One of the first decisions a business makes and one of the hardest to unwind. Liability and taxation are separate questions — conflating them causes most of the confusion.
Cash Flow Management Fundamentals for Small Businesses
Profitable businesses fail regularly, and the mechanism is always the same: money owed arrives more slowly than money owed out. The cash conversion cycle, the thirteen-week forecast, and the warning signs.
What a Personal Guarantee Actually Commits You To
Most owners incorporate specifically to separate personal assets from the business. A guarantee undoes that separation for what is often the largest obligation the business has.
Merchant Cash Advances: The Arithmetic Behind the Pitch
Structured as a purchase of future receivables rather than a loan, it sits outside much of the regulation governing lending, including the requirement to state an annual rate.
Lending Standards Tighten Before Anyone Announces It
No bank announces that it has stopped lending. The process gets slower, the covenants get tighter, and the answer arrives as a series of small obstacles.
The Quarterly Estimated Tax System Was Not Designed for Uneven Income
It asks a business to pay tax on income it has not finished earning, based on a projection of a year that is not over. For seasonal firms that is a structural cash flow problem.