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Our business model is based on IAAS. We have to keep investing in equipment that we rent out and always lack funding to purchase new equipment. We have come this far with private loans and fundings from friends and family which are for very short terms and majority of revenues and earnings go to repayment(since this are interest free and no additional monetary benefit is given so payments are extremely high). Where should I look and what terms should I expect ?

Started = 2008 Invest = $12000 Revenue = $40000

Year 2009-2010 Investment = $15000 Revenue = 72000

Year = 2011 New Investment = $175000 Revenue = 118000

2012-2013 Seeking Investment = $800,000 Expected Revenue = $400,000 Annually

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4 Answers

  • Have you considered leasing your re3quipment, then buying after 3 years? Keeps you balance sheet cleaner.

  • What about banks? Banks are in the business of doing so.

  • You are aware that your... invesment/revenue curve is terribly bad over time? You get less and less money per USD invested, and that already with trivial amounts (sorry, 400k revenue is very low for a business, and after paying for work etc. there is little left, I assume).

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on the investment revenue curve I m just being extra conservative and putting down half of what could actually come in for sure. – Brian Feb 6 '12 at 20:01

Either cut your costs or increase your revenues. You don't specify what type of equipment you are buying, but can you buy off-lease or refurbished at lower prices to cut your costs?

And you should look at your customers and their needs to see if you can offer them services or other solutions. Then you can increase your revenue without increasing your capital costs

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Your revenues don't look too bad depending on how many people you have working. Why are your costs so high? Find ways to go lean if you can. Cut costs, and make yourself more attractive as an investment. Have you considered giving out equity instead of taking loans? You are essentially gutting your business to repay those loans, when you could be putting that money back into the company. Anyone looking at the numbers can see that you're growing, if you didn't have to pay back such crippling debt every year, you would likely be growing much faster. If you're not a fan of giving out some equity in the company, think of it this way, do you want to own the whole grade, or a slice of the water-Mellon?

Are all your expenses related to equipment rental?

Seeking traditional financing (IE, bank loan) wouldn't be a bad idea at this point either. It looks like you have pretty steady cashflows, but again, you have to worry about repayment, even though your yearly loan payments will be much less. In most cases, I'd prefer equity over bank loans.

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Bwasson, as I said my repayments are extremely high (investment/20 months because of no interest or sharing profit) Secondly equipment rental is my business and that generates revenues of about 7% to 8% on investment every month. Banks turn down our applications for whatever reason but I m pretty much open to equity. – Brian Feb 6 '12 at 20:10

You can't continue to make expenditures of 1.5 to 2x your revenue every year. At some point you have to come back to the situation you were in in the first few years - higher revenues than expenses.

Why grow if you are just going to lose money at it?

Are expenses going to start shrinking or ar you going to grow revenue more?

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