There are several potential financing options available to cash-strapped businesses that need a healthy dose of working capital. A bank loan or line of credit is often the first option that owners think of – and for businesses that qualify, this may be the best option.In today’s uncertain business, economic and regulatory environment, qualifying for a bank loan can be difficult – especially for start-up companies and those that have experienced any type of financial difficulty. Sometimes, owners of businesses that don’t qualify for a bank loan decide that seeking venture capital or bringing on equity investors are other viable options.But are they really? While there are some potential benefits to bringing venture capital and so-called “angel” investors into your business, there are drawbacks as well. Unfortunately, owners sometimes don’t think about these drawbacks until the ink has dried on a contract with a venture capitalist or angel investor – and it’s too late to back out of the deal.Different Types of FinancingOne problem with bringing in equity investors to help provide a working capital boost is that working capital and equity are really two different types of financing.Working capital – or the money that is used to pay business expenses incurred during the time lag until cash from sales (or accounts receivable) is collected – is short-term in nature, so it should be financed via a short-term financing tool. Equity, however, should generally be used to finance rapid growth, business expansion, acquisitions or the purchase of long-term assets, which are defined as assets that are repaid over more than one 12-month business cycle.But the biggest drawback to bringing equity investors into your business is a potential loss of control. When you sell equity (or shares) in your business to venture capitalists or angels, you are giving up a percentage of ownership in your business, and you may be doing so at an inopportune time. With this dilution of ownership most often comes a loss of control over some or all of the most important business decisions that must be made.Sometimes, owners are enticed to sell equity by the fact that there is little (if any) out-of-pocket expense. Unlike debt financing, you don’t usually pay interest with equity financing. The equity investor gains its return via the ownership stake gained in your business. But the long-term “cost” of selling equity is always much higher than the short-term cost of debt, in terms of both actual cash cost as well as soft costs like the loss of control and stewardship of your company and the potential future value of the ownership shares that are sold.Alternative Financing SolutionsBut what if your business needs working capital and you don’t qualify for a bank loan or line of credit? Alternative financing solutions are often appropriate for injecting working capital into businesses in this situation. Three of the most common types of alternative financing used by such businesses are:1. Full-Service Factoring – Businesses sell outstanding accounts receivable on an ongoing basis to a commercial finance (or factoring) company at a discount. The factoring company then manages the receivable until it is paid. Factoring is a well-established and accepted method of temporary alternative finance that is especially well-suited for rapidly growing companies and those with customer concentrations.2. Accounts Receivable (A/R) Financing – A/R financing is an ideal solution for companies that are not yet bankable but have a stable financial condition and a more diverse customer base. Here, the business provides details on all accounts receivable and pledges those assets as collateral. The proceeds of those receivables are sent to a lockbox while the finance company calculates a borrowing base to determine the amount the company can borrow. When the borrower needs money, it makes an advance request and the finance company advances money using a percentage of the accounts receivable.3. Asset-Based Lending (ABL) – This is a credit facility secured by all of a company’s assets, which may include A/R, equipment and inventory. Unlike with factoring, the business continues to manage and collect its own receivables and submits collateral reports on an ongoing basis to the finance company, which will review and periodically audit the reports.In addition to providing working capital and enabling owners to maintain business control, alternative financing may provide other benefits as well: It’s easy to determine the exact cost of financing and obtain an increase.
Professional collateral management can be included depending on the facility type and the lender.
Real-time, online interactive reporting is often available.
It may provide the business with access to more capital.
It’s flexible – financing ebbs and flows with the business’ needs.It’s important to note that there are some circumstances in which equity is a viable and attractive financing solution. This is especially true in cases of business expansion and acquisition and new product launches – these are capital needs that are not generally well suited to debt financing. However, equity is not usually the appropriate financing solution to solve a working capital problem or help plug a cash-flow gap.A Precious CommodityRemember that business equity is a precious commodity that should only be considered under the right circumstances and at the right time. When equity financing is sought, ideally this should be done at a time when the company has good growth prospects and a significant cash need for this growth. Ideally, majority ownership (and thus, absolute control) should remain with the company founder(s).Alternative financing solutions like factoring, A/R financing and ABL can provide the working capital boost many cash-strapped businesses that don’t qualify for bank financing need – without diluting ownership and possibly giving up business control at an inopportune time for the owner. If and when these companies become bankable later, it’s often an easy transition to a traditional bank line of credit. Your banker may be able to refer you to a commercial finance company that can offer the right type of alternative financing solution for your particular situation.Taking the time to understand all the different financing options available to your business, and the pros and cons of each, is the best way to make sure you choose the best option for your business. The use of alternative financing can help your company grow without diluting your ownership. After all, it’s your business – shouldn’t you keep as much of it as possible?

The advances in technology will send humans to Mars in the near future. Internet of things, 5G, artificial intelligence, automated driving, and so on and on, probably no one is able to list all the new technologies that are emerging. The complexity of the technological world is wonderful but just as bewildering, and difficult to grasp. Yet, the researchers, engineers, and technicians just need to focus on their own portion of the work. The complex robots are composed of smaller functional units that are manageable by the respective professionals. They are guided by scientific texts and in the minds. Despite the complexity of technologies, they will finally be traced to the simple origin in scientific texts.

Wikipedia defines technology as “Technology is the sum of techniques, skills, methods, and processes used in the production of goods or services or the accomplishment of objectives, such as scientific investigation.” In the bing.com search, technology is defined as “the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes, especially in industry.” The definitions are broad, seemingly to include all useful ways of humans achieving something. Indeed, technology is itself a broad term with many valid definitions. Both definitions are correct in that they describe facts. But they don’t explain the meaning of the terms such as “techniques”, “application” and “scientific knowledge”, which are vague terms and could involve all the things in the universe.

Since we defined science in terms of texts in the paper “a new definition of science – the textual foundation that represents the real world”, technology should also be defined in terms of texts due to its scientific nature. Science and technology are closely related and inseparable in the modern world.

1. Scientific texts – the core of technology

We consider texts as the core of science, which should also be in the core of technology due to the essentially same nature of science and technology. Now we are not repeating the textual nature of science/technology, interested readers can refer to our article “language – the core of science”.

Science is able to represent everything, including human behavior. Not only natural phenomena are represented and accumulated, so are human activities. The procedures, methods, details of making achievement are recorded in texts, which are then established as representations. With the textual representations, human activities are organized, classified, and building upon existing known technologies.

Characteristics of technology

Usually, technology is viewed from the angle of its effect on the societies, such as its relations with culture, its practical use, its relation with the economy, politics, etc. These are more of its manifests than its essence. They are of non-textual nature or centered on non-texts. Attributing the characteristics of technology to the various aspects of societies not only complicates the issue, leading to endless interactions but also switch people’s intentions away from technology’s true nature.

Facing the complexity, variations of the ubiquitous and ever-changing technologies, we should think deeply into the characteristics common to all technologies, which texts possess. Represented by texts, technology gets its essential features common to all technologies.

Technical documentation

Methods, skills, materials, procedures, principles, and so forth, all need to be documented for understanding, learning, communication, and recording purposes. User manuals, technical specifications are usually the first stuff needed by customers and engineers, either during product shipment or during product development stages. Technical documents even describe a product more accurately than the product’s actual operations. Despite the complex operations, deviation in operating conditions and by different individuals, abundant materials, changing personnel, documents are relatively stable, simple, accurate, reliable, and explanatory.

Again, it should be emphasized that scientific texts take effect in mind. The technical documents should take effect in mind and don’t equate to the technological texts in mind.

2. Differences between science and technology

It is needed to find the differences between science and technology. Although they have the essential cores, their appearances and emphases are different to account for various aspects of the human world.

Science and technology have similar branches and knowledge. The main difference between science and technology is their goal and objective. Science’s purpose is to observe and explain, while technology aims at taking action and making changes. Their direction is opposite to each other. Science is more of observation, while technology emphasizes action. The same texts can be considered as science or technology depending on the objective and usage. For example, the law of motion is itself a science, but it becomes technology when being utilized to make and operate machinery.

Technology is tightly associated with the man-made world. Human activities have changed the world’s appearance and the way people live. These are the direct result of technologies, although it can also say the people applied science to achieve all these. By intuition, science is a deeper and basic level of knowledge, while technology is more associated with direct applications. Science tends to be fundamental while technology tends to be detailed. But texts play an equally central role in their formations.

Nowadays, information spreads instantly; products are transported speedily. People increasingly lived in environments surrounded by machine-manufactured products and constructions. It became easier for people to achieve their goals by employing existing knowledge and tools. On the other hand, many curiosities can be answered by entering questions into search engines, in seconds. It seems everyone possesses enough knowledge. All one needs is to take action. As a result, more people became action-oriented, the term “technology” is becoming more popular than the term “science”.

3. The text-based definition of technology

Regarding the essential nature of and differences between science and technology, now we provide a new definition of technology as:

The scientific texts that guide human activity.

This definition contains two points:

First, technology is scientific texts.

Second, these texts are employed as guidance.

Our definition doesn’t attempt to invalidate current definitions. Instead, we view from a different angle, focusing on a deeper level, situating on the text-centered model of the world.

Usability of technology

Usually, human activities are purpose-oriented. Hence, technology usually has practical applications. But the extent of application varies depending on specific technologies. Also, a technology useful on one occasion or for some people might not be useful on another occasion or for other people. The activities might be beneficial or bad for society.

Possible extension of the definition

Animals and machines might employ technology in the future and probably currently, such as AI. In those cases, scientific texts exert their effect not directly via human activities, but via animals or machines. Their use of technology is imitations of human intelligence, without essential differences. The definition could be expanded to all human and non-human activities that are guided by scientific texts.

Unifying the non-textual technology with textual technology

People might argue illiterate societies and even animals possess some form of technology, although not so advanced as the modern form. Without going into deep confusion with endless, some are ambiguous, examples, we focus on principles. Sequentiality, clarity, and representation of reality are the three defining features of science. Modern, true-sense technology also possesses these features. In essence, the technologies in illiterate societies also came from the sequential minds with scientific properties in primitive form, which manipulate non-texts instead of texts, in a less efficient/effective manner. Scientific texts truly demonstrate those properties, facilitate visual processing, and make progress in the capability of human minds.

4. A text-centered model of science and technology

We can now propose a text-centered model of science and technology that starts from investigative observations, which derive scientific/technological texts, which in turn lead to actions through proper application. That is to say, science and technology are both integrated into the texts. If the purpose is in the non-text to text direction, focusing on deriving theories, these texts are more about science. If the purpose is in the text to non-text direction, focusing on taking action, these texts are more about technology. The actions change the environment, which becomes a new subject of observation, leading to the derivation of new scientific/technological texts. In this way, scientific and technological activities form endless iterations, surrounding texts in the center.

5. Conclusion

By this new definition, the nature of technology is made known. The relation between science and technology is defined and integrated into the texts. The complexity of understanding technology is reduced. A new basis is provided for future discussion of our technological world.