Funding for your situation
What adding online ordering and delivery costs a catering company, how funders read it, and a worked example.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
Online ordering and delivery are the cheapest way for a catering company to add a second revenue line, and they are not free. A corporate client wants weekly lunches, and the food cost and payroll hit weeks before the first invoice is paid. The setup is small; the first month of marketing, packaging and staffing is not.
Merchant Fund Express is a funding marketplace: you apply once, and the file is matched to the structure that fits it. The sections below show what this situation usually costs, how a funder reads it, and what to prepare.
What it looks like on the ground: a corporate client wants weekly lunches, and the food cost and payroll hit weeks before the first invoice is paid.
Compliance touchpoints for a catering company often include catering license and commissary agreement, which can come up when the request involves a new site, a purchase or a significant change.
A catering company file is read through deposit-to-balance flow and how much is paid before the event, corporate receivables aging and seasonality across twelve months.
Deposits arrive in lumps: event deposits, balance payments and corporate invoices on net terms. A reviewer sees that pattern in the statements before reading a word of the application.
These are the same factors described on revenue and deposit requirements and time in business. Merchant Fund Express walks you through how your own file reads before you apply.
| Cost item | Illustrative amount |
|---|---|
| Ordering system and tablet or POS integration | $2,000 |
| Packaging and delivery supplies for the first month | $1,500 |
| Photography, catalog build-out and platform onboarding | $1,500 |
| Launch marketing and promotions | $3,000 |
| Added staffing for peak windows (8 weeks) | $4,500 |
| Refrigerated van to keep up with orders | $13,500 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $2,500 |
| Cost of launching ordering and delivery | $28,500 |
Sizing check. If the full repayment shown in an offer were $36,000 over about 26 weeks, the weekly debit would be about $1,385. Against illustrative monthly deposits of $25,000 (about $5,769 a week), that is roughly 24% of weekly deposits. Your own offer states the real repayment amount in dollars; run your numbers on the factor rate calculator before you accept anything.
Source: worksheet by Merchant Fund Express. Illustrative only: these figures are not an offer, and real amounts depend on your file and the funder.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
Bought ahead of the first sale and sitting as cash until it turns.
Paid to a contractor before opening, often in draws that start before any revenue.
The spend that fills the new capacity, which is why it belongs in the plan.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
Usually with a small working capital amount or a line of credit, sized to the first two months.
Payouts are net of platform fees and arrive on the platform's schedule, so they are read alongside card deposits.
Often, depending on the file. See funding by industry.
The minimum FICO is 500, and better credit means better products and terms. See credit score requirements for how the tiers work.
Merchant Fund Express gives a same-day decision on a complete file. Applying takes a few minutes and will not affect your credit score.
