Blog: Insights From the Fastlane

What lenders actually read, the ratios that matter, and how to pre-negotiate terms A bank package is not a document dump. It’s a curated, lender-ready narrative backed by numbers that survive scrutiny. Tight packages move through credit faster, earn cleaner covenants, and avoid the "please resend page 42" purgatory. At Sharp CFO™, we build packages

Most businesses run on hope and yesterday’s P&L… Cute!The companies that don’t panic on Thursdays run a 13-week cash flow. It’s simple, relentless, and unfairly effective at keeping you solvent while everyone else is guessing.

When an S-corp nets $150,000 to $250,000 before owner salary, the reflex is to crank up wages “to be safe.” That’s not always necessary. Our firm applies an effort vs. capitalization framework that pegs wages to the owner’s actual labor and credits a fair return to capital and systems. Used correctly, this approach can support a $50,000 W-2 wage for the owner while keeping the rest available for distributions, cash reserves, and growth.

The Rule, In Plain English An S-corporation must pay shareholder-employees a reasonable salary for the services they perform before distributing remaining profits. This isn’t folklore; it comes from how the Internal Revenue Code treats compensation and payroll tax: