A payment shaped like your income
With a conventional loan the payment is the same in every month. With revenue-based financing, what you repay in a period is tied to the revenue you took in. Strong periods repay faster; weak periods ask for less. The structure exists because many businesses do not earn in even months, and Bakersfield has plenty of them.
Why Kern County income is lumpy
Bakersfield's primary industries come from Kern County's two largest sectors, oil and agriculture. The county grows grapes, citrus, almonds, carrots, alfalfa, cotton and roses, and the region has a large energy industry along with refining, mining and food processing. Prices and seasons move revenue for the whole chain of suppliers, haulers, packers and service shops.
- Harvest windows. Revenue arrives in a rush, then falls away.
- Commodity prices. Contract volumes shift with the market, up and down.
- Slow-pay customers. Large buyers often pay on 30, 45 or 60 day terms.
How to test fit with your own deposits
| Look at | Good sign | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Last 12 months of deposits | Peaks and valleys but no month near zero | Some months with almost no deposits |
| Fixed costs | Covered by the low months | Not covered even in good months |
| Existing debits | Few or none | Several overlapping advances |
If the warning signs dominate, adding financing may make things worse. Read about MCA relief instead.
What we need and what we can say
About three months of business bank statements and a 5-minute application. No tax returns are required, FICO 500 and above is considered, and the credit pull is soft. Sole proprietors can apply. Funding from $25,000 to $5,000,000 can be funded in as little as 24 hours once approved. We do not publish costs or repayment terms on this page; they depend on your statements and the offer. Compare it to a term loan or a merchant cash advance, which are related but not the same.
Reading a lumpy year
Draw a simple chart of the last twelve months of deposits. Circle the months that were driven by one big customer or one big harvest, and mark the ones that were ordinary. Revenue-linked repayment works best when the ordinary months are enough to cover your fixed costs. If one month carries the whole year, ask what happens the year that month does not come, and plan for that case before you apply.
Neighboring towns, same pattern
Owners in Delano, Wasco, Shafter, Taft, Tehachapi and Ridgecrest face their own versions of the same swings. See the Kern County page and the Bakersfield overview for the full list of options.