At a recent Business Chicks member meet-up, some members shared anecdotally that their businesses are struggling to attract customers and that this was causing some cash flow difficulties. They explained that they understood what they needed to do to turn their businesses around, but didn’t have the cash available to implement these strategies.
It’s not surprising given that Australians are being hit by continuous interest rate rises (impacting those with a mortgage or other forms of debt) and the price of goods and services (including petrol) continues to rise. In these circumstances, there isn’t too much spare cash lying around for consumer spending, which in turn affects the profitability of businesses.
This leads to the big question: in difficult times like these, where can you get the funding needed to keep your business afloat? Unlike in Netflix’s Money Heist, you can’t stage an elaborate heist to break into the Royal Mint and print off the extra money you need (or you could, but as a lawyer, I would strongly advise against it!).
Instead, I have put together this article to provide a summary of the different options available to your business. Being the savvy Business Chicks that you are, I have assumed that you have already considered ways to cut down on unnecessary spending and free up existing cash within the business and that you are seeking some extra support in the form of external funding.
Sources of funding
Firstly, it’s important to understand the different types of funding that exist, and what each of these means in practice. Broadly speaking, there are three different types of funding you can seek for your business:
I have summarised what each of these are, and their key features, in the table below.
