What differentiates a factoring company from a bank?

First and foremost, since factoring is not a loan, there is no debt on your company’s balance sheet. Moreover, factoring firms have the ability to make a quick decision regarding your medical billing funding options, while banks may take weeks-even months-to approve a loan.

Furthermore, factors determine lines of credit based on the creditworthiness of your customers, while banks focus on your company’s financial history and cash flow. In other words, a funding agency looks to your company’s future while banks place emphasis on your company’s past.

How long does it take to be approved for factoring funding solutions?

In general, a funding agency will begin its due diligence process after receipt of a signed contract. This process can last anywhere between 1-5 business days, and money is moved at its conclusion. Thereafter, a company can receive funds in as little as 24 hours within verification. See our factoring process and learn our medical billing funding options can benefit your business.

What information does a business owner need to provide to a factor in order to begin the process of coming up with funding options?

Required paperwork varies among factors, however, there are a handful of documents that most all will expect. Most likely, the owner of a medical company will be asked to provide a copy of your company’s most recent accounts receivable and accounts payable aging reports, Articles of Incorporation or Organization filing, copy of owner’s driver’s license, voided copy of a check, a master customer list, a sample contract, and of course, invoices to factor.

What happens if my customers don’t pay an invoice?

This depends on whether your company entered into a non-recourse or recourse agreement with the factor. Within a non-recourse agreement, the funder assumes the credit-related loss. However, most medical billing solutions (factors) do not assume the risk of non-payment due to disputes regarding quality or timeliness of your company’s medical billing services. On the other hand, if you have a recourse agreement, your company will have to reimburse the factor for any unpaid invoices. This is usually accomplished by having the past due invoice deducted from the next advance or replacing it with another factored invoice.

Can a medical billing service qualify for funding if it’s a new business or has past credit problems (i.e. bankruptcy, IRS liens, and judgments)?

Yes. A reputable medical billing factoring company will still consider your application if you have credit problems or a recent bankruptcy because the credit decision is based primarily on the creditworthiness of your customers. However, tax problems are handled on a case-by-case basis, so be sure to let you funder know if you have any IRS issues.

Philip Cohen is the founder and president of PRN Funding, LLC, which is a focused player in the medical invoice funding marketplace. Through a process known as factoring, PRN Funding provides medical business owners with the financial resources needed to grow and effectively compete in the industry. With no minimums or fixed terms, PRN Funding (http://www.prnfunding.com) provides medical companies with flexible and immediate access to capital.

Article reprinted with permission by PRN Funding, LLC.

Every business owner wants to succeed and have their company flourish which is why we took the leap of faith in the first place. Sometimes however, our actions or lack thereof can answer that question in ways that may surprise even the savviest entrepreneur.

Anyone familiar with the asset based lending industry knows there are numerous risks associated with invoice factoring. How many times have we heard from our salespeople,

“This prospect is a no brainer and we should be able to fund him in less than a day.”

Those of us that fund accounts receivable know that what may look like the perfect prospect could be your worst nightmare.

As I have previously written in our June 13th  article, “Factoring: Is It Always About the Account Debtor?” we all know that there is no substitute for good underwriting policies and procedures that focus your due diligence on both the client and the account debtor. However, besides focusing strictly on underwriting guidelines, every now and then common sense can play a very large factor in determining if a certain deal is right for you. Below are a few common sense suggestions you may want to consider before you send out that next ACH or wire:

1) Does the factoring deal make sense?

I realize this may sound foolish, but I cannot tell you how many times there are conflicts between what the prospect says and the paperwork gathered with the application. If you cannot understand the deal flow, run it by a colleague or professional in that field who may have more experience and continue to ask questions.

2) How long has the prospect been in business?

Even though the debtor has excellent credit, if your client has no track record and produces faulty goods or delivers shabby services, chances are pretty good that you will wind up in a dispute and not get paid.

3) Why is the prospect looking for a new factoring company?

Whenever a prospect is leaving a factor and wanting to start a relationship with a new factor, be cautious. The prospect has every right to shop around because they may have received poor customer service or they feel they can get a more competitive rate from another factor. It may be worth your while to put a call into the current factoring company to see if they could provide some background on the client. Even though it may be an uncomfortable call, you will be surprised how many times factors cooperate with one another in buyout situations.

4) Is it best to just walk away?

This is probably the toughest one of all. You’ve worked so hard to bring in this lead, gather the paperwork and the returns look amazing. Unfortunately, the deal just doesn’t fit your company’s profile. As a very good friend and colleague of mine once told me when I first started my business, “Sometimes the best deal is no deal.”

Don D’Ambrosio is the president of Oxygen Funding, Inc., an invoice factoring company located in Lake Forest, California. For more information, he can be reached at don.dambrosio@oxygenfunding.com or you can visit his company’s website at www.oxygenfunding.com

Way back in the day, (maybe six or seven years ago), most marketing plans consisted of an advertising budget, maybe some PR, a newsletter and occasional updates to the company’s website. Depending on the size of the company, a marketing director could spend a small fortune on a basic “shotgun approach” where they place ads in local papers or trade magazines and hope that someone found it interesting enough to purchase their product or service. Just scan through the daily mail you receive at your home or office and you’ll find flyers and postcards from companies trying to earn your business. I’m not saying these approaches are not effective, but with advent of social media, many businesses with little or no budget can market their goods and services in a very effective manner.

Unless you live under a rock, almost everyone is familiar with social media and how it has changed the way we communicate with each other. Social networking sites such as Facebook have over 750 million subscribers with each user having an average of 130 friends. From a business perspective, entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform. Twitter, which just celebrated its five year anniversary in May, has about 175 million subscribers that send over 456 “tweets” per second! There are many other forms of social media other than social networks such as podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds to name a few.

What makes this social media movement so exciting for factoring companies and other small businesses is that any company looking to get noticed can do so with little or no money. Setting up an account with Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn is free and a very good place to start. On LinkedIn, start by joining groups within your own industry to keep track of the latest news and events. Create a Facebook page for your business and get your friends and colleagues to “Like” your page. On Twitter, go to the “Who to follow” section and search for people and companies with similar interests.

Just as it is import to be part of social media for your business, it is even more important to participate by posting information with good content. What exactly does good content mean? Here are a few general guidelines that I like to use before I post information on our website:

1. Post useful information – this may sound like a no brainer, but you would be surprised how often I come across posts from friends and colleagues with no real point.

2. Entertain – try not to be boring. Liven up your post with some humor, or a personal experience on how you might have done something better.

3. Be an expert – know your facts about the topic so your followers look to you as a resource when they have questions.

What makes social media appealing to so many businesses is that there is no barrier to entry, little or no cost and you can use it as much as you want. Not a bad deal at all.

About the Author: Don D’Ambrosio is the president of Oxygen Funding, Inc., an invoice factoring company located in Lake Forest, California. For more information, he can be reached at don.dambrosio@oxygenfunding.com or you can visit his company’s website at www.oxygenfunding.com.

Oftentimes, factoring prospects annualize the percentage charged by factors, extrapolating three percent per month to an interest rate of 36 percent per year. In the world of healthcare staffing financing, this scenario is like comparing apples to oranges.

When comparing a bank loan with invoice factoring, it’s important to keep a few things in mind:

• A factor does not loan money like a bank does. Rather, a healthcare staffing accounts receivable factor purchases invoices at a discounted rate. Factoring is a form of short-term funding, so a discount rate should not be converted to an interest rate. For example, some firms offer a two percent discount (2% for net 10) for quick payment. In a year, there are roughly 36 10-day periods. Using the annualized percentage parallel, that comes out to 72% “interest.” Are these companies really paying 72% for quick payment? No, and healthcare staffing factoring companies don’t earn 36% interest either.

• Moreover, a factor is continuously advancing and collecting funds, compared to a bank that provides the money only one time, the day that the loan is received. An accounts receivable factor has the ability to grow as its clients grow. Once a company uses the funds from a bank loan or exceeds its credit limit, there’s little room for it to grow.

• Banks approve business loans or lines of credit based on a company’s historical operating and financial performance, a factor’s main criteria is the creditworthiness of a prospect’s customers. Banks tend to shy away from business owners who are just starting up, going through seasonal growth, have bad personal credit or have too much concentration of their sales with one or two customers. Many factors are able to look past the above criteria because their decisions are based off of a prospect’s customers’ ability to pay. So it’s very possible for a business that has creditworthy customers to work with a healthcare staffing factoring company even though they have been previously turned down for a traditional bank loan.

• The loan process with a bank is time-consuming and cumbersome, and it could take weeks or even months to receive the loan proceeds. Whereas a factoring firm’s application and approval process can take less than a week, and factors have an ongoing ability to approve additional lines of credit quickly.

• Oftentimes, a bank loan requires collateral in addition to a company’s accounts receivable. The only collateral that a factor requires is the company’s accounts receivable. A bank will most likely require business owners to personally guarantee the loan as well, and factoring companies won’t always require a personal guarantee to advance money.

• Taking out a business loan creates debt on a company’s balance sheet, and credit ratings go down because of loan limitations. On the other hand, healthcare staffing funding through a factor increases credit ratings by creating better cash flow and helping the company pay their bills promptly.

• Whereas banks only loan money, there are a multitude of services that factoring companies provide their clients in addition to ongoing funding. Some of these supplementary services include: posting payments, dispersing reports, handling collections and reviewing credit for their customers’ clients.

When looking at the big picture, entrepreneurs have to weigh the costs of factoring against not having immediate cash. More often than not, the decision comes down to either selling the accounts receivable or putting up with crippling cash flow problems and missed sales opportunities.

Philip Cohen is the founder and president of PRN Funding, LLC, which is an extraordinarily focused niche player in the healthcare staffing funding marketplace. Through a process known as factoring, PRN Funding provides business owners with the financial resources needed to grow and effectively compete in the industry. With no minimums or fixed terms, PRN Funding provides healthcare staffing agencies with flexible and immediate access to capital. We give you the freedom to factor what you want, when you want, whom you want, for as long as you want. Prior to founding PRN Funding, Mr. Cohen was an executive officer of The MRC Group, a national provider of Medical Transcription Services. Contact Philip Cohen at toll-free 866.776.5407 or via email at pcohen@prnfunding.com. Please visit PRN Funding, LLC on the web at http://www.prnfunding.com/

Article reprinted with permission by PRN Funding, LLC.

Factoring Company Competition

Along with this newly found popularity, competition within the industry has increased and everyone wants to make a deal. Common slogans are,

“Same day funding since we base our approval on your client’s credit,” or “Even if your credit is poor, we can still get you funded.”

Conventional wisdom within the factoring industry has always stressed that deals of this nature can be funded since it’s the client’s customer (otherwise known as the account debtor) that will actually be paying the factoring company. For example, a small consulting firm with little or no credit can get funded as long as their customer is creditworthy.

While much of this long standing rule is true, should all the focus of your due diligence be solely on the account debtor?

Providing Factoring Services In Today’s Economy

As I mentioned earlier, the same current economic climate that has created opportunities within the asset based lending industry can also be your worst enemy. Unfortunately, many businesses needing factoring services have taken some tremendous hits over the last few years. We have seen industry declines in apparel, transportation, manufacturing and staffing to name a few.

If your prospect is in a declining industry and sales have slowed, generally, some bad things start to occur. Unless they have sufficient cash reserves (which most don’t otherwise they would not be calling you) vendor payments get pushed back, payroll may be late and taxes go unpaid. Many times your prospect may need factoring just to stay afloat until the inevitable happens and you are left holding the bag.

Dealing with a client who has just declared bankruptcy is the last place where you want to be as a factor. I am not a lawyer and if you ever find yourself in this position, I would suggest that you consult one as soon as possible.

Reducing Factoring Risks

While there are no exact formulas for you to avoid risky clients, there are several steps you can take in your due diligence to mitigate your risk and limit your exposure:

• Run current credit reports on your factoring prospect. There are numerous credit reporting agencies you can utilize that will provide as little or much as your budget can afford.

• Gather the most current quarterly and year-end financial reports available. If the client has audited financial statements, read the auditors notes to the financial statements. Also, look for trends on both the balance sheet and well as the profit and loss.

• Request the last two years of business tax returns for both the federal and state returns including payroll tax filings. If necessary, also request personal returns of the owner and or majority shareholders.

• Check with the state where the business is domiciled to see if they are in “Good Standing.” If a business is not in “Good Standing” or “Suspended” it usually indicates they are delinquent with their annual reporting requirements, have not paid their taxes, or have some other form of dispute with the state.

• If the prospect is required to maintain a license to conduct his or her trade, check with the local licensing board to see the license is current. If the license is suspended, you may not have a valid claim against the debtor or in the event of a dispute.

• Run a UCC-1 search to see if there are any liens against the business. This is extremely important since you as the factor will always want to be in first position on all collateral. In some cases there may be another UCC-1 financing statement already in place. This is not necessarily a negative indicator as the prospect may have an existing loan with a bank or equipment financing with another lender. In some cases the other secured party may subordinate their filing to allow you to be in first position on the prospect’s accounts receivable.

These are just a few basic steps you can take when performing due diligence on your prospect. Every deal is unique and your due diligence may vary according to the type of prospect and the industry in which they participate. Remember, no matter how well your Factoring Agreement between your prospect and you is written, as Benjamin Franklin so correctly stated, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”

About the Author: Don D’Ambrosio is the president of Oxygen Funding, Inc., an invoice factoring company located in Lake Forest, California. For more information, he can be reached at don.dambrosio@oxygenfunding.com or you can visit his company’s website at www.oxygenfunding.com for accounts receivable factoring.

Throw in the current economic climate, and the chance of an entrepreneur obtaining a conventional bank loan is slim to none. When loans are no longer an option, business owners have to find a short-term funding option to keep them from dipping into their personal savings accounts or having to rely on friends and family for operating cash.

Over the past decade, the main fallback has been small business credit cards. During better times, credit card companies actively pursued the small business market. Entrepreneurs were enticed with low introductory interest rates and high credit limits. In addition, banks started offering small credit lines to entrepreneurs who didn’t meet conventional loan requirements, and vendors started relying on the efficiency of credit card payments.

Needless to say, the small business credit card caught on like rapid fire. Today, nearly 60% of the nation’s small businesses rely on credit cards to help fund their daily operations, according to the National Small Business Association.

Yet as the economy worsens, entrepreneurs are seeing their interest rates going up and their credit limits going down. With credit card delinquency as high as 12 percent among small business owners, bankers and credit card companies say the only way to decrease the risk in their portfolios is to make some changes with their small business accounts. As a result, nearly three-quarters of small businesses have seen a large cut in their credit limits over the last six months.

Now that access to both bank loans and credit cards is hard to come by, where can the nation’s 27 million small business owners turn for funding?

Enter factoring…

Now more than ever, entrepreneurs across the nation are in desperate need of a factoring company that understands the intricacies of today’s funding marketplace.

If you think about it, the process of factoring receivables is very similar to using a credit card. For example, many small business owners use a credit card to purchase additional inventory and then pay down that bill as their customers pay them. With factoring, a business owner could just as easily sell his/her invoices to an invoice factoring firm and receive cash immediately on those invoices. In turn, they can use the cash to purchase additional inventory. In both instances, the business owner has readily available cash to purchase more supplies. In fact, the two funding mechanisms sound almost exactly the same.

However, there is one very important difference. When credit card companies and banks define a credit line and interest rate for a small business credit card, it’s based on the financial strength of the small business or its owner. During an economic recession, credit card companies view the normal ups and downs of a struggling small business as too risky.

However, with factoring, the credit decision is not based on the business’ credit at all. Rather, the lending decision is based on the creditworthiness of the company’s customers. Keep in mind that small businesses routinely sell to larger, more established companies. Because these companies are financially sound, they have the ability to continue paying their vendors, even during an economic decline. So in other words, when business owners use factoring, they can literally leverage the creditworthiness of their customers, which leads to lower fees and higher credit limits.

Now as I previously stated, there are 27 million small business owners in America right now who could be looking for another form of invoice funding because of the current state of the economy. Factoring is the perfect funding solution for those entrepreneurs who are unable to qualify for a traditional line of credit or are having difficulty negotiating reasonable rates on a small business credit card.

Philip Cohen is the founder and president of PRN Funding, LLC, which is an extraordinarily focused niche player in the healthcare factoring market place. Through a process known as factoring, PRN Funding provides financial resources for suppliers of services and products to healthcare institutions that are needed to grow and effectively compete in the industry. With no minimums or fixed terms, PRN Funding (http://www.prnfunding.com) provides medical business owners with flexible and immediate access to capital.

Article reprinted with permission by PRN Funding, LLC.

Comparing Factoring Companies

1. Application Fee

Some companies charge a “fee” to see if they will work with you. Although we are on the fence on this one, you shouldn’t have to pay more than $100-$150. Avoid companies charging big fees to “evaluate” what you have.

2. Due Diligence Fee

Basically the same fee as #1, but just by another name in our opinion. That doesn’t mean you pay for both. One flat fee (or no fee) is ok. Any reputable company is in it to do business with you over the long haul, not make money on upfront fees.

3. Minimum Number of Invoices

Factoring companies might require a minimum number of invoices to be factored – some will even require ALL your invoices be factored. We believe you should have the flexibility to pick and choose when you need to factor. Try to find a company that does not have a minimum.

4. Reserve Amount

All factors are going to have a reserve amount. They fund a certain amount upfront (say 80%) and the difference (20%) is the reseve. A reserve is typically 20-30% of the invoice amount, depending on the transaction. Anything greater and you may want to shop around. While you get a portion of the reserve back, you don’t want too much tied up on the back end.

5. Renewal Fee

This is a junk fee that some factoring agents charge annually. Either they want your business or they don’t. If they have this, make them waive it.

6. Invoice Copy Fee

Some funding companies will try and charge you to copy your own invoice. Really? Skip this funder altogether – it is a good indication there are a lot more hidden fees.

7. Long-Term Contract

Factoring companies would love to have you sign you to a long-term contract. Although it would not be fair for them to get you going and then have you jump ship right away, it is cost of doing business. If you are going for a contract, don’t go for anything longer than 6-12 months.

8. Help Screening New Accounts

Before taking on a new account, some factors will help you screen their credit worthiness. This can be a big plus and you should look for this when choosing factoring programs.

9. Discount Fee

Of course you want a low factoring or discount fee!  Just be sure to consider the overall picture and realize some factoring companies will advertise low factoring fees to lure in business only to hit you with some of these hidden fees or contract clauses before funding.

Although there are many things to consider when choosing a Factor, the above items should get you on the right track.

It is also helpful to make sure you are dealing with a professional funding company or factoring broker. Check out our updated Directory of Factoring Companies and Services Providers for more details.

Additionally, I was told that this bath tub had no plug in the drain, so water was continually escaping from it.

The riddle was finally completed with the question, “How therefore can you maintain water in half the tub with the constant outflow of water?”

The answer was obvious once I thought about it……I have to make sure that water was steadily and continually running into the tub from the faucet at the same rate by which it was exiting down the drain!

With that thought in mind, we now see that sales/marketing is an ever moving target. The factoring client that you have securely established with ABC Factoring Company today may have just been offered a factoring rate less than he is paying now, and will be gone tomorrow. If he moves to that new finance vehicle, so moves your commission as well.

Your pipeline of new transactions is vital to your financial survival as a factoring broker!

The question then should be asked; do I want to pursue the “elephant” sized deals that will occupy huge amounts of time, require highly competitive pricing and have less than a 10% chance of closing?

Think of that bathtub getting lower and lower in water volume. The answer by now should be obvious. The smaller less competitive, higher priced (more commission) transactions are truly the low hanging fruit. Let’s look at the math.

Suppose you manage to bring to a factor a client doing $1MM in monthly sales and he is eager to factor the entire portfolio of invoices. A deal of this size is not a slam dunk to underwrite as the funder is going to make sure all “i’s” are dotted and “t’s” are crossed.

Where will a transaction like that be priced?

On a discount basis, the fee certainly cannot be any higher than perhaps 1.25% to 1.375% on a monthly basis (probably pro-rated to a daily discount fee). So, you’ve consummated a one million dollar deal and you are getting (based on a 10% commission of gross fees) $1,375.00 in monthly commissions. The factor probably took the better part of a month to close the transaction.

Suppose you provide the factor with the same monthly volume of business, however the source was 20 transactions of $50K per month. Transactions of that size are quick to close, and can easily be done in two weeks. Where is the factor pricing a deal of that size? Even if the factor was very aggressive in pricing, it would not be too far from about 2.75% to 3% monthly discount fee (very aggressive for a deal that small, however I am trying to make a conservative point). The math then works out to be $150 per deal for the broker X 20 deals = $3000 in monthly commissions.

Now let’s look at the bathtub losing its water…..if your elephant client goes down the drain (which is highly likely due to the competitive nature of the transaction and other companies being very interested in swiping that deal) you’ve lost the full $1,375 per month in commissions. However in order to lose the same $1,375 per month with the 20 smaller deals you would have to see approximately 9 of your clients go through the bathtub drain.

How likely is that?

Smaller companies find it almost impossible to acquire financing, and they tend to stay with factoring much longer! Oh, and by the way….even if you did lose the 9 deals, you would still have remaining income of $1,625 per month, still more than the one million dollar client would have provided in revenue for your business.

As a factor, I look at my business that way as well. By now readers may know that Xynergy Healthcare Capital focuses on medical factoring. My brokers readily ask; Fred, why not hospitals?

Putting my risk per transaction, and my exposure to high concentrations in the larger clients (the hospitals), I do not see the risk/reward relationship tilting in my favor. My approach has always been and will continue to be “fast nickels rather than slow dimes.” When I put $2MM out in the street for factoring transactions, I would rather have 10 to 20 (or even more) factoring clients. My fees are larger my risk is smaller and more manageable, and my brokers are much happier (more $$). Factoring Brokers close more deals, and ultimately, that’s the name of the game! As always I welcome your comments.

About the Author: Fred Leder has been actively involved in the specialized healthcare financing niche for over a decade. Xynergy Healthcare Capital LLC is a factoring organization focused on small to mid-sized healthcare providers nationwide. For more information contact Fred at (954) 489-6460 or by email at fleder@xynergyhealth.com.

However, many of those rumors are a result of misinformation and poor staffing factoring research methods.

This article will help debunk some of the more common factoring myths so that staffing business owners can make an educated decision when it comes time to finding the appropriate funding solution for their cash flow problems.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #1: I’m nervous to factor my healthcare staffing invoices because my customers are not familiar with it.

Reality: Factoring has been around for over 4,000 years. In fact, many big name companies have benefited from it, including: 3M Corporation, Best Buy, American Express Company, Motorola Inc., CVS Corporation, and Foot Locker. In addition, factoring is very prominent in the world of staffing because medical facilities routinely take weeks or months to pay their staffing vendors. In most cases, in order for a staffing business owner to utilize a factoring company, the accounts payable clerk who handles the payables just needs to change the remittance address.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #2: Invoice Funding is an expensive financing option.

Reality: It’s important to consider the fact that a factoring fee is not the same thing as an annualized interest rate. For example, if a factoring firm charges a staffing agency owner 3% per month, it cannot simply be translated into 36% APR. Rather, a factoring firm’s fees stop the day an invoice is paid. Staffing firms do not typically wait 12 months to receive payment on an invoice, so the fee is not nearly as large as one would perceive it to be.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #3: Factoring requires a long-term commitment.

Reality: Unlike a bank loan, most factoring companies who work with staffing agencies do not require a fixed-term financing commitment. You choose when, who, how much and how long to factor your invoices.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #4: With factoring, I will lose control over my accounts.

Reality: Selling staffing invoices makes it easy for business owners to manage their invoices. Most factoring firms offer their clients access to financial reports weekly or daily. In fact, there are many factors who grant access to a secure online reporting system where staffing entrepreneurs can review purchased accounts and collections in real time via a secure Internet connection.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #5: The hospitals and nursing homes will think my agency has cash flow problems.

Reality: There are many businesses who use factoring and many medical facilities are already familiar with healthcare staffing factoring. Once alerted of the change in remittance address, healthcare facilities simply view the factor as the agency’s new accounts receivable department.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #6: The hospitals and nursing homes where I staff will be bothered by frequent collection calls.

Reality: A factoring firm will initially contact an agency’s customer to verify that the invoices are valid. If there is a problem and the staffing factor cannot successfully collect on the invoices, the factor will contact the agency owner to discuss the issue.

Healthcare Staffing Factoring Myth #7: The staffing business model is too complicated for a factoring firm to understand.

Reality: There are many accounts receivable factoring firms that are familiar with this intricacies involved with the staffing industry. As a result of their industry expertise, these factoring firms have specialized funding programs specifically geared towards staffing agencies.

Certainly, reviewing these seven common myths will help staffing agency owners who are trying to piece together the facts about invoice factoring. Hopefully, this article has proven that there are two-sides to every story. You can learn more about managing factoring fears, all it takes is a little research to get started!

Philip Cohen is the founder and president of PRN Funding, LLC, which is an extraordinarily focused niche player in the healthcare staffing factoring market place. Through a process known as factoring, PRN Funding provides staffing business owners with the financial resources needed to grow and effectively compete in the industry. With no minimums or fixed terms, PRN Funding provides staffing companies with flexible and immediate access to capital.

Article reprinted with permission by PRN Funding, LLC.

Desire to learn directly from the factoring industry leaders?

Then make plans to attend the IFA’s Annual Factoring Conference April 13-16, 2011, in Washington DC.

Here are a few of the presentations and speakers they have in their impressive line-up this year:

• How the Federal Reserve Operates – Governor Elizabeth A. Duke
• How the Business and Finance World will look in the Coming 20 Years – Dr. Michio Kaku
• Current Topics in Transportation Factoring – David Jencks, Esq.
• Play Factoring Jeopardy – Phil Cohen
• Issues surrounding Sales Tax, Credit Insurance, Misdirected payments, Invoice Terms & Arbitration – Mike Ullman, Esq.
• Factoring 101 – Darla Auchinachie
• Frauds, Fairy Tales and Facts about Managing a Factoring Portfolio – Allen Frederic, Michael Monk, Pat Haney, Jay Atkins
• Introduction to Sales & Marketing – Blaine Waugh
• Small Factors Roundtable – Melissa Donald, Ryan Jaskiewicz, David Jencks, Esq.
• Factoring in Canada – Jeffery Alpert, Esq, Martin Fingerhut, Esq, Oscar Rombolà
• Plus networking events, receptions, and a golf tournament sponsored by factoring companies like RMP Capital and Bibby Financial.

You can register on-line at www.factoringconference.com or by calling the IFA at
800-563-1895.  There is a $50 discount for registering by January 31, 2011!