Finding the right time to grow and expand your business is vital for the success of your expansion. Knowing when to take the leap is sometimes a difficult decision to make. We have made a checklist to help you decide if you are ready to fund your expansion or update.
Do You Have A Plan?
A good sign of funding readiness is having a plan in place to spend the money! You should have a pretty good idea of what you’d like to do so that you know how much capital to ask for. Make sure your plan is realistic and will add value to your business’ bottom line. Be sure to budget a little bit of money for unexpected expenses that may come up as you are doing your refurbishments.
How Is Your Current Cash Flow?
Although this should be addressed in your business plan, it’s important to double check that your finances are in order before you plan to expand or renovate with borrowed capital. The most important question you can ask yourself is: Is your business currently profitable enough to comfortably take on the added expense of financing? This growth in outgoing funds may come in more ways than just a payment to your lender. You may see an increase in wages being paid out if you need to increase your staff or add hours to your business. You may also see an increase in your utility bills if you are expanding your space or adding electronics like televisions or new lighting to your establishment. If you can comfortably afford these added expenses to help your business grow then it may be the right time for funding.
Do You Have A Healthy Customer Base?
Is your restaurant frequently empty? Or do you have an incredibly high wait time when it comes to being able to seat guests? Unfortunately both of those are issues that need to be addressed, and can be easily fixed with the right lender. If business is slow, expanding your business might not be the right route for you. Funding may be better suited to be used for things like updating the inside of your business, updating the menu, and adding enticements to draw people in. If your business is frequently leaving guests waiting for a table, it is definitely time to expand your dining area or move to a larger location to be able to accommodate your customer volume. Having a healthy customer base is pivotal in being able to maintain and grow your business.
Will You Have An ROI?
Everyone has heard the phrase “You have to spend money to make money”. Well, a return on investment is one of the primary reason business owners seek funding. They want to make more money. If the use of your funding will clearly have a positive ROI then getting funded now is an obvious choice. If you are unsure about your ROI, use our ROI calculator to help you do the math.
If you make it through this checklist, and funding is right for your restaurant, we would love to help. We've worked with 10,000+ businesses and funded more than $300 million to help those businesses grow! Quikstone Capital has been in business for more than a decade and we’re in it for the long haul. We partner with our merchants to achieve success and their success is a direct reflection on us. Quikstone Capital will never put a merchant in a position to fail under the weight of its own debt. Our product is designed for projects that help a merchant’s business grow and increase sales.
