Business debt relief, negotiated directly.
Debt Relief Starts With One Conversation
Hamilton & Merchant negotiates with your creditors, restructures merchant cash advances, and renegotiates the contracts and leases behind the pressure. We do the work ourselves and bring in a licensed partner only when a case needs one. The first call is free.
The debt is the emergency. What caused it is the work.
When MCA withdrawals pull from the operating account every morning, vendors are calling, and payroll feels close, the debt comes first. We negotiate it down, restructure it, or unwind it. Then we look at what is happening around it, because a recovery that ignores the operating side usually does not hold.
Most debt situations have more than one cause. A customer that did not pay. A season that did not deliver. And often something quieter upstream: pricing that never got adjusted, a hire that should have waited, an advance taken because it was easy. We name those plainly, without judgement, and we work on them alongside the debt in the same engagement.
Established in 2015 as a loan brokerage, the firm moved to business debt relief in 2020 after watching too many of its own clients get crushed by predatory financing. Since then this is the only work we do.
See the cash hiding in your business.
Move the three sliders for a conservative estimate of the monthly cash businesses like yours have recovered through MCA restructuring, lease renegotiation, and a cost audit. The full ten-minute diagnostic adds your specific debt mix and seventeen more cost lines.
- MCA restructure and settlement$0
- Commercial lease renegotiation$0
- Processing, software, telecom audit$0
Conservative midpoints from our cost playbook: a quarter of the monthly MCA burden, ten percent of rent, and under one percent of revenue from a cost audit. Your diagnostic is more precise and includes your debt mix.
Eight ways we take the pressure off.
Most of this work we run directly: negotiation, renegotiation, consulting, cost reduction. When a case needs a license we do not hold, we bring in a vetted partner and stay in the room through the engagement.
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01
Debt Reduction & Negotiation
Push the number down — principal, interest, fees, payoff.
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02
Merchant Cash Advance Relief
Unwind daily and weekly MCA withdrawals.
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03
Contract Renegotiation
Rewrite the vendor and supplier contracts quietly bleeding you.
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04
Commercial Lease Renegotiation
Reduce, defer, restructure, or exit the commercial lease.
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05
Business Consulting
Fix the pricing, margin, and operating decisions underneath.
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06
Cost Reduction Services
Audit insurance, processing, telecom, freight, and software.
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07
Corporate Turnaround
Full turnaround with our CRO and restructuring partners.
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08
Our Partner Network
Vetted attorneys and specialists for work that needs a license.
What a merchant cash advance costs.
An MCA is priced with a factor rate, not an interest rate. Multiply the advance by the factor and you get the payback amount. Divide the payback by the number of business days in the term and you get the daily debit that leaves the operating account whether the day was good or bad.
Take a typical file: a $50,000 advance at a 1.35 factor over nine months. The payback is $67,500. That is $357 every business day, about $7,500 a month, and $17,500 in cost. Because the money is repaid daily rather than at the end of the term, the annualized cost on an amortized basis works out to roughly 84 percent. A second advance taken to cover the first pushes the combined daily debit past what most businesses clear in margin.
- $67,500 payback on $50,000
- $357 per business day
- $17,500 cost of capital
- ~84% annualized, amortized
Eight signs the pressure has stopped being temporary.
Any one of these is worth a thirty-minute conversation. Two or more and the clock is already running.
- Debits from more than one funder. Stacked advances rarely unwind on their own.
- A second advance taken to cover the first. Reverse consolidation usually digs the hole deeper.
- Payroll was late, or almost was. The line most owners will not cross twice.
- Vendors on COD or holding orders. Supplier terms tighten weeks before a bank notices.
- A UCC lien, bank freeze, or process server. Enforcement has started. Days matter now.
- Rent that no longer matches revenue. Landlords usually prefer a renegotiation to a vacancy.
- Skipped payroll-tax or sales-tax deposits. These follow owners personally and get paid first.
- You have stopped opening the mail. The most common sign, and the most fixable.
From the first call to a plan in writing.
No intake interview and no sales pitch. A real conversation, a plain assessment, a scope and fee in writing before any paid work begins, and then we do the work ourselves.
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01The call
Thirty minutes, free and confidential. You walk us through the debts and what is happening in the business. Rough numbers are fine.
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02The assessment
We tell you what we think the actual problem is, which options fit, which do not, and what we would do if it were our business.
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03The engagement
If you want us to run it, the scope, the fee, and the timeline go in writing first. No upfront fees, no surprises later.
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04The work
We make the calls, write the counter-offers, and close the agreements. Partners come in only for licensed work, and we stay in the room.
Industries where cash flow swings and debt piles up fast.
Small and mid-sized businesses across fourteen industries where thin margins, seasonal revenue, and daily-debit financing collide. If yours is not listed, call anyway. Most of the playbook transfers.
Two voices, one standard.
Every guide and post on this site is written by our two senior specialists, with the numbers checked against current sources. No filler, no product pitch, no softening of the hard parts.
Spencer Holt
Senior Debt Relief Advisor
Thirty-one years in the work, plain-spoken and Southern. Spencer writes the operator's pieces on MCAs, credit cards, personal guarantees, lifestyle downsizing, and the conversations owners need to have with themselves.
- What to Do When You Get an MCA Default NoticeSeptember 5, 2026 · 18 min read
- Closing a Business That Still Owes an MCASeptember 5, 2026 · 18 min read
- How MCA Brokers Make Money Off a Struggling BusinessSeptember 4, 2026 · 18 min read
Tammy Houston
Senior Accounting & Debt Specialist
Twenty-four years in small-business books, patient and precise. Tammy writes the accounting-lens pieces on bookkeeping systems, payroll and sales-tax compliance, cash flow versus profit, and the numbers that decide whether a business stays healthy.
- How to Respond When Your Business Bank Account Is FrozenSeptember 5, 2026 · 17 min read
- How to Get a UCC Lien Removed After You Pay It OffSeptember 4, 2026 · 17 min read
- The MCA Renewal Trap: Why Refinancing an Advance Costs You TwiceSeptember 3, 2026 · 18 min read
The rules in Florida favor a prepared debtor more than most owners expect.
Most of the work happens by phone, text, video, and email, and we work with businesses in every state. Florida is home, and its rules are the ones we know most deeply.
- Confessions of judgment are void.
- Florida Statute 55.05 makes any pre-signed power to confess judgment null and void, the clause many MCA contracts lean on.
- Disclosure is now the law.
- Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law applies to financings of $500,000 or less made on or after January 1, 2024, including MCAs.
- The head-of-family wage exemption.
- Under Florida Statute 222.11, disposable earnings of $750 a week or less are exempt from garnishment for a head of family.
Answers before you pick up the phone.
The questions almost every owner asks in the first five minutes. More on the questions and answers page.
Are you a law firm?
No. Hamilton & Merchant is a business debt relief and consulting firm. When a case requires legal work, such as a bankruptcy filing, litigation, or a specific legal claim, we coordinate with licensed attorneys in our partner network and stay engaged with you through the process. We say this up front because a lot of firms in this space blur the line.
Is the consultation really free?
Yes. The first call is free and there are no upfront fees. If we engage, the scope and price are provided in writing before any paid work begins.
Do you negotiate directly, or hand me off?
We negotiate directly. We make the calls, write the counter-offers, and close the agreements. Partners are brought in only for work that requires a license we do not hold, and we stay involved when they are.
Will you push me toward bankruptcy?
No. Bankruptcy is sometimes the right step and often it is not. Negotiation, workout, restructure, and turnaround paths usually come first. We tell you where your situation falls and why, and if a bankruptcy attorney is the right call we introduce one.
Where are you located, and do you work outside Florida?
The firm is Florida-based, with its office at 25 SE 2nd Avenue in Miami, and it works with businesses across the United States. Most of the work happens by phone, text, video, and email, so location is rarely a barrier.
How long has Hamilton & Merchant been in business?
The firm was established in 2015 as a loan brokerage and moved to business debt relief in 2020, after watching too many of its own clients get crushed by predatory financing during the pandemic. Business debt relief has been the firm's only work since.
What if I have already signed with another firm?
Call anyway. We will give you a plain read on the agreement you signed. If it is serving you well, stay with it. If it is not, we can help you think through what to do next.
What if the real issue is operational, not just the debt?
That is common, and it is part of the conversation we expect to have. Consulting on the operating side is half of what we do. Working on it alongside the debt is usually what makes the recovery last.
Reading for owners who want the long version.
Guides on MCA stacking, confessions of judgment, settlement, payroll-tax debt, and the bookkeeping that keeps a business out of trouble. All posts.
- 01What to Do When You Get an MCA Default NoticeSpencer Holt · September 5, 2026 · 18 min read
- 02How to Respond When Your Business Bank Account Is FrozenTammy Houston · September 5, 2026 · 17 min read
- 03Closing a Business That Still Owes an MCASpencer Holt · September 5, 2026 · 18 min read
- 04How to Get a UCC Lien Removed After You Pay It OffTammy Houston · September 4, 2026 · 17 min read
- 05How MCA Brokers Make Money Off a Struggling BusinessSpencer Holt · September 4, 2026 · 18 min read
- 06When an Out-of-State MCA Funder Sues a Florida BusinessSpencer Holt · September 4, 2026 · 17 min read
One conversation.
Thirty minutes on the phone, confidential and direct. You walk us through the debts and what is happening in the business. We tell you what we see, which options fit, and whether we are the right firm to run them. No pitch, no upfront fees.