Sources Of Finance

A printer in Chittagong needs 900,000 taka for a new press that will last eight years. His bank offers an overdraft on the spot and a term loan in three weeks. He takes the overdraft because he needs the press now. Fourteen months later the bank asks for the overdraft back, as it is entitled to do at any time, and he has to sell the press at a loss to repay it. The press was a good decision. The money used to buy it was the wrong money.

This lesson is about choosing the right money. You will learn the internal and external sources the specification names, from retained profit and selling unwanted assets through loans, overdrafts, trade credit, share issues, crowdfunding and grants, and what each one costs beyond its interest rate. You will learn the single rule that prevents most financing disasters, which is to match how long you need the money for to how long the source lasts, and you will practise judging which source suits a new business and which suits an established one. Finance questions are where the 12-mark Recommend items live, so this is a topic worth being fluent in.