Busy season pays for the slow one. Usually.
Rent, payroll and vendors run every week whether the dining room is full or not. Restaurant funding is about the walk-in that dies in July, the patio that has to be ready by May, and the January every operator knows is coming.
The problem
Card revenue arrives daily, which is why restaurants are one of the trades funders understand best. The trouble is the shape of it: two strong seasons, a dead month or two, and fixed costs that never move. Payroll is due on the same Friday in January as in July.
Equipment fails on its own schedule. A walk-in cooler, a hood, a fryer line or a POS system goes down and has to be replaced this week, not after the busy season pays for it. Vendors want to be paid on delivery, and a new location needs a build-out months before it seats a guest.
Because the revenue is card-heavy and daily, repayment can follow it. That is the structure that suits most restaurants: a share of each day's sales rather than a fixed monthly payment that ignores the season.
- How you get paid
- Card sales daily; catering and events on invoice
- Where the gap is
- Fixed costs through the slow months; equipment that fails without notice
- What tends to fit
- Revenue-based financing, equipment financing, consolidation
How we help
Repayment that moves with the till
A revenue-based advance is repaid as a share of daily sales: more on a Saturday in July, less on a Tuesday in February.
Equipment replaced this week
Ovens, coolers, hoods and POS financed against the equipment, so the kitchen keeps running while it pays for itself.
One payment instead of several
If a couple of advances are already debiting every morning, consolidation replaces them with a single payment on a longer term.
What usually fits
Which one, or which two, depends on the file. These are the ones we reach for first with restaurants and food.