Log In
Get Started
EN

Time is Money...

Or, at least, so goes the old adage. One of the things that most business owners want to know when they contact Merchant Advance Capital is: "how soon can you help?" As it currently stands, we can get you from initial request to funding in a week or less - sometimes even just a day or two. The latest entry in our Merchant Advance "Loans 101" Video Series is now live: check it out at our Youtube channel where you can find the rest of the informative series featuring Merchant Advance CEO David Gens. Call us at 1 (877) 370-8850 to find out more.

If Canadian small business owners were to be surveyed right now and asked what they thought was the biggest challenge they faced in 2015, the answer might surprise you. What do you think it could be? Access to capital is certainly high on the list. Finding new customers and growing retention, also of significant importance. Let's not forget growth and expansion into new markets! However, a recent survey by Sage showed that 38% of Canadian small business owners were most significantly challenged by the need to find and start hiring great employees.
What can you do to overcome this challenge?
(more…)

As a small business owner, you know that cash flow is one of the most important metrics for success.One of the most important principles that keeps a business’ cash flow active and increases its liquidity is the ability to invoice accurately and receive payment from your customers promptly. Whether you’re a freelance operation or a company with an extensive list of accounts receivable, good practices when it comes to your small business invoicing can be the difference between keeping the wheels rolling and feeling as though you’re stuck in the mud.
(more…)

All of us at Merchant Advance Capital hope you had a great Easter Weekend - whether you took the time off to refresh yourself before the spring season gets going in earnest, or took advantage of the occasion as a business boost to help you out going forward!
enhanced-buzz-5462-1364083033-1
You may have noticed that things are looking a little different over at the Merchant Advance website these days. We’ve done a little bit of spring cleaning ourselves, making it easier than ever for you to navigate all the things your small business can do to help manage your financial plans.

Visit us today to check out the new look! 

Customer satisfaction is a critical achievement for many small businesses. A satisfied customer is, in theory, a repeat customer, and one who might recommend the products or services you offer to his or her friends in order to grow your business. This is one of the reasons why Yelp, for example, has become so critical to the public perception of small businesses and their success. 8620867436_421f798446_b
Satisfaction is, like almost any data item concerning a business, a metric. (No, not the Canadian rock band Metric.) A measure, in other words, of a certain part of your business' performance. Quite simply, the easiest way to measure satisfaction is to ask your customers. Do not be afraid to solicit their opinions - even negative feedback can be turned into valuable lessons for future strategies!
 
Metrics can be comforting - sometimes, artificially so. You can see that your Facebook post accrued X number of likes - but what does it mean for your bottom line? Customer satisfaction poses a risk of being a similarly artificial metric unless the results of your polling are turned into a real indicator of performance. In 2003, the idea of a simplified satisfaction survey metric called "Net Promoter Score" was published. Essentially, for any given satisfaction survey on a scale of 0-10, you can break down respondents:

NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of customers who are Detractors from the percentage of customers who are Promoters. There is significant debate as to the real-world efficacy of NPS as a metric, and it's certainly prudent to ask whether a small business would be able to gather enough meaningful data using their resources in order to make the Score relevant. As Elliott Simmonds of B2CBlog puts it:

"NPS can be a useful metric for small business at a macro level. It can tell you you need to improve…somewhere. However, with only a single question, it can often be hard to understand where the priority for improvement lies."

How do you measure your customers' satisfaction? Are you close enough with your loyal repeat visitors that you can gauge their opinion conversationally? Do you roll out a survey with a great promotional event tied into it? Are online, organic and social sources the key indicators of the mood surrounding your business?
We'd love to hear your strategies, comments, and thoughts on this important topic! Let us know in the comments, at our Facebook page or on Twitter @advancecapital. 
 

supershuttle-receiptAs our most recent Merchant Advisor highlighted, it's getting near to tax time for individuals and businesses across Canada. The CRA has published an exhaustive list of the various types of business expenses that you can potentially claim for deductions for this fiscal year - the link to their first-party information is below, and each item is defined with more detail and specificity there if you want to learn more about it. For now, see if you can think of ways to use these many expense categories in a bid to help your business come out on top of the tax battle! Please note: we're not certified as financial advisors by any means here at the blog, so check with one you know and trust before making any important financial decisions about your business.

Triumph International AG Wienerstraße 121-123 A-2700 Wiener NeustadtFor almost any small business, supplier relationships need to be developed over time. Suppliers form one of the functional pillars of a business that sells any kind of finished goods or uses up consumable resources in order to provide services to their customers. At Merchant Advance Capital, we're certainly aware of the close connection between businesses and their suppliers, and we've learned from experience that a good relationship between the two is a nigh-on sure sign of a healthy small business. So it stands to reason that you should try to keep in their good books, and vice versa!
Being on good terms with a supplier has general business advantages, chief among which is the control of costs, cash flow and operating margins of your business. Negotiation of the terms of your agreement with a given supplier is a delicate art - like with any personal relationship, it gets easier to read and understand the needs of the person you're interacting with as your trust builds over time. For most businesses, reliability is the cornerstone of a good set of supplier relationships: your business needs prompt and accurate delivery of goods, and your supplier needs prompt payment within the terms of your agreement.
Transparency is a second component of relationship building between businesses and their suppliers. Inc.com notes in their online business encyclopedia:

"Honesty on both sides is another important quality in effective buyer-supplier relations... This is most common when the business is grappling with past-due payments, but entrepreneurs should avoid subterfuge and be upfront with suppliers about their situations. "Instead of... saying the check's in the mail, tell suppliers what's happening and what you propose to do about it."

Working in a positive and close relationship with your suppliers equips the businesses on both sides of the equation to develop, make changes as their industry moves forward, and compete more favourably in order to succeed.

4122172006_0c704ae171_z
March is the month of fiscal year-end for Canadian small businesses. It is the time of year when tax preparations are on the minds of many Canadians, and especially business owners. You will probably find yourself checking and double-checking your files, hunting down opportunities for money-saving deductions, and organizing your plan for the next go-round. About:Money's Susan Ward has a great and very comprehensive guide on the subject that you can read here.
We’ve helped all kinds of small businesses with their diverse financial needs this year, and have seen many of our clients accomplish goals great and small aided by accessibility to working capital. A year can make a big difference: with the funding provided by a merchant advance lasting 10 to 12 months, your business could take a significant step forward, whether you want to expand, recreate, invest, develop, or do anything you can think of.
Given that your books are probably in order and subject to review for tax time, and that the financial health and operating conditions of your business are fresh in your mind, now might also be a great time to consider putting in an application for funding. Whether you are an existing customer looking to re-apply, had considered it but were unsure, or have just heard about our products for the first time, you can visit us online at http://merchantadvance.com to learn more, or call a member of our team at 1 (877) 370-8850.

See you next month!

In October of 2007, the British rock band Radiohead made headlines with the release of their album In Rainbows. It was a stellar collection of music, but its promotional strategy garnered an even more staggering amount of attention: rather than pricing the record at a standard rate and shipping it to retailers, the band offered it up online to fans with the caveat that they could pay what they felt was fair - even nothing at all. News outlets and music journalists churned out a frenzy of think-pieces. It was a move that caused ripples in the music industry that persist to this day.
In_Rainbows_Official_Cover
But did it work? Here's something to consider: Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke stated that the band had made more money from digital sales of In Rainbows than the digital sales of all their previous albums combined.
Could a pay what you want (PWYW) model work for a small business?
Though it may sound a bit farfetched, putting the power of choice into the hands of the customer (or allowing payment on a preset sliding scale) has in fact been tested in the small business world. The main potential advantage of this method is that it compensates for itself by drawing in new customers. Some of these customers might have been unable to afford certain products, and others might be enticed by the relative novelty of the idea. High volume, in theory, offsets lower pricing, and in the case of a sliding scale model, the business owner retains some control.
Not every business is well-suited to begin offering PWYW to its customers. This comes down to the margins of the business: manufacturers or sellers of physical products, for example, as well as restauranteurs, may feel a bite into their profitability more severely than service-based businesses.
PWYW may be able to form a component (if not the bedrock) of your business strategy depending on your business' needs. If you decide to try it, here are a few guidelines:

chevron-down