Debt Consolidation and Refinancing: When is the Right Time?

Rick Dennen: Hi, I'm Rick Dennen, founder and CEO of Oak Street Funding, and welcome to OnPoint Vlogs. If businesses have debt, the time that I would really look to consolidate or refi is when there's a strategy shift. Is there an acquisition that's going on? Is there a lot of growth that's occurring? Is there a CapEx investment that you need to make? I think that is absolutely the most important time to really take a look at your capital structure and figure out does the debt truly match what the strategy is from a timeline perspective, in making sure that your lender understands your business very, very well? The second piece of really consolidating debt, if there's a market shift in cost. Currently with the rates coming down in March like they did, now might be a good time to start looking for fixed rate debt, or if you can consolidate that, shorten the timeframe, and pay it off quicker because of the reduced debt, that might be another time to take a look at it. But clearly the most important is making sure you've got a lender that understands your business and one that matches your business strategy.