When sales are up and your business is running smoothly, the last thing on your mind might be applying for business credit cards or unsecured lines of credit. But the truth is that the best time to talk to your lender is when business is booming, the bills are paid and your bank account is full.

If that seems like an odd idea to you, keep reading to see why your company should apply for business credit sooner rather than later.

Get Through Tough Times

The first and most obvious reason why every business should have access to credit is in case of emergency.

When sales are down, or when customers are late in making payments, your cash flow can drop like a rock and leave you unable to keep up with daily operations costs.

Running out of inventory, missing payroll and having half your fleet grounded for lack of fuel can all be avoided if you have credit available.

But there’s a catch.

Read on.

Use Credit to Build Credit

Most business owners recognize the value of credit for improving cash flow and figure they’ll just apply for credit if they run low on cash. But by then it might be too late.

It’s a lot more difficult to qualify for unsecured lines of credit when your numbers are down and you’re falling behind on the bills than it is when things are humming along nicely. By securing credit now, you’ll be ready to use it when needed.

Plus, by using credit responsibly now, you will improve your creditworthiness over time and set yourself up to qualify for larger amounts in the future.

Expand Your Business

Besides emergency preparedness and improved cash flow, you can also utilize unsecured lines of credit to grow and expand your business.

With that extra influx of funds you could hire another crew, purchase or lease additional equipment, buy in bulk to get volume discounts, improve employee retention by offering more pay and benefits and ultimately serve more customers every week.

If you haven’t yet secured your company’s unsecured lines of credit for the purposes listed above, reach out to Summit Commercial Capital today and see how you can make credit work for you.