Start with a one-page audit
Before talking to anyone, put the facts on a single page. List each advance, the funder, the amount you receive back from your sales each day or week, the approximate balance and the date it started. Next to it, list your average deposit in the best week and the worst week of the last three months. Divide each payment by the worst-week deposit. That percentage is the real burden, and many owners have never calculated it.
This page is for owners who already carry advances. If you want a first advance, see San Bernardino merchant cash advance.
Why San Bernardino owners can feel it early
San Bernardino is a logistics-oriented city, close to the Cajon and San Gorgonio passes and the I-10, I-215 and SR-210 junctions. Its economy has also been shaped by traffic moving away; Wikipedia notes that relocating I-15 through Rancho Cucamonga and Ontario diverted shoppers and traffic bound for Los Angeles and San Diego. A small retailer, diner or auto shop that depends on what passes by sees deposits swing, and a fixed daily pull does not swing with them.
Freight-adjacent operators have a different version, with deposits arriving in lumps from invoices while remittances continue every business day.
What relief is and is not
| It is | It is not |
|---|---|
| An effort to ease the daily or weekly drag from advances you already hold | A promise of any particular reduction |
| Based on your statements and a list of your advances | A quote on a web page |
| Worth exploring when the business is healthy but the payment shape is wrong | A cure for a business that is not viable |
Do not stop payments on your own. Stopping can trigger consequences under your agreements, and the right path depends on the details.
A stacking example, for illustration
An owner deposits $5,000 on a good day and $2,200 on a poor one. Two advances take $600 and $450 a day. That is 21% of a good day and 48% of a poor one. A third advance of $300 a day to cover the poor days pushes it to 27% and 61%. The numbers are invented to show how stacking compounds the problem, not our terms.
Questions owners ask first
Owners usually want to know whether relief means a new advance, whether it hurts credit and whether payments pause. The short answers: relief addresses payments on advances you already hold, the application uses a soft credit pull, and you should not stop any payment on your own. What changes, and how, depends on the advances and statements we see, so the first step is simply to share them. If the business is fundamentally sound and the payment shape is wrong, that is the case relief is meant for.
What to bring
About three months of business bank statements and your list of advances. We consider FICO scores of 500 and above, do not require tax returns and use a soft credit pull on a five-minute application. Funding runs from $25,000 to $5,000,000 and sole proprietors can apply. Compare working capital and term loans for other approaches, or apply now.