Whenever you watch a sporting event whether it’s baseball, football, hockey, basketball or some other sport, the objective is to score as many points as possible to beat your opponent. I usually score really high at my favorite sport--unfortunately it involves golf clubs and a little white ball. The same is true for the factoring business. Whether your company is a startup or a seasoned veteran your goal is to score points in the form of revenues while keeping expenses low and eventually turning a profit. There are tons of marketing strategies, that can range anywhere from hiring a salesforce to execute your game plan, internet marketing, social media, and a myriad of others that will best suit your company. Experience has taught us that … [Read more...]
Bending But Not Breaking In Factoring?
The factoring industry is unique. If we had to write a mission statement for what we do it would read something like – “To provide cash flow to businesses to sustain and expand their operations”. The cash flow that factoring companies provide is through the purchase of clients receivables at a discount which allows the client to utilize the capital for expansion, take advantage of vendor discounts or any other reason they may have to keep their business an on-going concern. Over the past several years many new factors have entered into the asset based industry, as traditional lenders constricted credit to new and existing businesses. The aftershocks of the great recession had a rippling effect that was felt from Wall Street all the … [Read more...]
Finding Some Luck In The Factoring Business
How many times have you read about a new startup and kicked yourself because you had the same idea? I remember when I was in college there really weren’t any big name coffee shops on every corner but there sure were a lot of students hanging out at the cafeteria sipping on coffee while studying. Fast forward a few years later and the idea of Starbucks seems like such a no brainer. When we started our factoring company a few years ago the concept of financing accounts receivable was anything but new. There were many competitors with vast amounts of experience in the asset based lending arena. Prior to jumping into the ring we had diligently written our business plan, thoroughly studied our niche and built a marketing plan with the … [Read more...]
Looking Ahead To 2015 For Factoring and Asset Based Lenders
The winds of change are a blowing. As of the writing of this article, the Republican Party will have a majority in both the House and Senate as the country moves into the New Year. No matter which side of the political spectrum you reside, the overall approval rating of Congress was an abysmal 14% prior to the November elections which tells us they can’t do much worse in the eyes of their constituents. Will the new Congress once again try to repeal Obamacare? Will we finally see some meaningful legislation on immigration, tax reform, and fair trade deals with Europe and Asia? Only time will tell, but doing nothing surely is not a recipe for success. As for global events, the Middle East unrest continues. The situation in Syria is … [Read more...]
Factoring Concentrations – The Good And The Bad
Risk Management. Every factoring company in our industry knows the importance of properly evaluating their portfolios. Whether it’s factoring, insurance, mortgages or any other type of lending, mitigating losses is vital for every company’s survival. Just a few years ago we saw firsthand how the mortgage meltdown crippled the entire global economy due to lack of controls and poor risk management. In the factoring community the same holds true. Every factor conducts their due diligence using a specific set of guidelines that allows them to protect their security interest in the receivables of their clients while allowing enough room to generate new sales. In many ways it is a balancing act between sales and underwriting. The sales … [Read more...]
Projecting Your Success In The Factoring Industry
By reading the headline of this article one would assume that I will be expressing pearls of wisdom about how to become an instant success in the factoring industry. It’s really easy, right? All you need to do is to acquire some capital either through a bank or investor, fund some invoices and walk your way to fame and fortune. Whether it’s a new factoring company or any startup, one of the easiest things to do is to create an excel spreadsheet with some basic assumptions and just double and triple income for the next few years. We recently had a recent startup visit our office looking for capital. Although they had been in business for less than a year I requested a set of projected financial statements including a profit and … [Read more...]
Are There Too Many Factoring Companies?
Over the last several years it seems that competition among factoring companies has increased dramatically. The supply and demand between invoice factoring companies and qualified prospects has tipped to the point where too many funders are chasing too few deals. Just look around at some of the social media boards where a broker posts a potential lead and ten different factoring companies respond to it. Economics 101 teaches us that a perfectly competitive market structure is one where there are many buyers and sellers, homogeneous products and relatively free entry and exit in the marketplace. I will be the first to go on record to say that I believe that competition is the cornerstone of our economy which makes us the great … [Read more...]
Fighting An Uphill Battle In The Factoring Industry
Have you ever heard the saying that perception is reality? Although I’ve written tons of articles, spoken at numerous SBA and financing workshops while preaching the benefits of invoice factoring, I’m still amazed about how our industry is perceived in the finance industry. Those of you in the factoring industry know what I’m talking about. It’s the negative stigma associated with invoice factoring. So often I’ll be attending a networking event where a CPA will tell me that he consistently advises his clients to stay away from factoring and that they should only use it as a last resort if they need cash. Then there are the small business owners who don’t even know what invoice factoring is or how it can benefit their cash flow. Invoice … [Read more...]
Invoice Factors and Banks
One of the most common slogans you’ll see on any factoring company’s website is how they are better than most banks in getting businesses working capital. Conventional thinking is that banks qualify prospective clients based on the financial stability of the company whereas invoice factoring companies focus more on the credit worthiness of client’s customers. Therefore a prospect with little or no credit or one that has been in business for a short period of time can qualify for a factoring line assuming they have strong customers. For example, many banks will ask for several years of tax returns, financial statements and sufficient collateral to offset the loan. When dealing with the SBA, new companies will have to submit a business … [Read more...]
The Balancing Act of Factoring Invoices
In past articles I have addressed the need for understanding your client’s business as well as having a consistent set of policies and procedures to ensure you effectively manage the risk of factoring invoices. However, what happens when you run across those out of the box deals that do not fit nicely into your company’s comfort zone? Instead of immediately throwing these deals away you might want to consider some adjustments you can make to mitigate the risk. Although we all like to fund deals that are in our sweet spot in terms of size and industry, I have found that some of our best success stories were with clients in industries that we never would have imagined funding. Some past examples include speech therapists, a startup … [Read more...]