Insider has been financing outdoor companies for 20 years.    Here’s the information you should put together before you approach a lender.  By having the information already assembled you will look professional and competent.  The most important items are listed first.

• Income Statement and Balance Sheet for your outdoor company for the past three years.  Financials are the most important item to the lender.  A lender who knows your business will zero in on your cashflow (earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization).

• Income statement and balance sheet for your outdoor company for the interim period of the current year together with the interim period of the previous year.  This allows a lender to compute trailing 12 months revenues and cashflow for your company.

• An estimate of the value of your outdoor company together with references to third party sources which support your estimate.  A valuation is less important when your lender knows the business (Insider forms his own estimate of your value) but will be critical if you are seeking bank or SBA financing.  Include a recent letter of intent if you’ve received one or refer to  valuation articles at Signvalue or Billboard Insider.  Type valuation into the Billboard Insider search box in the top right corner of this page and you’ll see several articles on outdoor company valuations.

• An inventory sheet for your outdoor company listing the following:  sign locations, sign size, sign type (wood/monopole, digital/trivision/static), landlord, lease expiry, lease amounts, tenants, tenant rents.  The inventory sheet allows your lender to compute the weighted average remaining life for your leases.

• Personal financial statement for you.

• A one page management bio for you and key members of your company.  Where you’ve worked and what you’ve done.

• 1-2 paragraphs on how much money you want and for what.  Never says “as much money as you’ll lend me.”  That sounds irresponsible to your lender.

Paid Ad