What the sources say
Wikipedia places San Benito County in the Central Coast region, in the California Coast Ranges, with a 2020 population of 64,209. The county seat is Hollister. Although the county is not part of the traditional nine-county definition of the San Francisco Bay Area, the Census Bureau includes it in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metropolitan area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area. El Camino Real passes through the county, and it includes one mission, at San Juan Bautista.
Between two economies
A small county in a big metro area has a particular business story. Local customers and local businesses are not the whole market: some residents work elsewhere in the metro area, and some nearby workers or visitors come in. A shop, restaurant or trade company here may serve neighbors, commuters and travelers on the same days. Owners learn to watch several demand sources at once, and the cash pattern can be less predictable than a town with one dominant employer.
Four useful habits for a small-county owner
- Separate accounts. Keep business deposits in a single account so your statements show the whole picture.
- Quotes in hand. If you plan to buy equipment or a vehicle, keep the quote or invoice.
- Track your slowest weeks. A calendar of the thin weeks of last year is a better guide than an average.
- Know your longest wait. Time from paying for goods or labor to being paid for them is the real size of your working-capital need.
Illustration with round numbers
For illustration only, a small contractor with a $22,000 job pays $14,000 for materials and crew in the first three weeks and gets paid in the sixth. If the owner does two such jobs at once, the business fronts nearly $28,000 for weeks. These numbers are not our terms or a typical result. The point is that growth in a small market can create a cash squeeze before it creates profit, and planning for the squeeze keeps the business from outrunning its cash.
Matching the amount to the need
One more point of discipline for a small market. Resist the instinct to ask for the biggest number available. A request sized to a specific purpose, an equipment replacement, a stocking order or a stretch of payroll, tends to be easier to justify and easier to repay. The minimum amount we fund is $25,000, so if your need is smaller than that, other tools may fit better, and it is worth being honest about that early. If the need is larger, break it into what is essential now and what can wait.
Terms
The terms of what we do are short. Amounts run from $25,000 to $5,000,000, and funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours. A FICO of 500 or higher is considered, we look at roughly three months of business bank statements instead of tax returns, and the credit check at the application stage is a soft pull. Sole proprietors are welcome to apply.
The application takes about five minutes.