Business Funding in Colorado County, Texas

Not that Colorado

Colorado County is in Texas, named for the Colorado River of Texas, and its county seat is Columbus. The county was founded in 1836 and organized the next year. At the 2020 census it had 20,557 residents across about 963 square miles. It is grouped in our San Antonio and Hill Country region.

Owners here include ranchers, farm suppliers, small manufacturers, contractors, lodging and food businesses, and the trades that serve them. Rather than describe each one, it is more useful to walk through a worksheet you can use whatever your trade.

A four-line cash worksheet

1. Fixed monthly costs. Rent, wages, insurance, loan payments, utilities, vehicle costs. Add them up.
2. Typical monthly receipts. What the business usually takes in, by month, over the past year.
3. The low point. Subtract costs from receipts for the weakest month. If the result is negative, that is your seasonal gap.
4. The planned purchase. Anything you want to buy or build in the next six months, and when it should pay back.

For illustration only, a business with $22,000 in fixed monthly costs and a worst month that brings in $15,000 has a $7,000 gap in that month. If it also wants to add a $30,000 piece of equipment before spring, the combined need is $37,000, which is above the $25,000 minimum.

Reading a seasonal low point

The low point in your year is not the same as a bad year. A farm supplier's quiet month after harvest, a contractor's slow stretch in the heat of summer and a restaurant's post-holiday dip are all predictable. What matters is how deep the low point goes and how long it lasts.

Most owners can estimate both from memory, but a quick look at twelve months of deposits usually sharpens the picture. Look for the month with the lowest deposits and compare it with that month's bills. That difference, rounded up, is the gap you are planning for.

What the worksheet reveals

Most owners who do this exercise discover one of three things. Some find the gap is smaller than feared and decide to build a reserve instead. Some find it is exactly where they guessed and arrange funding for it. Some find a pattern they had not noticed: a single month that carries most of the risk, or a customer who is responsible for most of the late payments.

Any of those is useful. A funding decision made after the worksheet is easier to explain and usually easier to repay, because the amount is tied to a number you can see.

For businesses near the river, add a line for weather and flooding risk: delayed deliveries, closed roads, equipment that must be moved. These costs are not predictable by date, but the exposure is.

When you are ready to apply

Funding runs from $25,000 to $5,000,000, funding can arrive in as little as 24 hours, and the credit check at the start is a soft pull. Sole proprietors can apply. The application takes about five minutes, and the worksheet above gives you most of what it will ask.