How we combined working capital, debt consolidation and a home equity line to restructure a 16-year-old gas station's payments and free up cash for new store equipment and inventory.
An owner-operated gas station and convenience store that has served its community since 2010. Revenue comes from in-store grocery and convenience sales, lottery, and fuel, with steady daily foot traffic and thin, volume-driven margins.
Convenience retail runs on volume and speed. The shelves have to stay full, coolers and equipment have to work, and the margin on each sale is thin. Like many operators, the owner had layered several short-term financing positions over time. Each one solved an immediate need, but together the weekly debits ate up the cash the store needed to restock and grow.
The problem wasn't the business. Sales were steady and the store had more than a decade of history. The problem was the payment structure: too many short-term positions hitting the account every week, leaving too little cash to reinvest.
We started by laying out every open position: balance, weekly payment, and payoff date. That showed exactly how much of the store's weekly cash flow was already spoken for before a single invoice was paid.
Instead of stacking another position on top, we led with a debt consolidation. In April 2025 we structured $124K to take over existing weekly payments, alongside $75K in working capital to put directly into the store. In November 2025 we did it again with a $108K consolidation, and that facility was paid in full in about 6 months.
As positions were cleared, we placed new working capital rounds sized to the store's real cash flow. Those rounds paid for store equipment and inventory, and several also paid off remaining third-party balances at funding so the owner wasn't carrying overlapping debits.
In August 2026 we brought in a $110K home equity line of credit (HELOC). The HELOC gives the owner a long-term structure with monthly payments at a much lower cost than short-term weekly financing, so it can replace the most expensive short-term debt instead of adding to it.
We placed 8 rounds across our lender network instead of locking the owner into one provider, picking the best available structure each time.
| Date | Amount | Structure | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2025 | $124,000 | Debt consolidation | Take over existing weekly payments |
| Apr 2025 | $75,000 | Working capital | Store equipment and inventory |
| Nov 2025 | $108,150 | Debt consolidation | Second consolidation of weekly obligations, paid in full in about 6 months |
| May 2026 | $75,000 | Working capital | Inventory |
| Jun 2026 | $50,000 | Working capital | Inventory and operations; paid in full |
| Aug 2026 | $100,000 | Working capital | Growth capital; paid off $45K in third-party balances at funding |
| Aug 2026 | $110,258 | Home equity line of credit | Long-term, lower-cost capital to replace short-term debt |
| Sep 2026 | $50,000 | Working capital | Inventory |
| Total | $692,408 | 3 structures | 8 rounds · 17 months |
From $202K to $240K (Dec 2024 to Mar 2026). The capital went into stock on the shelves.
From $499K (Q1 2025) to $539K (Q1 2026).
Facilities were cleared and documented with zero-balance letters, including the November 2025 consolidation, which was paid in full in about 6 months.
The owner went from relying entirely on short-term weekly financing to holding a long-term home equity line of credit.
Juggling several weekly payments doesn't mean your business is in trouble. It usually means the structure needs work. We'll review every position you have, show you what consolidating or refinancing would do to your weekly cash flow, and match you with the right mix of products, from working capital to longer-term options like a HELOC or SBA loan.
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