To my 11-year-old self, $10 may as well have been a limitless fortune. It felt incredibly freeing to have $10 to spend. I could buy a ton of candy, a magazine or two, a toy, and still have money left over.

I still feel that way today at certain times, particularly when I have some extra money and I go shopping for “Fletch Stuff”. There’s just something about having the funds to buy both what you need, and what you want. And maybe even have enough left over for a little extra.  

This Is Exactly What Equipment Financing Feels Like

You need new equipment for your business. And when you know you have ample funds to “go shopping” with, it changes the entire dynamic of your equipment purchase. No longer are you constrained by cash on hand, and no longer do you have to settle for a lesser model due to cost.

Even better is when you have an equipment lender who will finance MORE than the price of the piece of equipment – this allows you to buy attachments, add-ons, optional modules for software, maintenance agreements, training, installation… everything you need.  

Crest Capital has made it easy to get a good idea if you can “go shopping” – our pre-approval tool has been used by thousands of companies, letting them know they can be a kid in a candy store, just like I was when I was 11. It’s a really good feeling.

And like my last post mentioned, businesses who sell equipment would do well to offer financing. Give your customers that same feeling my grandfather gave me, and let them shop till’ they drop!

Fletch out.

I was getting my oil changed the other day, and started thinking about “maintenance”, as in regular maintenance for my car (because, of course, that’s exactly what an oil change is).

Then, since I’m Fletch, my mind wanders to equipment financing, and regular maintenance on purchased equipment. And it occurred to me that I don’t speak about maintenance agreements and things like that nearly enough. Because one of the advantages of equipment financing is the fact that a good equipment financing company (like mine) will not only finance equipment, but also finance what are called “soft costs”, like a maintenance agreement.

Oh, I’ve mentioned soft cost financing from time to time, and maybe even had a post about it, but this time, I’m going to do a little series on financing soft costs along with equipment, because it deserves some time in the sun. In future posts, I’ll highlight a popular soft cost that can get financed, and discuss it a little. Because I’m certain there are people out there who are unaware that you can not only finance, say, a baling machine, but you can also finance delivery, setup, training, the tax, a maintenance agreement, and more.

But we’ll look at all of those later – for now, let’s discuss the very idea of soft costs, and why financing them is a great reason to choose an equipment financing company.

If you read here often, you know all the ways an equipment finance company can beat the bank. And one of those reasons is an equipment finance company will finance 100% of the equipment, PLUS soft costs. A bank will typically only finance 80%, and NO soft costs. This means you are not only on the hook for the unfinanced 20%, but if you want anything extra (like perhaps a few training sessions for that complicated machine), well, that comes right out of your pocket too.

But the friendly equipment financing company will not only finance 100% of your equipment, they can finance the soft costs as well. So yes, go get the training and the maintenance agreement, because they make perfect sense. Hey, we want you to be as successful as possible, and if we can help by financing the training (et al) to go along with the machine, we will.

Soft costs financing is a good thing, and it’s something you should definitely consider the next time you finance or lease equipment.