It’s an annoying truism for any trade contractor: your vendors expect you to pay on time, every time, while your customers don’t feel the same urgency when it comes to paying you. It’s doesn’t take a CPA to see the potential problem here: if vendors need to be paid now, but customers are taking their sweet time, you can run into some pretty serious cash flow problems. And, heaven forbid you’re a smaller-size contractor who finally landed a game-changing big job, those cash flow pains can actually start to threaten the health and viability of your whole business. It doesn’t have to be this way. Especially in that “big job” case, your counterparties are very likely to pay—nobody wants a mechanics lien on their property—and your contract with them leaves very little uncertainty as to what you’re owed. Recently, a number of really great services have emerged to help small contractors manage the cash-flow lumpiness of their businesses. Their services are generally quite inexpensive relative to other alternative financing sources, and are very easy to take advantage of—provided that you’re using the right sort of technology to enable them.
Knowify <> Fundbox
Knowify has partnered with Fundbox to deliver short term financing to its clients. The fact that you’re a Knowify customer already carries some currency with our friends at Fundbox—it shows that you’re a serious contractor, with a laser-like focus on the performance of your business. If you believe short term financing could be beneficial to your business, connecting your Knowify to Fundbox is super simple: just navigate to your Knowify Dashboard, and click the “Fundbox” logo icon! Fundbox will import data from QuickBooks or the bank account you provide, and in short order present you with options to draw funds. It’s still a loan, so please make sure you pay it back! But having that source of funds behind you can give you the confidence to go after those big jobs—so give it a shot!