What business funding costs
Payments and total cost by amount and structure, with stated assumptions.
Guides
Everything here is written to be useful before you talk to any provider, including us. Sources are listed on every page.
Understand the cost
Factor rate calculator
Any offer → total cost, payment, estimated APR.
How repayment works
Daily vs. weekly, early payoff, renewals, after you are funded.
How much should you take?
Size the request to the gap, not the approval.
Cash flow and sizing
Working capital formula
Compute it, read the ratio, see what funding does to it.
Seasonal business financing
Match repayment to the calendar.
Payroll funding
Timing gap or profitability problem? Then the right tool.
Inventory financing
Turnover, sell-through, margin, and a worked example.
Use of funds
Purpose decides the structure.
When not to take funding
The honest checklist.
Advances, alternatives, and comparisons
MCA stacking
Why the second advance costs more than it looks.
MCA alternatives
Match the alternative to the reason you need money.
Revenue-based financing
Payments that flex with sales, and the cost paradox.
Advance vs. line vs. term loan
Three tools, three problems.
Equipment financing vs. advance
The same purchase, both ways.
Unsecured vs. secured
Guarantees, collateral, UCC-1s.
Bank vs. online
Different tools for different stages.
How to compare providers
Contracting party, structure, written numbers, reading reviews.
Provider notes
What fourteen providers publish, dated. No rankings.
Qualifying
Bad-credit business funding
What is realistic and what it costs.
Business credit score
What moves it; soft vs. hard pulls.
Funding a new business
Year-one realities and the path to real financing.
Bank statements, read like an underwriter
The order they read, and how to prepare.
Documents needed
The checklist by product.
Funding speed
What "same day" really depends on.
When banks say no
Read the decline, act on it.
NSFs and overdrafts
What they do to an application; the 90-day cleanup.
EIN-only and identity verification
What is real, and why you are verified anyway.
Soft vs. hard credit checks
Who pulls what, and when.
Gig workers and the self-employed
Making platform income legible.
Industry underwriting
Why your trade affects your offer.
Can’t repay an MCA
Practical steps, in order.
Funding statistics
Sourced to the Federal Reserve’s 2025 survey.
Glossary
The words in the contract.
Legal funding (education)
Pre-settlement funding
How it works, how cost grows, what to ask.
Settled but unpaid
Why the check is slow; post-settlement funding.
Where the numbers come from
We do not publish traffic, funded totals, approval rates, or industry statistics of our own, because we have none. For small-business financing data, the Federal Reserve Banks’ Small Business Credit Survey is the primary public source (our sourced summary); the SBA publishes program terms at sba.gov. Our editorial policy explains how pages are sourced and kept current.
See which options fit your numbers
Inquiries are not open yet. You can preview the three-minute questionnaire now, and use the calculator and comparisons freely.