Market Insight
Conversations with franchise owners at a recent Unishippers regional event in Nashville, Tennessee, reveal how access to financing can expand commercial opportunities, improve financial flexibility, and strengthen the value of an established business network.
For Unishippers, supporting franchise owners extends beyond carrier relationships, technology, and operational resources. Through a financing program involving Kanmon, eligible franchisees have access to working capital within their existing Unishippers relationship.
The program allows owners to finance qualifying corporate invoices with available 30-, 60-, or 90-day financing terms, subject to approval and applicable costs. This gives franchisees greater flexibility in managing payment obligations while preserving operating capital for business opportunities.
The model illustrates a compelling application of embedded lending: making financial resources available through an established business relationship, informed by the operational needs of the businesses it serves.
At a recent Unishippers franchisee regional event in Nashville, Tennessee, the Kanmon team spoke with four franchise owners about their experiences using the program.
Their perspectives highlighted three areas of value: convenient access to financing, greater flexibility to pursue commercial opportunities, and more control over working-capital decisions.
Making financing accessible through an established business relationship
Access to capital is an important resource for business owners. The process of obtaining and managing that capital can be equally important.
Traditional business financing often requires establishing separate lender relationships, navigating additional approval requirements, or arranging borrowing capacity outside the normal course of business.
For franchise owners already managing customers, invoicing, and daily operations, a financing option connected to an existing commercial relationship can offer a practical advantage.
Unishippers supports a national network of independent franchise owners through carrier relationships, technology, and shared operational resources. The financing program involving Kanmon complements these capabilities by providing access to capital for qualifying corporate invoices.
Rather than evaluating financing entirely outside their existing business relationships, franchisees can consider it in the context of their recurring financial obligations and established relationship with Unishippers.
That practicality came through in the Nashville conversations.
It fits into our weekly process.
— Mark Ware, GAH Transport, LLC, Birmingham, Alabama
Ware described the program as straightforward to use and consistent with the way his business manages recurring invoice payments.
Other franchisees similarly highlighted the convenience of reviewing financing options as part of their regular financial planning, with the flexibility to determine when using financing makes sense.
The relationship with Unishippers also provides important context. Recommendations from corporate leadership, familiarity with the network, and experiences shared among other franchise owners can contribute to confidence in the financing offering.
Kanmon provides the underlying lending infrastructure, including underwriting, funding, compliance, and servicing capabilities. This allows Unishippers to extend access to working capital without developing and managing those lending functions internally.
The result is an additional financial resource available through a relationship franchise owners already know and rely on.
Expanding the range of commercial opportunities
Access to working capital can influence which customers a business is positioned to serve.
In logistics, larger accounts often offer greater revenue potential but may require more flexible customer payment terms. A shipper customer might request 30, 45, or 60 days to pay, while the franchise owner continues meeting corporate invoices and other operating obligations.
Financing qualifying corporate invoices can help owners manage that difference in timing, allowing them to evaluate customer opportunities with greater financial flexibility.
This dynamic was evident in several of the Nashville conversations.
David Shavlan of Dashback Solutions, LLC described how extended customer payment terms had previously influenced which prospective accounts he pursued. With access to financing through Unishippers and Kanmon, his business has another way to manage its financial obligations while considering customers with longer payment cycles.
A similar opportunity arose when a customer of LRH Solutions built a new facility and requested additional payment flexibility.
Franchise owner Aaron Roberson described how access to financing helped his business accommodate that customer’s needs without committing the same amount of operating cash. By financing his franchise’s own qualifying corporate obligations, he could preserve liquidity while offering the customer more time to pay.
“I have some customers that end up having needs for extended payment terms … without taking any additional cash out of the business.”
— Aaron Roberson, LRH Solutions, Louisville, Kentucky
These experiences illustrate how financing can broaden the commercial options available to franchise owners.
Access to working capital can support the pursuit of larger accounts, help accommodate customer payment requirements, and create opportunities to expand existing relationships.
The underlying value is greater flexibility in allocating resources. By financing eligible obligations on appropriate terms, owners can preserve operating cash for customer acquisition, account development, or other investments that support business growth.
For a franchise network built around independent entrepreneurs, that flexibility complements the commercial advantages already provided through national carrier relationships, technology, and shared resources.
Giving owners greater control over working capital
Beyond pursuing new business, access to financing provides another tool for managing the timing of operating expenses and incoming revenue.
Customer onboarding, recurring corporate invoices, and customer collections do not always operate on identical schedules. As businesses grow, owners must continually evaluate how to allocate available capital across these activities.
Financing provides an additional option for managing those decisions.
The financial requirements of onboarding a larger customer offer one example. Establishing billing arrangements and automatic payments can take several weeks or months, while the business must continue meeting its existing obligations.
Tyson Lawrence, CEO of Diablo Freight Ventures, described this dynamic in the context of bringing new accounts into the business. Financing can help manage corporate payment obligations during onboarding, allowing the team to concentrate on establishing the customer relationship.
With 25 years of logistics experience, Lawrence emphasized the importance of maintaining access to financing as part of a broader approach to financial management.
“You always want to have some sort of credit facility available for the unknown, and being able to have easy access to it is even more important.”
— Tyson Lawrence, Diablo Freight Ventures, San Francisco, California
The ability to use financing selectively is central to that approach.
Franchise owners can evaluate which qualifying obligations to pay directly and which to finance based on available cash, expected collections, and current business priorities.
This creates additional flexibility without requiring financing to become a permanent component of every transaction.
The benefit is greater control over the allocation of working capital, whether the business is onboarding a significant customer, investing in additional capacity, or managing routine payment cycles.
As the franchisees’ experiences demonstrate, access to capital can be valuable both when it is used and as an available option within a broader financial strategy.
What the Unishippers experience demonstrates for other business networks
The Unishippers model illustrates how embedded lending can extend the value of an established business network.
Unishippers already provides franchise owners with commercial relationships, technology, and operational infrastructure. Financing complements those capabilities by addressing financial requirements that arise as franchisees operate and grow their businesses.
Three elements make the approach relevant to other franchise networks, B2B platforms, and vertical software providers.
- An established customer relationship. The network already has relationships with businesses that rely on its services. Financing can be introduced through those relationships, providing an additional resource connected to an existing value proposition.
- Relevant operating context. The network participates in commercial activities that create financial needs, such as invoicing, transactions, and payment obligations. This context helps identify where financing may provide practical value.
- Specialized lending infrastructure. Kanmon provides the capabilities required to support financing, allowing the platform to extend financial services while remaining focused on its core business and customer relationships.
Distributors manage inventory purchases and supplier obligations. Marketplaces support sellers fulfilling customer orders. Field-service platforms help businesses coordinate labor, materials, and payments.
In each environment, financing can complement the commercial activities and operating requirements that the platform already supports.
The opportunity is to make capital more accessible and relevant to the businesses within an established network, strengthening the overall value of the relationship.
Extending the value of the franchise network
The conversations in Nashville demonstrate how a common financing capability can support different priorities across a franchise network.
Access to capital can help franchise owners accommodate customers with extended payment terms, manage the financial requirements of onboarding new accounts, and make more flexible decisions about operating cash.
Equally important, the financing is available through an existing Unishippers relationship, giving owners another resource to consider as part of managing their businesses.
For Unishippers, the program complements the commercial and operational support already available to its independent franchise owners.
For other franchise networks and B2B platforms, the experience highlights an opportunity to strengthen existing relationships by addressing the financial needs that accompany business growth.
Embedded financing creates value when it combines relevant capital solutions with the relationships and operating context that platforms already provide.
For networks seeking to expand the resources available to their business customers, that combination can become a meaningful extension of the platform’s value proposition.
Interested in how working capital could complement your platform’s value proposition?