CONSTRUCTION CASH EMERGENCY: WHAT TO DO RIGHT NOW.
Stop. Before you call an MCA broker, draw on personal credit, or do anything irreversible — do this first. Call your top three GC accounts and request immediate payment on the oldest outstanding invoice. Most acute cash crises resolve within 5 to 10 business days through aggressive AR recovery, not new debt. The money is almost always there. It is just sitting uncollected.
SPM has recovered over $2.1M in client AR since 2023 — in situations that looked like they required a loan. In almost every case, the cash existed. The process to collect it did not. This playbook is the process.
When a subcontractor hits a cash wall, the instinct is to blame external factors — slow GCs, retainage holds, delayed pay apps. Sometimes those are real. More often, the acute crisis is caused by something internal: AR that was submitted and never followed up on.
A $4M civil subcontractor with $287,000 in receivables averaging 52 days outstanding is not being victimized by slow GCs. They have $287,000 sitting in unpaid invoices because no one called to collect them. The GC is slow because no one is pushing. A systematic collection call on Monday morning changes that within two weeks.
Three common responses to a cash crisis make it structurally worse. First: merchant cash advances. An MCA on a $3M company at 40% factor rate costs $110,000 per month in payments on a $300,000 advance. That payment comes out of cash flow that was already short. The business is now fighting the cash crisis AND the MCA payment simultaneously.
Second: drawing on personal credit or home equity. Once personal assets are pledged to business debt, the calculus changes completely — a business failure becomes a personal financial catastrophe. Do not cross that line until every business-level option is exhausted.
Third: delaying supplier payments without calling them first. Suppliers who are not contacted go on credit hold. Credit hold stops material delivery. Stopped delivery stops billing. Stopped billing makes the cash crisis worse.
A subcontractor with $220,000 in AR over 45 days and payroll due in 10 days looks like they need a bridge loan. They do not. They need a Monday morning collection call to three GC accounts. A GC who receives a call requesting immediate payment on a 52-day invoice — with a clear statement that the subcontractor needs it processed this week — releases payment in 3 to 7 business days in most cases. Not all. But most.
On $220,000 in AR, even recovering 60% — $132,000 — in 10 days resolves a payroll crisis. The remainder follows in the next billing cycle. No debt, no MCA, no personal guarantee, no escalation.
FLAT MONTHLY FEE. NO SURPRISES.
Two tiers based on trailing 12-month revenue. No hourly billing. No payroll. No add-ons.
| Revenue | Core Financial | Executive Financial |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | $1,900/mo | $2,900/mo |
| $1M–$3M | $2,600/mo | $3,600/mo |
| $4M–$6M | $3,800/mo | $5,500/mo |
| $7M–$9M | $5,100/mo | $6,900/mo |
| $10M–$12M | $6,100/mo | $8,500/mo |
| $13M+ | Quoted | Quoted |
FREQUENTLY ASKED.
