Small and medium-sized enterprises face many difficulties in the process of rapid development, among which financing difficulty is the main bottleneck hindering their development. With the gradual improvement of China's market economic system and the rapid development of financial market, innovative tools of capital market appear constantly, and the degree of financial globalization is getting higher and higher, which is both an opportunity and a challenge for financing decisions of small and medium-sized enterprises. There are both external and internal factors that affect the financing decision of small and medium-sized enterprises. On the one hand, the financing service chain is not perfect and the financing system is not perfect. On the other hand, small and medium-sized enterprises still have many shortcomings and congenital defects, such as vague property rights and closed structure; Weak ability to resist risks; The information disclosure mechanism is not perfect; Lack of credit is common; Major issues such as weak financial control. The relative importance of various factors has different influence degrees and effects under different conditions, so small and medium-sized enterprises must weigh and analyze the influence of various factors in financing in order to make scientific financing decisions. How to choose financing methods, how to grasp the financing scale, and the timing, conditions, costs and risks of various financing methods all need serious analysis and research before financing. So, how can we work out the best financing plan? Professor Zhang, an investment and financing expert, believes that the following seven points are the main points of financing decision-making:
First, the total financing income is greater than the total financing cost.
When enterprises are financing, the first thing to consider is what is the return on investment after financing? Because financing is cost, including interest cost of capital, expensive financing cost and uncertain risk cost. Therefore, you only need to consider it if you are sure that the expected total income from using the raised funds is greater than the total cost of financing. This is the first prerequisite for enterprises to make financing decisions.
Second, the scale of enterprise financing should be within our capabilities.
When raising funds, enterprises must first determine the financing scale of enterprises. Too much financing, or it may cause idle waste of funds and increase financing costs; Or it may lead to excessive debts, unbearable and difficult to repay, and increase business risks. However, insufficient financing will affect the normal development of investment and financing plans and other businesses of enterprises. Therefore, at the beginning of financing decision, enterprises should determine a reasonable financing scale according to their own demand for funds, their actual conditions, the difficulty and cost of financing.
Third, choose the best financing opportunities for enterprises.
Generally speaking, we should fully consider the following aspects: first, the financing decision of enterprises should be forward-looking. Enterprises should be able to grasp all kinds of information of domestic and foreign financial markets, such as interest rates and exchange rates, understand all kinds of external environmental factors, such as macroeconomic situation, monetary and fiscal policies, political environment at home and abroad, and reasonably analyze and predict all kinds of favorable and unfavorable conditions and possible changing trends that can affect enterprise financing, so as to seek the best financing opportunity and make decisive decisions.
Second, considering the characteristics of specific financing methods, and combining with the actual situation of enterprises, make reasonable financing decisions in a timely manner.
Fourth, reduce the financing cost of enterprises as much as possible.
The financing cost of enterprises is the decisive factor that determines the financing efficiency of enterprises. For small and medium-sized enterprises, it is of great significance to choose which financing method. In the financing practice of enterprises, there is an optimal financing order. Generally speaking, the optimal order is: first, the enterprise raises funds by itself. Small and medium-sized enterprises with small investment will be given priority to withdraw cash from deposit accounts; Secondly, only consider the realization of short-term investment. Second, small and medium-sized enterprises will generally give priority to reducing the dividend ratio when their own funds are insufficient. The third is external financing. Enterprises first consider bank loans, followed by issuing bonds; Finally, issue shares. From the priority of financing, we can see that internal financing is actually the most priority, while stock financing is the last choice of external financing.
The financing theory and practice in western developed countries have proved that small and medium-sized enterprises generally adopt? Internal financing takes precedence, followed by debt financing, followed by equity financing? Financing order.
But this seems to be different from the financing preference order of listed companies in China at present. The problem is that in the practice of financial management of small and medium-sized enterprises, a considerable number of enterprises have not applied the theory of financing priority to practice, and most enterprises choose financing methods based on intuitive judgment and superficial capital cost. Therefore, in listed companies, the more they don't want to take investment risks, the more they tend to invest in equity. In addition, market inefficiency and cost distortion have also brought confusion to corporate financing. In fact, under the perfect capital market conditions, the cost of debt financing is lower than that of equity financing, because debt interest is paid before tax and has the effect of tax deduction, while dividends paid by equity financing are distributed after tax and have no tax deduction effect. Debt financing should be the preferred financing method. However, in China's current stock market, the cost of equity financing is indeed lower than that of bond financing due to the low dividend pressure and distorted stock price. According to data, China's current 3? The financing cost of a 5-year bank loan is about 7.05%? 8. 17%, much higher than the stock financing cost 1. 18%. This inversion of capital cost will inevitably lead to the preference of management for equity financing.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) seeks the best capital structure.
Capital structure is the proportional relationship between debt financing and equity financing in the total capital of an enterprise, that is, the ratio of debt financing to total capital. Capital structure is the core issue of enterprise financing decision-making, and its essence is that when the cost of capital is the lowest, a moderate debt ratio must be maintained. Debt has an important impact on the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises: first, tax incentives. Since the interest expenses of debt financing can be deducted, this preferential tax saving will increase with the increase of corporate debt. The second is the financial leverage effect. No matter how much profit the enterprise realizes, the fixed interest expenses borne by each yuan of surplus will be reduced accordingly, thus bringing more benefits to each yuan of common stock. The third is to increase bankruptcy costs and agency costs. The more small and medium-sized enterprises borrow, the higher the bankruptcy probability, which will increase the bankruptcy cost accordingly; At the same time, borrowing causes conflicts between shareholders and creditors in financing, investment and dividend distribution decisions, which increases their agency costs, which will force management to be more cautious in project selection. According to the actual situation of small and medium-sized enterprises, we should weigh the effect and risk of lending, reasonably determine the optimal capital structure of enterprises, and apply the methods of company value estimation, weighted capital cost method and analogy method to ensure the optimization of capital structure through restructuring, corporate governance reconstruction and incentive system reconstruction. The evolution and deepening of capital structure from traditional leverage theory to MM theory, the starting point of modern capital structure, and then to pecking order theory and information asymmetry theory will prompt theoretical and practical workers to explore and study the proposition of capital structure continuously, so as to better guide investment and financial management practice.
Six, the needs of enterprise strategic management
The strategy of small and medium-sized enterprises is the overall action plan to complete the enterprise mission and realize the enterprise goals. Strategic management is a series of measures taken around the strategic objectives of enterprises. Financing decision is the concrete embodiment of strategic management in the process of financial activities. Small and medium-sized enterprises should judge whether they need financing, the type and scale of financing according to their own development, which is the fundamental starting point of financing decision. From the financing point of view, there are three kinds. The first is the rapid expansion strategy. This is a strategy aimed at realizing the rapid expansion of assets, which makes enterprises have to raise a lot of funds. In addition to internal financing, a lot of external financing is often needed. The second is the steady development strategy. This is a steady expansion strategy of asset scale that matches the goal of steady growth of enterprise performance. Enterprise financing is not only to make up for the shortage of funds, but also to realize a reasonable capital structure and a reasonable dividend policy to promote the healthy development of enterprises. The third is the defensive contraction strategy. This is a development goal strategy to prevent financial crisis and seek survival. It is generally difficult for such enterprises to obtain cash inflows. The focus of financial management is to supervise the effective recovery of cash and the effective distribution and use of internal funds to avoid bankruptcy due to financial confrontation.