Murray Bryant, a professor at the University of Western Ontario's Ivey School of Business, says the growth of a business commonly leads to orders but no cash to process them.
"Rapid growth is one of the most challenging things about running a business," he says. "It can take months to manufacture an item, and meanwhile there are staff and other overheads to pay and materials to purchase.
"If the business has to wait 60 days or more to be paid, you can be looking at seven or eight months. During this period, an investment of cash will be needed. More so now than ever banks are not keen to expose themselves to any liability — they're strictly in the business of making money for their shareholders."
Read today's feature story on the topic here.
Mr. Bryant joined us to talk about strategies companies can use to keep their businesses afloat during those periods of rapid growth. View an archive in the box below.