Business finance is the money any business needs in order to run its operations.
Not only is finance required the moment you start up a company, but also throughout various stages of its development and growth – ensuring that there is enough money to pay your staff and for the supplies materials and equipment needed to produce the goods and services you sell.
Additional finance may also be required – often at short notice – to meet new business opportunities which might suddenly emerge and call for you to launch marketing campaigns to support a new venture, re-stock and re-equip, perhaps set up a new office in another town, or make sure your day to day cashflow is suitably balanced. That said, the need for additional finance might also call for effective financial forecasting.
But what is financial forecasting? The process of forecasting future performance for a business is known as financial forecasting. A financial prognosis attempts to predict how a company’s monetary position will look in the near future. The prediction of a company’s revenue is an example of making financial predictions. A financial adviser could help you formulate a vision for what your business’ financial forecasting should be. You could find one by looking up a financial adviser directory online.
Ultimately, the position of the business is determined by sales figures. Therefore, forecasting tools play a crucial role in good decision-making to support organizational goals. Besides revenue, fixed and variable costs, and capital, other aspects of financial forecasting contribute to its accuracy. Fortunately, financial forecasting can now be easily done by using agile financial forecasting software provided by firms similar to Synario.
However, if people do not have financial forecasting software to plan their future finances, it might be quite difficult to bear the overwhelming emotions of gathering the additional amount.
So, where does that much-needed business finance come from for such people?
In the very early days of company formation and start-up, sufficient finance might be found from your own personal resources or those of family and friends.
As the business grows and the demands for finance become more pressing, however, personal sources are likely to be exhausted and you must look elsewhere. That search may take you in one of two directions:
Equity finance
- if there is still some apparent risk in the longer-term success of your business, you might want to consider equity investment – investment made in return for a share in the ownership and decision-making of your business;
- sources of equity finance range from private investors, business angels and venture capital – but all involve your sharing ownership in your business and, with it perhaps, some loss of independence in the way that it is run;
Debt finance
- for that reason, many businesses prefer debt finance – borrowing the necessary funds and repaying the loan over an agreed period of time;
- if an especially large sum needs to be borrowed – by way of a mortgage, for the purchase of new or additional premises, for example – the loan may need to be secured against company assets and the repayment term spread over several tens of years;
- secured debt finance over a substantial term, of course, attracts a considerable amount in interest – and if the rate is variable, it may become more difficult to manage and budget for the regular repayment instalments;
- in many instances, rather less needs to be borrowed – in the range of, say, 15,000 to 100,000 – and repayments may be scheduled over the relatively short-term of between three and 12 months, so attracting a far less amount of interest;
- business finance on these terms is typically unsecured – so none of your company’s assets are at risk – and the rate of interest is usually fixed throughout the borrowing term;
- a fixed rate of interest ensures that the monthly repayments are equal and entirely predictable, allowing you to make the necessary budgetary arrangements for your expenditure with ease;
- thanks to the online systems developed by some such lenders, short-term, fixed-rate, unsecured loans may be arranged in a matter of days, with a decision in principle given by some lenders in a matter of minutes and, subject to the approval of your formal application, the requested funds transferred directly to your company bank account within just 48 hours or so.
Business finance options, therefore, are many and varied, in the form of both equity and debt finance. Depending on the amount you want to borrow and the timescale within which you want to repay it, short-term business finance in the form of a business loan may prove the way forward.