The shape of the problem
A merchant cash advance is repaid through daily or weekly withdrawals. In Los Angeles, where rents and labor are high and many businesses run on thin margins, a withdrawal that looked fine in a busy month can become heavy in a slower one. Los Angeles has neighborhood business districts across the city, from Chinatown to Koreatown to Little Tokyo and Thai Town, the kind of places Wikipedia lists as examples of the city's multicultural character. Restaurants, groceries, salons and shops there live on daily deposits, and are the kind of businesses with the daily deposit pattern an advance is built around.
What relief is for
MCA relief addresses the payment burden of advances you already hold. The aim is to ease the withdrawal so that payroll, rent and suppliers are paid. What is possible depends on your balances, your statements and the advances, and we do not publish terms. It is not a promise of a specific reduction, and it is not a new advance; for that see merchant cash advance.
What the early warning signs look like
- Deposits cover the withdrawals but not the payroll that follows.
- You are reordering from suppliers on credit because cash is short.
- A rent payment was split or delayed to keep a withdrawal current.
- You are looking at a second advance to cover the first.
Any one of these can be temporary. Two or three together usually mean the payment structure no longer matches how money arrives, which is the situation relief is meant for. Acting at that point leaves more choices than acting after payroll has been missed.
A bad-week calculation
For illustration only: a restaurant with $5,000 deposits on a good day and $1,600 on a bad one, paying $600 daily, gives up 12% on a good day and 37.5% on a bad one. Add a second advance with another $400 and a bad day is $1,000 out of $1,600, or 62.5%. Rent is still due on the first. Example numbers, not our terms.
Information that speeds a review
- About three months of business bank statements, clearly showing withdrawals.
- A list of each advance: holder, payment amount and schedule, approximate balance.
- A line on what changed: lost a lease, slower season, a major supplier raised prices.
We consider FICO 500 and above, do not require tax returns, use a soft credit pull and offer a 5-minute application. Sole proprietors can apply. Do not stop payments on your own.
A note on honesty with yourself
Relief works on the payment structure. It does not change what your business earns. Before applying, do a plain check: if the advance payments disappeared tomorrow, would the business cover payroll, rent and suppliers with a little left over? If yes, the structure is the issue and relief is worth pursuing. If no, the underlying margin needs attention too, and it is better to know that now.
Where owners go afterwards
With payments eased, many look at working capital for a controlled buffer, a line of credit for recurring gaps, or revenue-based financing if sales swing. See the county overview. Apply here.