It’s not always easy to balance your company’s finances. This is especially true for small businesses. Some months, you may have a huge amount of sales, giving you a well-deserved and much-needed infusion of capital. Other months, unexpected problems, seasonal changes and market slowdowns can cause a few problems with your balance sheet. If you’re having trouble getting your cash flow to stabilize, you should look into the benefits of bridge loans. This popular financing option is a great tool for supplementing available capital when needed.

Bridge Loans for Working Capital

There are many different ways to use bridge financing, but one of the most useful is as working capital. In fact, that’s kind of where bridge loans got their name from. They “bridge” the gap between monthly needs or different types of loans.

How can you use the working capital provided by this type of loan? The possibilities are practically endless. Many businesses use the money to take care of financial needs. For example, you may have a credit card payment that is overdue. Instead of paying the huge interest rate or late fees that usually accompany these obligations, you may benefit from using a bridge loan to tide you over until customers pay you.

Bridge loan financing can also take care of emergencies. Did an essential piece of equipment or vehicle break down? You can’t afford to cancel contracts or make clients wait ages for deliveries. A bridge loan can keep your business running smoothly, making sure you keep making money.

Fast Financing

Another benefit of bridge financing is that it doesn’t take long to get approved for. Usually, businesses can qualify in under a week. That way you have the capital needed when something unexpected comes up. There are credit score requirements, and sometimes collateral requirements, but these are less than with traditional financing. All of this is designed to help businesses adapt to month-to-month obligations as easily as possible.

Money for Your Business’s Growth

Bridge loans aren’t designed to take the place of conventional or government-backed financing for small businesses. It’s impossible for a bridge loan to beat the interest rates of an SBA loan, for example. Where bridge financing pulls ahead, however, is in the simplicity and speed of getting your business the capital required to grow. In other words, an SBA loan is awesome for long-term profits, but bridge financing is powerful for getting growth started in the first place.

Used wisely, bridge loans are an amazing tool for investing in equipment, real estate, training, employees, technology and countless other needs. They’re short-term loans that cover immediate needs smoothly.