When you run your own business, problems can seem to lurk around every corner. No matter how you try to plan your income and expenses accurately, something always comes up that you didn't expect and throws off your calculations.
Slowdowns Can Be Unpredictable
Your business has been steady for the last 14 months, so you begin to count on that amount of sales going forward. Then a competitor opens down the street, and a third of your customers decide to try them out. Even if most of them come back in a month or two, the slowdown can throw a serious monkey wrench in your cash flow.
Taxes Keep You Guessing
It's rather difficult to calculate tax liabilities when income and profits vary. You may think you know what you owe, only to find that you've moved up into the next tax bracket when your sales uptick slightly. Owing the IRS money that you don't have is a scary position no business owner wants to be in.
Equipment Failure
It is impossible to predict exactly when vital equipment might wear out and need to be repaired or replaced. You can plan for the average life span of your equipment if you have sufficient cash flow to save for a replacement, but many businesses can't afford to do that every month and are caught flat-footed when a breakdown occurs.
Taking Unexpected Time Off
You can plan vacations, but you can't plan pneumonia or having to take care of your mom when she takes a fall. With so much depending on your ability to keep things going, the need to take time off can mean shutting down your business for a while or paying extra labor costs until you can return.
Staffing Problems Spike Costs
Most small businesses rely on a small number of staff to keep things running. When one staff member needs time off or quits unexpectedly, it can cause you to need to hire a replacement quickly or pay overtime to other employees. These costs may be a burden on the business until things stabilize.
Unexpected Necessary Upgrades
Although you may be able to save up for costly upgrades, there are times when a product stops working suddenly or changes the way it runs so that it doesn't work properly anymore. When you need to upgrade suddenly, the cost can be more than you can afford.
Unfortunately, many of the unexpected events that occur in the life of a small business come with a monetary cost. When you are unprepared, this can be a big problem. Many businesses don't qualify for bank loans or know any investors who can give them the cash they need.
Business cash advances, also referred to as merchant cash advances, provide a way to get cash without a credit check or any type of collateral. This type of funding can be ideal for dealing with unexpected business costs because qualified businesses can get cash in just a few days with an easy application process that looks at your business's income history rather than credit rating.
Quikstone Capital Solutions provides business cash advances to help businesses deal with the unexpected.
