Yonkers, NY Retail Store Funding

A retail city with several centers

Yonkers is Westchester's most populous city, with 211,569 residents in the 2020 census. Downtown Yonkers is centered on Getty Square, which serves the city and the northwest Bronx. Major shopping areas include Getty Square on South Broadway, the Cross County Shopping Center, Ridge Hill and the Central Park Avenue corridor. Independent shops compete with all of them, and many are also close to Metro-North's Hudson and Harlem lines.

The independent's edge

An independent does not have a national buying budget, but it has advantages: knowing its customers by name, carrying products the big stores do not, adapting quickly and serving specific communities. Yonkers' mix of immigrant communities creates real demand for specialty foods, goods and services that national chains do not cater to.

The cash cycle, from supplier to shelf

1. Order from suppliers, sometimes importers with long lead times.
2. Pay on arrival or within weeks.
3. Display and sell, with some items moving slowly.
4. Reorder.

Specialty importers often need payment up front and ship in large lots. That ties up cash for months.

Serving specific communities well

Shops that serve a particular community, whether through products, languages or services, often have loyal customers and a hard-to-copy advantage. They also face supply chains that are less standard: importers, specialty distributors and seasonal cycles tied to holidays that national chains do not follow. Learn your own calendar, and place orders early for the dates that matter. A shop that is stocked for its community's key holidays rarely needs to compete on price.

Rules for managing it

• Track weeks of stock for each category.
• Keep a minimum cash reserve equal to one month of fixed costs.
• Order seasonal goods early only for categories that sold well last year.
• Register for sales tax with a Certificate of Authority at least 20 days before your first taxable sale; there is no fee.

An illustration

A specialty-food shop wants to place a $30,000 import order that will arrive in six weeks and sell through the holiday season. The shop's cash covers rent and payroll but not the order. Funding sized to the order bridges the gap, repaid from sales. If the order sells more slowly, the owner still needs to carry repayments, so the amount should be one the shop can handle in a slower season. Round numbers; not our terms.

The application

We fund $25,000 to $5,000,000, in as little as 24 hours after approval. The application takes five minutes with a soft credit pull. We review about three months of business bank statements, require no tax returns and consider FICO 500+. Sole proprietors can apply. See working capital or lines of credit, then apply.

Related: Yonkers, Westchester County, Mid-Hudson, restaurants, construction.