What Kind of Deals are Good / Not So Good

“Industries with stable, recurring revenue models, like healthcare and essential services, often show strong repayment history due to consistent demand,” said Michelle Melo, Chief Revenue Officer at Westwood Funding. Melo, who’s been at Westwood for more than four years has seen a lot of deals come through the door and has gotten a feel for numerous industries. Over time, experiences like hers, have led to a general consensus about what business types make for good funding customers and why.

For Ken Peng, Director of Business Development & Marketing at Elevate Funding, he said of medical and healthcare related businesses that “I think the combination of being an essential service and traditionally having higher profit margins has allowed this industry to perform well from a repayment standpoint.”

Melo at Westwood said the technology industry has also performed well, while Michael Gaura, who works alongside Peng at Elevate, named an industry that’s challenging, trucking. Gaura, a Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, said that when it comes to trucking, “historically they have had challenges such as driver shortages, driver retention, and equipment maintenance making them a higher risk of repayment.”

“As of recently, [the trucking industry has] seen an increase in challenges of operational costs increases (fuel and insurance premiums), Economic & Supply Chain Issues, and increased competition, which has placed a further strain on their industry,” Gaura added.

Abe Klugmann, the COO and Head of Sales at YM Ventures, also had feelings about the state of the trucking industry, saying that it’s a “disaster.” “Construction is also very very challenging right now because of the economy,” he added. Unsurprisingly, like the others, he saw strength in the healthcare industry, saying that home healthcare businesses were among the most resilient. “It’s a pretty good industry, it works out pretty well when you find those types of companies,” he said.