires equity in a partnership could be personally liable for debts of the business if the business should fail. In a corporation, the liability of equity investors (shareholders) is limited to the amount of their investment.

The purchaser of an equity interest in a business expects to be compensated for the investment in any of the three following ways:

• Income from earnings distribution of the business, either as dividends paid to corporate shareholders or as drawings in a partnership.
• Capital gain realized upon sale of the business.
• Capital gain realized from selling his or her interest to other partners.

Capital Gains

Capital gain is the term used to describe any excess of the selling price of an investment over the initial purchase price. For example, if you purchased an equity interest in a business for $5,000 and later sold it for $8,000, you would realize a capital gain of $3,000.

Earnings Distribution

The equity investor in a partnership is entitled to a share of all drawings paid out to partners at a percentage established when the interest was purchased. For example, assume an investor acquired a 20% interest in a partnership. The distribution of earnings to all partners in a given year is $20,000. The holder of the 20% interest would receive $4,000.

The dividends received by the equity investor in a corporation depend upon the number of shares held. For example, if a corporation voted a dividend of $1.50 per share in a given year, the owner of 1,000 shares would receive a dividend of $1,500 (1,000 x $1.50).

Sale (or Liquidation) of Business

If a business is sold or liquidated, the equity investor shares in the distribution of the proceeds. As with an earnings distribution, the share of the proceeds in a corporation sale depends upon the number of shares held. In a partnership, each partner's share of the proceeds is based upon the percentages specified in the partnership agreement.

If the proceeds received by the equity investor exceed the original purchase price, this excess is considered a capital gain and taxed accordingly.

If the business were liquidated, the assets would be sold and the proceeds would first be used to discharge any outstanding obligations to creditors. The balance of the proceeds, after these obligations had been fulfilled, would be distributed to the equity investors in accordance with their share-holdings or percentages of interest.

Sale of Equity Interest

As a business prospers and grows, the value of an equity interest grows with it. Therefore, the equity investor may be able to sell his or her interest at a price higher than the initial acquisition cost.

For example, an equity investor in a corporation may have purchased his or her interest at $10.00 per share. As the business grows, he or she is able to sell the shares at $15.00 per share, realizing a capital gain of $5.00 on each share sold.

Capital Gains vs. Dividends

When businesses are first organized, equity capital is usually secured from a combination of sources such as the original owners' personal savings and through solicitations from friends, relatives, or other persons known to have financial capability for such investments.

As the need for equity capital becomes greater, say $200,000 to $1,000,000, it is customary to seek capital through the services of professional finders, who receive a fee for securing the capital needed. These finders normally have access to wealthy individuals, capital management companies, estates, trusts, and others with sufficient capital to make such an investment.

At higher levels of capital need, shares are sold through public offerings. The public offering seeks to attract a large number of investors to purchase stock, in large or small amounts. A market is then created for the stock. Shares purchased by the public, as well as the shares held by the original owners, and any subsequent equity investors can also be sold at the going market price. These transactions do not have a direct effect on the business' capital position since it does not receive the proceeds from the sale.

The equity investor assumes substantial risk. Unlike the secured creditor, the equity investor has no specific claim against any assets of the business. In liquidation, all claims of all creditors must be satisfied before any remaining assets become available for distribution to the owners. Even then, the equity investor's participation in the proceeds is restricted to a share that is proportionate to the number of shares held or the partnership interest.

Since the risks of equity investment are so substantial, particularly in the case of small businesses, equity investors expect a considerably higher return than the lender.

A lender might be willing to loan money to a business at an interest rate of 10% or 12% since it has certain legal protections in the event of default or liquidation. The investor of equity capital in the same business might seek

Those businesses that are alert to opportunities for internal capital generation will often find that this effort not only minimizes the need for external capital, but also opens the doors of the outside money market to them.

You have seen how the availability of trade credit can be utilized intelligently in order to maintain favorable supplier relations while taking full advantage of the credit that is available to you from this vital and convenient source.