Lending Solutions Built Around Your Business — Not the Other Way Around
10 Specialized Services — $100K to $5M — 347 Businesses Financed Since 2010
We're honest about what we are: a 10-person firm founded by Dr. Martin Ellsworth that focuses exclusively on business lending for small and medium-sized enterprises in Quebec and neighboring regions. We don't do consumer loans, mortgages, or credit cards. Every service below was developed from real-world client needs we encountered across $340M+ in originations — and refined through academic research methodology that sets us apart from conventional lenders. Here's what we do, how each service works, and exactly who it's designed for.
01 Commercial Term Loans — Financing Matched to How Your Business Actually Works
You're financing a $800K equipment purchase on a 3-year term because your bank only offers standardized products — paying $26K/month when the equipment will generate revenue for 10 years. Your cash flow is strained, you're deferring other investments, and the rigid monthly obligation makes every slow quarter feel like a crisis.
That same equipment is financed on a 7-year amortization matched to its productive life — dropping your monthly payment to $12K and freeing $14K/month for operations. Your debt service coverage ratio improves from 1.1x to 1.8x, giving you breathing room and the capacity to pursue your next growth opportunity without refinancing.
Range: $100K–$5M. Amortization 3–10 years. We build customized repayment schedules for seasonal and cyclical businesses — including step-up structures for companies expecting revenue growth and interest-only periods during ramp-up phases. Every term sheet includes a written pricing breakdown showing base rate, margin, fees, and effective all-in cost. We publish what other lenders bury. If your business has predictable revenue patterns (agricultural processors, tourism operators, construction firms), we'll structure payments that align with your cash flow peaks rather than forcing equal monthly installments year-round.
Ideal for: Established SMEs needing capital for expansion, equipment upgrades, facility improvements, or technology investments. Businesses with 2+ years of operating history and demonstrable cash flow. Seasonal businesses that need repayment flexibility their current bank won't provide.
02 Acquisition Financing — Close Deals Banks Won't Touch
Your bank declined the deal because it's "primarily goodwill" — the acquired value is customer contracts and recurring revenue, and traditional lenders can't underwrite intangible assets. You've spent three months and $15K in legal fees only to hit a financing wall that kills the deal entirely.
Ellsworth Lend evaluates recurring revenue as a quasi-asset using discounted cash flow methodology developed from Dr. Ellsworth's academic research at McGill. TechNord Solutions closed their $1.3M acquisition in 38 days and retained 94% of acquired clients. The deal structure included an earn-out bridge that protected both buyer and seller during the transition period.
Includes: Joint due diligence with your advisory team, earn-out bridging facilities, vendor take-back coordination, and cash-flow-based covenants designed for post-acquisition integration periods. Purpose-built for deals heavy on intangible value — recurring revenue streams, long-term customer contracts, brand equity, intellectual property, and proprietary processes. We've financed acquisitions across technology services, professional practices, manufacturing, and healthcare — industries where the real value rarely shows up on a balance sheet.
Timeline: From initial inquiry to term sheet, our average turnaround is 4.2 business days. Full funding typically occurs within 15–35 business days depending on deal complexity and third-party requirements. We coordinate directly with legal counsel, accountants, and the seller's representatives to eliminate bottlenecks that delay closings.
03 Commercial Real Estate Lending — Underwritten on Your Business, Not Just the Building
Your current lender requires cross-collateralization with your other business assets and personal property just to finance a warehouse purchase. You're pledging everything you own for a single facility — and if market conditions shift, they can call the loan based on appraisal decline even though your business is performing perfectly.
We underwrite on your operating business's debt service capacity, not just appraised value. LTV up to 80%. Amortization up to 20 years. No cross-collateralization unless the risk profile genuinely demands it — and if it does, we'll explain exactly why and explore alternatives with you before proceeding.
Parameters: Owner-occupied commercial properties only — we don't finance speculative real estate investment. Underwriting is based on your business's operating cash flow and debt service coverage ratio, not solely on real estate appraisal. We analyze your trailing 24 months of financials alongside the property's role in your operations: Is this a warehouse that enables $2M in annual revenue? A production facility that's essential to fulfilling contracts? That context changes the risk calculus entirely. Clear, upfront security requirements — no last-minute surprises during closing. We provide a complete list of required documentation within 48 hours of initial inquiry so you know exactly what's needed from day one.
Property types financed: Warehouses, production facilities, mixed-use commercial buildings (with owner-occupied component), retail locations, professional offices, and light industrial. Located in Quebec or neighboring provinces.
04 Equipment & Vehicle Financing — Terms That Match Asset Lifespan, Not Bank Policy
Financing your fleet through a third-party lessor who charges prime + 4.5% and locks you into rigid terms with punitive early-exit fees. You can't upgrade equipment mid-term, you're paying for depreciated assets long after they've stopped being productive, and the lessor's fine print means you'll owe 18 months of remaining payments if you need to exit early.
Direct lending with amortization matched to each asset's actual productive lifespan. Fleet programs with rolling availability for replacement and expansion. Mid-term upgrade provisions built into the facility so you can swap aging equipment without penalty. One relationship, one set of terms, transparent pricing throughout.
Details: Amortization schedules reflecting actual productive lifespan — a CNC machine with a 12-year useful life doesn't get crammed into a 3-year term, and a delivery van with a 5-year lifespan doesn't get stretched to 8 years to reduce payments artificially. Fleet programs with rolling availability let you add or replace units as your operations demand without renegotiating the entire facility. Mid-term upgrade provisions mean you're never stuck with depreciating equipment on a locked-in term.
What we finance: Manufacturing equipment, construction machinery, commercial vehicles and fleet vehicles, specialized tools and technology infrastructure, restaurant and hospitality equipment, medical and dental equipment. Minimum $100K per facility; individual assets can be as small as $25K within a larger program. We've walked enough production floors and loading docks to understand that your equipment needs aren't theoretical — they're the backbone of your revenue.
05 Revolving Credit Facilities — Operating Lines That Grow With You
Your current operating line uses a generic advance rate formula — 65% of all receivables regardless of quality — leaving $200K of eligible borrowing base on the table. Worse, your rate only ratchets up when performance dips but never comes back down when things improve. You're subsidizing the lender's risk with your strong receivables book.
Our advance rates reflect your specific receivables quality and aging profile. A/R under 30 days with blue-chip counterparties? That advances at a higher rate than 90-day receivables from newer customers. Quarterly borrowing base reviews with full transparency — you see exactly how we calculate your available room. No hidden margin ratchets.
Range: $50K–$3M working capital lines, structured to flex with your business cycle. Our bidirectional pricing model ties rate adjustments to objective, measurable metrics — your rate can go down when performance improves, not just up when it declines. This is unusual in the industry, and it's deliberate: we believe aligned incentives produce better outcomes for both lender and borrower. Quarterly borrowing base reviews are conducted transparently — we share our calculations, explain any changes to advance rates, and give you 30 days' notice before any material adjustment takes effect.
Reporting: We provide monthly utilization summaries and quarterly facility health reports. You'll know your available room, average utilization rate, effective borrowing cost, and covenant compliance status at all times. No surprises. If we see early warning signs — rising concentration in a single debtor, aging receivables, declining turnover — we bring it up proactively rather than waiting until covenant breach.
06 Project-Based Working Capital — Fund the Job Before the Invoice
As a design firm, you're funding $200K in upfront material purchases on personal credit cards at 19.99% because banks don't understand project-based cash flow. You've turned down two large contracts this year because you couldn't float the upfront costs. Your growth is limited by personal credit capacity, not by demand for your services.
A $300K revolving facility with draws tied to accepted contracts. 70% advance rate on contracted-but-unbilled project value. Prime + 3.5%. Atelier Noïa Design eliminated all personal borrowing within 60 days and accepted three projects they previously would have declined — increasing annual revenue by 40% in the first year.
Designed for: Construction subcontractors, interior design and architecture firms, custom manufacturers, IT integrators, event production companies, and any business where significant cash goes out weeks or months before invoices come in. Draws are tied to project milestones and accepted contracts, not generic formulas designed for widget manufacturers. We've walked enough production floors, visited enough job sites, and reviewed enough project pro formas to know that your economics aren't textbook — and your financing shouldn't be either.
How it works: You provide accepted contracts or purchase orders. We establish advance rates based on contract value, counterparty creditworthiness, and project complexity. As you hit milestones and invoice clients, draws are repaid. The facility revolves, freeing capacity for your next project. We monitor work-in-progress and progress billings to ensure the facility stays aligned with your actual project pipeline — and we adjust availability as your backlog grows.
07 Bridge & Transitional Financing — Short-Term Capital With a Clear Exit
You're stuck between selling one property and purchasing another, with a 4-month gap that your bank won't bridge — or will, at prime + 6% with punitive terms and a personal guarantee that exposes your family home. Every week of delay costs you $8K in lost revenue from the new location you can't occupy.
6–18 month facilities priced to reflect short duration and specific exit strategy. No excessive risk premiums. Every bridge loan we originate requires a clearly defined, credible exit — we won't originate without one. That discipline protects you as much as it protects us. If the exit timeline shifts, we work with you proactively rather than triggering default provisions.
Structure: Short-duration facilities where the exit strategy is as important as the entry. We price for actual risk, not "bridge loan premium" — if your exit is credible and well-documented, your rate reflects that. We're honest about what we need to see before committing: a definitive sale agreement with firm closing date, committed permanent takeout financing with a term sheet in hand, or a verifiable milestone trigger (government contract award, regulatory approval, lease execution) with documented timeline.
Common scenarios: Property sale-leaseback transitions, acquisition bridge prior to permanent financing placement, construction completion gaps, insurance claim payouts with known timelines, and government contract mobilization periods. We've seen bridge loans go wrong at other institutions when the exit isn't properly vetted — we won't let that happen to you. Our credit committee reviews every bridge exit scenario independently.
08 Capital Structure Advisory & Debt Restructuring — Simplify, Save, and Regain Control
Four different lenders, overlapping covenants that occasionally contradict each other, conflicting security interests, an effective blended cost of 9.7%, and 15 hours per month managing relationships and filing reports. You spend more time managing debt than managing your business — and you're not entirely sure you're in compliance with all four sets of covenants at any given moment.
A single consolidated facility with one set of covenants. Blended cost drops from 9.7% to 5.8%. Admin time drops from 15 hours/month to 3. Annual savings of $109K in interest and administrative costs. Logistique Couronne used the freed-up cash flow to hire two additional drivers and expand their delivery territory by 30%.
Scope: We review your entire capital structure — every lender, every covenant, every security interest, every fee schedule — and build a governance framework that actually makes sense for a business your size. This isn't a quick-fix refinance; it's a comprehensive restructuring that addresses the root causes of capital inefficiency. Deliverables include detailed process documentation, a consolidated standard operating procedure for lender reporting, key performance indicator dashboards so you can monitor compliance without an accounting degree, and a 12-month roadmap for capital optimization.
Who benefits most: Businesses that have accumulated multiple lending relationships over time — often through necessity rather than strategy. If you have two or more lenders, overlapping security, or covenants you don't fully understand, this service will likely save you meaningful money and significant time. We also work with businesses approaching covenant breach to negotiate amendments proactively rather than waiting for a default notice. Dr. Ellsworth's research background in capital structure theory means our approach is grounded in methodology, not just industry convention.
09 Franchise & Multi-Unit Financing — Expansion Capital That Understands Franchise Economics
Your lender doesn't understand franchisor approval processes, royalty obligations, or how territory exclusivity affects unit economics. They're underwriting each location in isolation, missing the portfolio effect of multi-unit operations. Approval takes 90+ days because their credit team has to educate themselves on franchise agreements from scratch every time.
Dedicated structures accounting for ramp-up periods, royalty impacts on debt service capacity, and performance-based step-down pricing that rewards successful execution. We've financed multi-location expansions across restaurant, healthcare, fitness, and professional service industries. Our team understands unit-level economics, franchisor FDD requirements, and the operational realities of scaling from two units to ten.
Approach: Franchise lending requires scope management and change control that generic lenders simply don't provide. We coordinate directly with franchisors, model royalty-adjusted DSCR for each unit and the portfolio as a whole, build business continuity plans for each location, and structure step-down pricing so your rate improves as new locations stabilize and hit performance thresholds. Status reports are delivered monthly during ramp-up periods — you always know where you stand relative to projections.
Multi-unit advantages: For franchisees operating three or more units, we offer portfolio-level facilities that consolidate borrowing across locations, reduce administrative overhead, and provide pre-approved expansion capacity so you can move quickly when new territories become available. We also build covenant structures that account for the drag of new-unit ramp-up on overall portfolio metrics — so opening your fifth location doesn't trigger a covenant breach on the other four.
10 Government Loan Program Facilitation — Access Every Dollar You're Entitled To
You qualify for the Canada Small Business Financing Program but don't know it — or your application was poorly structured and rejected. Government programs have specific eligibility windows, documentation requirements, and stacking rules that change regularly. Your bank's generalist commercial team doesn't track these details closely enough to maximize your access.
We handle eligibility analysis, application preparation, and co-lending coordination across every major program: CSBFP, BDC subordinated financing, Investissement Québec, PME MTL, and Futurpreneur where applicable. No additional fee for this service — it's included as part of our standard offering. The result is a lower blended borrowing cost and access to subordinated capital that improves your overall capital structure.
What we do: We maintain active knowledge management systems tracking eligibility criteria, program changes, application requirements, and approval timelines for every major government lending program in Quebec and federally. This includes the Canada Small Business Financing Program (up to $1M for equipment and leaseholds, up to $350K for real property), BDC subordinated financing and co-lending products, Investissement Québec's various SME programs, and PME MTL's loan products for Montréal-based businesses. Our team prepares the complete application package — you review and sign. No additional advisory fee; this is part of our standard service for every eligible borrower.
Why it matters: Government programs typically offer below-market rates and longer amortization, but the application process is bureaucratic and error-prone. A rejected CSBFP application can delay your project by 8–12 weeks. We've submitted hundreds of these applications and understand exactly what adjudicators look for. Our approval rate on government program applications exceeds 90% — because we don't submit applications that aren't properly prepared and clearly eligible.
From inquiry to funding
Every Service Follows Our Transparent 6-Phase Process
Regardless of which lending solution you need, our process remains the same: a structured, documented path from first conversation to funding in 15–35 business days. No black boxes, no unexplained delays, no surprises at closing. Every step is communicated in advance and tracked through your borrower portal.
View the Full 6-Phase Process →