Money for the move you've been putting off.
The second location, the walk-in freezer, the slow season bridge. Below is what working capital actually is, how the four kinds trade off, and who we place it with.
What working capital actually is
Working capital is money the business borrows to run and grow. You get cash in hand now. You pay it back out of what the business earns later. It is not an investment. Nobody takes a piece of your company for it. You are the borrower. The business is what the funder underwrites.
Owners use it for the things that pay for themselves and cannot wait for the savings account to catch up. Opening a second location. Replacing equipment that died in the middle of a Saturday. Buying inventory ahead of a busy season at a real discount. Covering payroll across a slow stretch that you can see coming.
Funding offers find every business owner sooner or later. Usually it is a too-good email promising money by Friday. Some products are genuinely useful. Some cost far more than their marketing admits. The difference is in the structure. Structure is what a broker reads for a living. We'll run the real total cost of any offer before you sign. That includes offers you bring us from somewhere else.
The four kinds, and how they trade off
Cost, speed and what the funder asks of you all move together. Nothing here is cheap and fast and easy to qualify for at once. Any page telling you otherwise is selling something.
Fixed-term loans
You borrow a set amount and repay it on a set schedule. The payment is the same in a slow month as a busy one, which is the whole appeal and also the whole risk.
- Cost
- Roughly 14% to 99% APR across the non-bank market. Where a given offer lands inside that comes down to your credit, your time in business and your revenue
- Speed
- About a week once the file is complete
- What it asks for
- Time in business and a credit history worth reading
Revenue-based advances
Not a loan. A funder buys a slice of your future sales and collects a small percentage of each day's take. Busy week, you pay more. Dead week, you pay less.
- Cost
- A factor rate of about 1.1 to 1.5. The factor alone is not an annual rate and cannot be turned into one on its own: the same 1.3 costs roughly twice as much annualized over six months as over twelve, because the term and the payment cadence do that arithmetic, not the factor. Separately, published effective rates across this market are commonly reported between 40% and 350% a year. On the typical deal that makes it the most expensive money on this page by a wide margin, and the bottom of that range only reaches the top of the others
- Speed
- Days
- What it asks for
- A few months of sales history. Credit matters far less
Equipment and larger facilities
The oven, the van, the hood system, the second location. The asset itself backs the deal. So the money costs less than borrowing the same amount unsecured.
- Cost
- For equipment itself, roughly 4% to 45% APR, a wide band because the asset and your credit both move it. A larger facility, a build-out or property is underwritten separately and prices on its own terms, so that one we quote rather than band. Either way, lower than unsecured money of the same size
- Speed
- Days for equipment, weeks for a large facility
- What it asks for
- The asset as collateral, plus real quotes or a project scope
Nonprofit microloans
Mission lenders exist to get money into businesses the commercial market prices out. The rate is low because the lender is funded to do this rather than to chase a return, not because the deal asks less of you. The amounts are the smallest, and there is a real form behind it.
- Cost
- Generally 8% to 13% on an SBA microloan, and some nonprofit lenders start lower still. Worth knowing before you assume cheap means easy: SBA microloan intermediaries generally want collateral and a personal guarantee anyway. Secured equipment paper can still price under this
- Speed
- Weeks, not days
- What it asks for
- A full file, and the patience to wait on a human review
Those ranges are market-wide, not our quotes. Term-loan, equipment and advance figures are NerdWallet's published business lending ranges (updated September 2026); the microloan figure is the SBA's own published range for its Microloan program. We put them here because a funding page with no numbers on it reads like a trap, and it should. Your actual offer comes in writing, with the total dollars you pay back, before you sign anything.
The business is always the borrower
Every program on this page lends to your business. Your business is what pays it back. Letting a customer split their buy into payments is a whole different product. It has a different borrower and a different set of rules. That one lives on the consumer financing page.
Who we place working capital with
These companies provide working capital in partnership with Northwest Payment Brokers. We don't have a favorite here. What we suggest comes off your numbers. We'll show you the total cost of each in dollars before you pick.
ARF Financial
Bank-issued business loans from $5,000 to $750,000, on 12 to 36 month terms. Payments are weekly and fixed. There is no penalty for paying early.
- $5,000 to $750,000 over 12 to 36 months
- Fixed weekly payments that do not move
- BANKROLL revolving line, with no cap on draws and partial paydowns
- No tax returns. No financial statements.
Best for: Owners with steady months who want a payment they can budget around.
How ARF Financial works →Cash Buoy
Revenue-based advances from $2,500 to $250,000. You deliver them as a share of your daily sales, not as a fixed bill on a set date.
- $2,500 to $250,000, funded in days
- Delivered as a share of daily sales, so a slow week costs less
- Qualifies at about three months open and $5,000 a month
- Sales history carries the file more than a credit score does
Best for: Businesses with real daily sales that need speed more than the lowest price.
How Cash Buoy works →SURV Financial
Equipment financing and larger business facilities, from $10,000 to $5,000,000. The deal goes to a network of lenders. They bid against each other.
- $10,000 to $5,000,000
- Shopped to banks, other lenders and commercial finance firms
- ACH funding in 24 to 48 hours once a deal is placed
- Medical, dental, auto, farm and tech, plus franchise shops
Best for: Equipment buys and growth projects too big for an advance.
How SURV Financial works →Nonprofit microloans are the one kind above with no partner listed here. If you can wait a few weeks, ask us. We'll walk you through what nonprofit lending looks like in your county. Better to know that before you take costlier money.
Fast money has a price tag. Our job is making sure you read it before you take it.
Revenue-based advances quote a factor rate, not an interest rate. That difference hides real cost. Sometimes the speed is worth it. A missed busy season costs more than financing does. But that's math, not a feeling, and we'll run it with you in plain numbers.
Fair questions
How fast can funding land?
Revenue-based advances can fund in days. Fixed-term loans typically take about a week. Nonprofit microloans take weeks. Speed and cost trade against each other almost one for one.
What's a factor rate?
Advance pricing written as a multiplier, like 1.3x, meaning you repay $1.30 per dollar advanced. Translated to an annual rate it's usually higher than it sounds, which is exactly why we translate it for you first.
What does a factor rate actually cost me per year?
Take a 1.3 factor on $50,000 repaid over six months. You pay back $65,000, so the cost is $15,000 on $50,000 in half a year. Annualized the simple way that is 60%. The real number is higher still, because you start repaying immediately and the balance you are actually using shrinks every day while the fee does not. Published effective rates on advances run from about 40% to 350% a year. None of that makes an advance wrong for you. A missed busy season can cost more than the money does. It does mean nobody should sign one without seeing the annual figure, and we work it out for you before you do.
Which kind of funding is cheapest?
Roughly in this order. If you are buying equipment, the equipment itself backs the loan and that paper usually prices lowest of anything here. A nonprofit or SBA microloan is next, though the amounts are small and the review takes weeks. Fixed-term loans come after that, and they are the cheapest thing most owners can actually get on a one-week timeline. Revenue-based advances typically cost the most and fund the fastest, though a cheap advance and an expensive term loan can cross over, which is exactly why we compare real offers rather than categories. None of that settles it on its own: the right answer is the cheapest option you actually qualify for on the timeline you actually have. Finding that is the job.
How do you decide which one to recommend?
Off your numbers, not off a favorite. Time in business, how steady your months are, what the money is for and how fast you need it narrow four options down to one or two fast. Then we show you the total cost of each in dollars and you pick.
Will shopping for funding hurt my credit?
First reviews usually run on soft pulls. We'll flag exactly when a hard inquiry would happen, before it does.
Do I need to take card payments through you to get funding?
No. Funding stands alone. Card sales history is often what gets you a yes. Clients we already work with have that on file, with no extra work.
Can you review an offer I got somewhere else?
Yes, and you should take us up on it. Ten minutes of reading fine print has saved clients from genuinely bad paper.
Is this the same as financing for my customers?
No, and the difference matters. Everything on this page is money your business borrows. Letting a customer pay for their buy over time is consumer financing. That is a separate product on its own page.