If your business’ cash flow is tight and you need a break, consider restructuring your equipment leases and loans. It is always possible to negotiate your existing leases. The main reason leasing companies don’t change the terms of the lease is that they are never asked to make changes. If you don’t ask, you don’t receive.

Here are 10 tips for renegotiating your equipment leases and loans.

1. Call the leasing company if you are behind on your payments. Keep the lines of communication open.

2. Avoid late payment penalties. They can be as high as 10% of the lease payment. They add up quickly and are cumulative.

3. Negotiate late payment penalties if assessed. Sometimes leasing companies will forgive them if asked, as long as late payment has not been a regular practice for the entire term of the lease.

4. Be proactive, not reactive, in the restructuring process. Have a plan. Make sure your financial statements and tax returns are ready to support your refinance request. Lenders will want to see your most recent year-end tax return and a current interim return with comparative periods for prior year performance.

5. Discuss the possibility of restructuring payments. Options may include reducing payments by adding months to the end of the financing term. Support the longer term with insights into equipment lifespan.

6. Propose an interest-only payment option for a few months to overcome a period of tight cash flow.

7. Deal with the manager of a leasing company or a bank official. The customer service person is instructed to say, “We do not restructure leases.”

8. Know your contract options. This means reading your current lease document from cover to cover. If there are missing pages, ask them to be sent to you.

9. Understand what will cause your lease to default. Often, failure to meet a lease schedule means that all leases with the same financial institution will also default even if they are paid on time. Understand that a default lease will be very expensive.

10. Refinancing and restructuring usually come with fees. The fee must be less than half a percent of the total amount of the acquisition cost of the equipment.