Shocks To The System: Sources Of Disruption In The Brewing Industry

Brewery Equipment Vendor Financing

Shocks To The System: Sources Of Disruption In The Brewing Industry

Sources of Disruption in the Brewing Industry

To paraphrase Murphy’s Law, if there’s a chance that something can go wrong, sooner or later it will. No one needs to understand this maxim better than brewers. The brewing industry has to deal with a wide variety of disruptions that can raise costs, lower revenues, or otherwise threaten production. In order to weather these issues, you must maintain access to a steady source of working capital. This is particularly important if you are dealing with:

Sanitation Scares

No matter how diligent you are about keeping your brewery clean, there’s always a risk that there will be some sort of health or sanitation problem with your product. Often, such problems are the result of issues with your ingredients and other supplies, which you may have had no way of knowing about ahead of time. Regardless of the source, you’ll likely have to stop production for days or even weeks so that you can clean your equipment and replace any contaminated supplies.

Working capital is essential when you’re facing sanitation issues. Not only will revenues fall because you can’t sell your product, but depending on how extensive the cleaning is or how much inventory you have to replace, your costs may increase dramatically. With working capital, you can stay above water financially until your production lines are back up and running.

Climbing Costs

Besides health and sanitation issues, you may have to deal with sudden increases in the cost of key supplies. Perhaps there is a crop failure that reduces the availability of an ingredient that you rely on, driving up the price of remaining stocks. It’s also possible that the cost of maintaining and replacing brewery equipment will rise.

While you can adjust to costs increases by cutting costs elsewhere or raising your prices, it may take time before you are able to fully make up the difference. Working capital lets you keep your business running in the meantime, giving you the breathing room to get your finances in order.

Inadequate Brewery Equipment

Success in brewing means responding to new market opportunities, but sometimes your equipment can hold you back. Say you identify an untapped market for a certain type of beer, but you don’t have the equipment to make it. Unless you can get that equipment, you’ll lose that market to someone else. Working capital allows you to buy new equipment and pursue such opportunities whenever they arise.

Dimension Funding offers working capital and equipment leases for breweries and countless other types of businesses. Contact us today to learn more about how our capital can benefit your company.

Careful Construction: The Importance Of Working Capital To Worksite Safety

Importance of Working Capital to Construction site Safety

Careful Construction: The Importance Of Working Capital To Worksite Safety

Importance of Working Capital to Construction site Safety

Of all the duties that construction companies must fulfill, none is more important than keeping their worksites safe. Not only do such companies have a responsibility to their workers, who face some of the highest workplace injury rates in the modern market, but they must also safeguard anyone else in the area. To keep everyone safe while still running a productive business, you have to make a variety of investments on a regular basis. Working capital is essential for financing all these investments, including:

Quality Construction Uniforms

One of the simplest and most effective strategies for improving employees’ safety is investing in quality uniforms and other workplace gear. Construction uniforms use bright colors and reflective tape to alert workers to each other’s location. They also contain spaces to hold essential tools or attach harnesses. Certain uniforms may improve safety in particular climates. For example, if you do construction work in the American South during the summer, you’ll need gear that protects employees from heat and sun exposure.

Quality uniforms don’t come cheap, and if you need to rapidly expand your labor force or replace a large number of worn gear all at once, it may be hard to cover the cost from your ordinary revenues. Working capital allows you to pay for new uniforms whenever you need them, ensuring your employees have the gear necessary to stay safe at all times.

Effective Construction Equipment

From scaffolding to harnesses to precise measurement tools, quality construction equipment is critical to the well being of your employees. For maximal safety, it is essential not just to buy and use this equipment, but to replace it with more advanced equipment at every opportunity. These investments are almost always highly expensive, and only pay for themselves over long periods of time. Working capital will let you cover such costs now, achieving immediate improvements in employee safety.

Training Updates

No matter what uniforms and equipment they have to work with, employees can only stay safe if they have the necessary skills. You thus have to offer them periodic training courses that cover basic construction site safety while updating workers on any new gear or equipment they have to work with. Working capital may be necessary in order to obtain the best possible training instructors, software, and other resources. You may also need it to pay for lost productivity, since your employees will have to take time off work while training is going on.

Whether you’re looking to buy new equipment, update your uniforms, or pay for training courses, Dimension Funding has the working capital you need. For more information on providing a safe, efficient workplace, visit our website today.

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Automation Assessment: The Profits & Pitfalls Of Putting Your Brewery Operations On Autopilot

Automation Assessment: The Profits & Pitfalls Of Putting Your Brewery Operations On Autopilot

It’s hard to overstate the significance of automation. Processes that once took dozens of people can now be done with only one or even no one, giving businesses in virtually every industry an opportunity to cut costs and boost output. Breweries are no exception; automation lets you put everything from bottling to canning to sanitation on autopilot. While there are many benefits to automating these activities, there are also significant costs to doing so. Make sure to weigh these factors carefully before you make the transition.

Advantages of Brewery Automating

One of the greatest advantages of brewery automation is that it allows you to cut your operating costs significantly. By relying on machines and software to carry out essential activities, you can perform those activities at a fraction of their current costs, all while freeing up your employees to focus on strategic planning and other big-picture activities. Granted, automation equipment does require energy and maintenance, which can be expensive. But the more activities you’re automating, the more likely it is to be a net benefit.

Besides cutting operating costs, automation tends to improve consistency. A greater reliance on machinery means that you are less vulnerable to human error. You thus won’t have to worry as much about incorrect product assembly, incomplete cleaning services, and other such issues. This further lowers daily expenses while letting you improve product quality, leading to greater customer satisfaction.

Costs & Negative Consequences

For all the advantages of automation, it isn’t an unqualified benefit. Automation equipment is expensive, and while your savings on operating costs will eventually outweigh these charges, many breweries don’t have the cash to make this investment in the first place. Even if you do have enough money for such purchases, you may not want to tie it all up in capital equipment. Doing so leaves you with less money to spend on other needs. Given that your costs may suddenly go up in response to some emergency or supply shortage, you don’t want to be caught without cash on hand.

As serious as this problem is, there is a relatively simple solution: working capital. Instead of buying the equipment outright, you can use a working capital loan to pay for it, and then repay the loan using the profits that the new equipment helps you generate. In effect, you will be spreading out the cost of the equipment over time rather than paying it all at the beginning.

Dimension Funding offers working capital loans and leases for automated brewery equipment and a myriad of other business purchases. For more information, visit our website today.

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Hospital Highlights: The Benefits Of Leasing Medical Equipment

Leasing Medical Equipment

Hospital Highlights: The Benefits Of Leasing Medical Equipment

Leasing Medical Equipment

Medical Equipment Leasing Makes a Difference

When it comes to the healthcare industry, effective financing is literally a matter of life and death. Unless you can obtain the most advanced equipment, drugs, and personnel to deal with every variety of diseases and injuries, you won’t be able to heal patients in critical conditions. For this reason, it is essential that you consider all your financial options and choose the one that best fits the needs of your hospital. In particular, you should never overlook the opportunity to lease medical equipment rather than buy it, an option that allows you to:

Invest in the Most Advanced Medical Equipment

If you insist on buying your medical equipment outright, you may not be able to afford the most advanced devices right away, forcing you to wait until you can save up enough money. Leasing medical equipment lets you use those devices now, reaping benefits such as:

  • Lower Costs– More modern devices often use less energy for the work they do, lowering your power bill. This will improve the financial health of your hospital while helping make up the cost of the lease.
  • Better Outcomes– The more advanced medical equipment is, the more effective it will be at treating patients’ diseases and injuries. This speeds up recovery times, improves patients’ quality of life, and even saves lives.
  • Faster Service– Many of the latest medical devices serve patients more quickly than their older counterparts. Given how serious hospital overcrowding has become, there are few better investments you can make for your facility.

Remember that these benefits don’t just help your facility and patients. By serving a larger number of people and achieving better outcomes, you reduce the strain on other hospitals and clinics as well, leading to better results throughout the healthcare system.

Keep Cash on Hand for Emergencies

Even if you have the money to buy all the advanced devices you need now, tying up that money in medical equipment may not be a wise decision for your hospital or patients. Remember that a natural disaster or other crisis could strike at any moment, causing a dramatic increase in injuries and illnesses. To meet the needs of this horde of new patients, you will have to order more drugs and devices, pay enough people to stay fully staffed at all times, and use more of your equipment ‘round the clock. All of these steps require massive spending, and without cash on hand, you may not be up to the challenge. Leasing your medical equipment leaves your funds free, allowing you to stay prepared for emergencies.

Dimension Funding offers leases for a wide variety of medical devices. To learn more or get started applying, contact us today.

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Sanitation Service: How Working Capital Helps You Keep Your Brewery Clean

How Working Capital Helps with Brewery Sanitation

Sanitation Service: How Working Capital Helps You Keep Your Brewery Clean

How Working Capital Helps with Brewery Sanitation

Of all the challenges that brewers face, none are more important than the need to keep your operations clean. As a brewing company, you have a responsibility to protect your customers and employees against diseases, harmful chemicals, and anything else that could impact their health. But it’s only possible to protect them if you have advanced brewery cleaning equipment, and small companies often lack the resources to invest in such devices. Working capital lets you make the investments necessary to keep your employees and customers safe and healthy.

Shoring Up Brewery Sanitation with Working Capital

Working capital gives you the money you need to make instant improvements in your brewery. This lets you raise sanitation levels on multiple fronts, including by:

  • Expanding Your Equipment– Keg washers and other advanced sanitation devices allow you to clean your brewing equipment more thoroughly and more quickly. With working capital, you will be able to buy this equipment as soon as you go into business. You can also update it whenever more advanced cleaning equipment becomes available, so that you can achieve continuous improvements in sanitation throughout your time in business.
  • Enhancing Maintenance Activities– Besides investing in quality equipment in the first place, working capital gives you the funding to conduct more inspections and repairs on that equipment. This ensures that you can continue cleaning your brewery effectively over the long haul.
  • Improving Your Ingredients– Health and sanitation are closely linked to the quality of the ingredients you use. Working capital gives you the financial flexibility to invest in the best possible ingredients, as well as the facilities to preserve them. This decreases the chance that anything will go wrong with the inputs you use.

In addition to helping you avoid sanitation issues in the first place, working capital makes it easier for your brewery to weather them when they do occur. Say that you discover there is something wrong with a batch of beer you produced. You will need to recall all that beer and stop production until you can figure out and eliminate the cause of the problem. All these damage control activities are highly expensive, making it harder for smaller companies with few savings to weather them. Working capital allows you to stay afloat financially until you have the problem under control and can get back to selling your brews.

Dimension Funding offers flexible working capital for breweries of all sizes, as well as insight into all the ways this funding can enhance your company. For more information or to request our services, visit our website today.

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Sustainability Solutions: Making Your Construction Operation More Eco-Friendly

Eco-friendly Construction

Sustainability Solutions: Making Your Construction Operation More Eco-Friendly

Eco-friendly Construction

With climate change, ocean acidification, and other environmental crises on the horizon, individual and corporate consumers increasingly demand sustainable products. Houses, offices, and other buildings are no exception. The less environmental damage construction firms cause, the greater the demand will be for their buildings, helping them to establish a loyal base of customers. Thus as a construction company, you should do everything in your power to reduce your impact on the environment, and that starts with:

Investing in Used Construction Equipment

Depending on the specific device you are purchasing, used construction equipment is often just as efficient as new equipment. By getting as much of your equipment secondhand as possible given the specific tasks you need to perform, you avoid generating demand for manufactured goods. As a result, fewer natural resources will have to be mined and used, reducing your contribution to a host of environmental problems. Meanwhile, you will be keeping older equipment out of the landfill.

While used devices are generally more affordable than new ones are, you will need to spend money inspecting and maintaining it, so as to ensure that it can meet your performance needs. You should thus make sure you have enough working capital to keep your used construction devices in good condition.

Using Recycled Materials

Besides recycling construction equipment, you should turn to recycled materials for your buildings. Everything from metal to wood to carpet to drywall can be repurposed, allowing you to finish large portions of the building without buying new materials. As with equipment, you should assemble the working capital necessary to inspect recycled building materials and make sure they are safe. But in general, you should be able to use them just as effectively as new materials while keeping your local landfill empty.

Improving Energy Efficiency

Beyond lowering the ecological cost of the construction process, you can design your buildings to have a low environmental impact after you finish them. Many of the decisions you make during construction will have an enduring impact on the amount of energy your buildings will use down the road. By investing in better insulation, more advanced heating, cooling, and ventilation systems, and more efficient wiring, you can create a building that uses minimal gas and electricity for the long haul. These investments don’t come cheap, making it essential that you raise significant amounts of working capital beforehand. But if you make them, your buildings will be both better for the environment and less expensive to inhabit.

Dimension Funding offers the working capital you need for sustainable construction and all other building projects. For more information, visit our website today.

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The Future of Software and How You Can Control Costs

Controlling Software Costs

The Future of Software and How You Can Control Costs

Controlling Software Costs

In the ever-changing world of technology, it is easy to get lost in the benefits and features of each new advance and not see the increasing costs that can be associated with having the best infrastructure to run your business. The larger concern is usually the high cost of maintaining hardware; a hosted, subscription software environment often seems a cash-flow-friendly complement. But be warned: While the upfront cost may look attractive, the amount spent over the long run, as well as the the impact of future costs to strategic planning, can make monthly subscriptions an extremely expensive option.

Here are some tips from our experience with clients making software-buying decisions.

  1. Know your costs for the next five years. Software is typically not used for a month or even a single year; the average life span for a software product is three to 10 years. Software companies would like you to think in the short term when making a purchase decision — thus the smaller, initial outlay so cost will appear less of an obstacle — but planning for the long term is where the savings lie. Depending on the provider, typical savings on the same software bought with your next five years in mind, compared to paying for it month-to-month in subscription fees, can be as much as 10 to 40 percent over the same number of years.
  2. Control automatic cost increases. Look at your subscription license agreement and realize how much the software company can raise the subscription price year after year. Many say the cost of renewing your subscription may rise as much as 10 percent each year. Purchasing for multiple years, or signing a multiyear contract, can avoid or mitigate this automatic cost increase.
  3. Research and establish your full implementation costs; look for prepaid or set pricing. Too often, not having an agreed-upon budget can nickel-and-dime your solution. We see customers who initially thought a project would cost $75,000 paying twice that to get it working properly. This can be due to myriad factors, but having the right partner, exploring the best solutions up front, and knowing what you need the software to do to make your company efficient and profitable can go a long way in controlling scope — and cost — creep.
  4. Find out what other software you’ll need to supplement the core solution. You’re usually not buying only the main ERP, CRM, or HRMS software, but will require additional middleware or third-party plug-ins to run the system properly. There are thousands of supplemental software programs used to help run the major platforms, and cost ranges are huge. It is extremely important to know this up front. We have seen clients duped into implementing less-expensive add-on software only to find later they actually need the more expensive option.

Know the full costs up front as much as possible. When you have this five-year plan and budget in hand, you can see the overall picture and better control your costs. So how then do you pay for all this to take advantage of the savings your plan provides and avoid cost overruns? There are various methods.

  1. Pay cash upfront. Cash is always king when it comes to lower total costs — but still recognize it may reduce much-needed working capital for your day-to-day operations. (Remember: Cash flow is why the monthly software-subscription model looks so attractive initially.)
  2. Use a line of credit. This will usually offer the best variable rate, but don’t forget that lines of credit are intended for short-term borrowing, not long-term assets like technology infrastructure components. Plus they may have additional fees, payment schedules, and other requirements and parameters when used.
  3. Get a fixed-term installment loan or payment agreement. Software can be financed along with professional services, maintenance, and most third-party software. Programs with low rates may let you take advantage of the prepaid discounts from software suppliers. These discounts can more-than-offset any finance charges and still give your company a substantial savings over the duration of your five-year plan. With a fixed term, you don’t need to worry about rising or variable interest rates, which makes your project budget far more realistic.

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Secondhand Superiority: The Benefits Of Relying On Used Construction Equipment

Used Construction Equipment

Secondhand Superiority: The Benefits Of Relying On Used Construction Equipment

Used Construction Equipment

As the owner or manager of a construction company, high capital costs will be a serious obstacle to success throughout the life of your business. From trucks to cranes to rigs to scaffolding, construction equipment is highly expensive, and is only getting costlier as time goes by. This creates a challenge for small and new construction companies, which struggle to afford all the equipment necessary to do their work safely and effectively. Used construction equipment offers an array of advantages for cash-strapped companies, allowing you to:

Reduce Purchase Prices of Construction Equipment

The initial purchase price for used equipment is far lower than that for new equipment. Depending on what specifically you are buying, you may be able to get twice as much used gear as new for the same cost. Not only does this prevent you from tying up all your money in initial purchases, but it gives you more financial flexibility to make sure you have every piece of equipment you need ahead of time. You’re thus unlikely to ever begin a construction job unprepared.

Deflect Depreciation

As with most vehicles, new construction equipment loses a large portion of its value the moment you take it off the lot— even if you keep it in pristine condition! When you buy used equipment, that initial depreciation will already be out of the way long before you make the purchase. As long as you make sure what you’re buying hasn’t been seriously damaged, you’ll be able to get the same quality gear without having to deal with depreciation. You can then resell it for nearly what you paid for it if you ever have to raise money or realize you don’t need the equipment.

Avoid Production Losses

When you buy new equipment, it’s often necessary to wait for weeks or even months for the manufacturer to produce and ship it. Used equipment, on the other hand, is ready to go right away. This means you will not have to pause your operations for as long, saving you from the cost of lost productivity.

Lower Equipment Leasing Expenses

Even if you plan to lease your equipment rather than purchasing it, there is still a financial advantage to choosing used. Used equipment is less expensive to lease than new equipment. This decreases the chance that you’ll have trouble keeping up with all of your payments. It also frees up more of your credit for use on emergencies and other expenses.

For more information on purchasing or leasing used equipment and other tips for cash-strapped construction businesses, contact Dimension Funding today.

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Barriers For Brewers: Financial Challenges In The Brewing Industry

Barriers for Brewers

Barriers For Brewers: Financial Challenges In The Brewing Industry

Barriers for Brewers

From the smallest craft businesses to the largest operations, brewing companies invariably face an array of challenges. Not only do they need to produce beers and other brewed products on the right scale and schedule to meet all their clients’ needs, but they also have significant health, environmental, and branding requirements. In order to keep up with all these obligations, brewers must have access to a large and flexible amount of funds on a regular basis. Only then will they be able to:

Obtain Essential Brewery Equipment

Few industries have more pressing capital needs than brewing. From the kettles and stills needed to produce beer and other brewed beverages to canning and bottling lines that package them to supplementary equipment required to wash all of these devices, brewers must fill their facilities with a wide variety of expensive and complex machinery. This creates serious barriers to entry for new startups, which often lack the cash or mortgageable assets to buy this equipment and begin production. Such companies depend on access to affordable leases and working capital in order to get off the ground.

Carry Out Repairs & Maintenance

In addition to getting their hands on brewing equipment in the first place, brewers need to make sure that equipment remains in good condition for the long haul. That means conducting frequent inspections, repairing any devices that are even mildly damaged, and updating existing equipment with new technology as soon as it becomes available. The cost of this maintenance work is usually low, but it can go up if you discover a major problem or need to invest in an expensive but promising enhancement. Access to working capital is essential for brewers to perform this work and keep their equipment in good condition throughout their time in business.

Respond to Shifting Demand

Public preferences for beer and other brewed beverages can change on a dime. If brewers want to keep up with this changing demand, they must be able to expand or scale back production of different varieties with little or no notice. This means investing in flexible equipment that can switch to brewing different products quickly, as well as maintaining access to all the ingredients necessary to create each product on their list. All these actions are expensive, making working capital essential.

Promoting Health

Besides addressing changes in consumer demand, brewers must respond quickly to health concerns. This may require taking essential equipment offline for cleaning or inspection, as well as switching out ingredients. Working capital is necessary to insulate brewers from the cost of lost production while taking these health precautions.

For more information on working capital and other financial resources for brewers, contact Dimension Funding today.

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The Benefits of Medical Equipment Financing and Leasing

Leasing Medical Equipment

The Benefits of Medical Equipment Financing and Leasing

Leasing Medical Equipment

When it comes to the healthcare industry, effective medical equipment financing is literally a matter of life and death. Unless you can obtain the most advanced equipment, drugs, and personnel to deal with every variety of diseases and injuries, you won’t be able to heal patients in critical conditions. For this reason, it is essential that you consider all your financial options and choose the one that best fits the needs of your hospital. In particular, you should never overlook the opportunity to lease medical equipment rather than buy it, an option that allows you to:

Invest in the Most Advanced Medical Equipment

If you insist on buying your equipment outright, you may not be able to afford the most advanced devices right away, forcing you to wait until you can save up enough money. Leasing lets you use those devices now, reaping benefits such as:

  • Lower Costs– More modern medical devices often use less energy for the work they do, lowering your power bill. This will improve the financial health of your hospital while helping make up the cost of the lease.
  • Better Outcomes– The more advanced medical equipment is, the more effective it will be at treating patients’ diseases and injuries. This speeds up recovery times, improves patients’ quality of life, and even saves lives.
  • Faster Service– Many of the latest medical devices serve patients more quickly than their older counterparts. Given how serious hospital overcrowding has become, there are few better investments you can make for your facility.

Remember that these benefits of financing and leasing don’t just help your facility and patients. By serving a larger number of people and achieving better outcomes, you reduce the strain on other hospitals and clinics as well, leading to better results throughout the healthcare system.

Keep Cash on Hand for Emergencies

Even if you have the money to buy all the advanced devices you need now, tying up that money in equipment may not be a wise decision for your hospital or patients. Remember that a natural disaster or other crisis could strike at any moment, causing a dramatic increase in injuries and illnesses. To meet the needs of this horde of new patients, you will have to order more drugs and devices, pay enough people to stay fully staffed at all times, and use more of your equipment ‘round the clock. All of these steps require massive spending, and without cash on hand, you may not be up to the challenge. Leasing your equipment leaves your funds free, allowing you to stay prepared for emergencies.

Dimension Funding offers medical equipment financing and leases for a wide variety of medical devices. To learn more or get started applying, contact us today.

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