Funding for your situation
How a catering company can bridge its slow months, which structures flex with revenue, and a worked gap calculation.
✓ Checking what you qualify for does not affect your credit score.
Every year the same pattern returns, and every year some catering companies are surprised by it. Wedding season, corporate holidays and graduation weekends decide the year. The right funding for a slow stretch is sized to the gap, not to the whole year.
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.
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.
Equipment is part of the picture. A failure such as a van refrigeration unit or a transport cart replacements can run $4,700 to $4,700 and interrupt revenue while it is down.
The documents that usually matter most for a catering company are the booking contract or signed proposal and a van or equipment quote, alongside the bank statements.
Wedding season, corporate holidays and graduation weekends decide the year. For a catering company, that rhythm decides when a funding request reads best and how it should be repaid.
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 |
|---|---|
| Fixed costs through the slow stretch (rent, utilities, insurance, 8 weeks) | $8,460 |
| Core payroll you plan to keep (8 weeks) | $7,500 |
| Supplier payments due before sales return | $3,500 |
| Extra staff for the first big booking ahead of the next peak | $5,000 |
| Marketing to refill the calendar | $1,500 |
| Cushion for overruns and slow early weeks (about 10%) | $2,500 |
| Slow-season gap to cover | $28,460 |
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 $30,000 (about $6,923 a week), that is roughly 20% 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.
Often front-loaded and easy to leave out of the first estimate.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
A real cost of the move that is easy to leave out of the first estimate.
People are paid on a schedule that does not wait for new revenue to ramp.
The spend that fills the new capacity, which is why it belongs in the plan.
A complete file is what makes a same-day decision possible. If something is missing, tell us and we will work around it.
A line of credit can fit a recurring gap, revenue-based financing flexes with sales, and working capital covers a defined stretch. Merchant Fund Express can show which fit your file.
Before is usually easier: deposits are stronger, and the file reads better. If you are already in the slow stretch, send the full twelve months so the seasonal pattern is explained.
They are read as part of the pattern. A seasonal business with a clear annual curve is easier to evaluate than one with unexplained dips.
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.
