How to fund inventory for a growing physical product business
Growing product businesses often run out of working capital to buy enough stock, which stops them from hitting higher monthly revenue goals and scaling marketing. Traditional lenders like WayFlyer and other alternative sources frequently reject applications, leaving businesses stuck without the inventory they need to keep up with demand.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Reaching out to professional networks, friends, and family for capitalDid this help you?
- 2Applying for e-commerce revenue-based financing or inventory lenders like Wayflyer and On RampDid this help you?
- 3Using payment processor working capital programs like PayPalDid this help you?
- 4Applying for a business line of credit via a traditional bankDid this help you?
- 5Cold emailing strangers directlyDid this help you?
- 6Self-funding through selling written stories or personal projectsDid this help you?
- 7Publicly sharing the struggle to attract attentionDid this help you?
- 8asking for book donationsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I own a consumer product business that’s been growing pretty steadily, and I’m starting to realize our biggest constraint is becoming working capital.”source ↗
“We’ve had periods where we simply don’t have enough inventory to keep up, and obviously it’s difficult to scale marketing aggressively when you’re worried about running out of product.”source ↗
“If I used former library books (paid for) or books found at garage sales for starting inventory - would that be acceptable? That feels kind of like cheating, but its not like im stealing from Little Free Libraries either. 🤔”source ↗
“The problem, like it is for a lot of small businesses trying to grow, is capital.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2How to scale a service business without enough capital
- 8How to get a small business loan to buy an existing business
- 12Funding my business out of my own pocket
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- 5How to turn a business idea into reality with no money
- 4How much does it actually cost to start a forestry mulching business?