In the spirit of the season, it’s time to file your taxes. Your tax returns verify your previous income level and are proof of the tax obligations you have fulfilled – both filing and payment. It is recommended to turn to a creditable tax agent to ensure everything is done correctly. For better understanding of your invoice factoring terms of agreement, reach out to your factoring company. There is a lot to be determined when determining if the receivables you factored are taxable. How a company treats its accounts receivable depends on what accounting method the company takes. If it uses the accrual method, then the company records revenue as soon as it makes a sale, which means accounts receivable get counted as income. The general … [Read more...]
10 Apps to Help A Factoring Business Stay Organized
Organization can easily slip through the cracks when you’re running a busy factoring business. Perhaps you’ve forgotten to email information to a recent prospect or you’ve missed an important conference call because you lost track of time. If you’ve ever found yourself sitting through piles of paperwork to locate a phone number or accidently throwing away something valuable, you’re not alone. Keeping your documents and to-dos organized may seem like a full-time job on its own, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Why? Because there’s an app for that. An endless variety of mobile apps are available to keep factoring brokers organized. From smartphone apps for note-taking to contact management and mileage tracking, there is bound to be a … [Read more...]
8 Email Marketing Tips For Factoring Brokers
8 Tips to Reach Your Prospects With Email Marketing For Factoring Brokers... It’s not easy to market to new factoring prospects. Many marketing tactics exist to effectively generate new leads including social media, blogging, paid advertising, direct mail and email marketing. While all of these strategies are effective and necessary forms of marketing, email marketing allows factoring brokers to reach prospects in seconds at a very low cost, with more personalization options. It’s an inexpensive and easy to use tool in your advertising arsenal. One of the greatest benefits to email marketing is personalization. It’s important to customize email messages to each prospect to increase open rates and responses. Factors can send … [Read more...]
Home Care is a Great Opportunity for the Factoring Industry
Don’t let the term medical receivable fool you. The rapid growth in home health care is creating opportunity in the factoring industry similar to traditional staffing. According to a (not surprising) 2010 AARP survey, 9 out of 10 older Americans said they’d rather be cared for in their homes than in a nursing home. As the baby boomer generation ages, Medicaid had to evolve to meet the needs of this large demographic. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) introduced a number of new incentives that made it possible for seniors and the developmentally disabled to receive care in the comfort of their homes, rather than moving into nursing home facilities. The ACA created new options and incentives to encourage states to provide home and … [Read more...]
10 Questions to Ask Before Signing a Factoring Contract
If you are considering factoring your receivables, you are probably already aware of its benefits. But other things are essential to know before you sign on the bottom line with a factoring firm. The most important is this: not every factoring firm is the same! Not only does every company have its own procedures and requirements, but some also have more experience in certain industries and factoring methods than others. Here is a list of questions you should ask before signing a factoring contract. 1. How many years has the company been in business? Over the years the factoring industry has grown considerably as more and more people realize factoring is an excellent method for increasing cash flow. However, with the increase in … [Read more...]
Prospect Yellow Flags: Factoring Deals to Approach with Caution
Last month, we covered a number of red flags for factoring brokers to avoid when working with a prospect. Besides those “back away now” situations, there are other things that can complicate your efforts to find a factoring company to work with the lead. While these are circumstances that may be resolved favorably, it is still worth your time to gather all of the information you can before investing your efforts in placing the deal. If you encounter the following situations, proceed with caution: Bad personal credit (with or without liens) To place a deal where the prospect has poor personal credit, you have to know which of your funders is willing to work with those deals. Tax liens fall into this category as well: because the … [Read more...]
Are Factoring Companies Prepared to Handle Your Leads?
The factoring world is changing – can your funding sources keep up? Your success as a broker hinges on your ability to place prospects with factoring companies that will close the deal. It is critical, then, that you focus you energy on working with funders that are prepared on every level to accept leads from brokers. So, are factoring companies prepared to effectively handle your leads? Below are some important things to consider before sending leads to any factoring company. Have a conversation with each funder before referring deals in which you learn their expectations of you, establish your expectations of them and make sure you are comfortable with their ability to meet your requirements. If their system doesn’t measure up, you … [Read more...]
Funding Invoices With Fundbox
Invoice funding is not always factoring. We were reminded of this in February when we highlighted a case study on social media marketing in the article Is Invoice Factoring Becoming Mainstream? We were intrigued by the company with an innovative marketing approach and decided to dig deeper in this interview with Tomer Michaeli, VP of Business Development at Fundbox. A NY-based technology company, Fundbox is helping small businesses, freelancers and home offices grow by overcoming short term cash flow gaps. They also accept referrals from factoring brokers and are a new addition to the 2014 Directory. Is Fundbox a factoring company? Tomer Michaeli: No, Fundbox is a technology company that offers business owners and freelancers a … [Read more...]
Should Brokers Start Their Own Factoring Companies?
Most brokers who join the factoring industry expect to eventually own a factoring company. They plan to start as brokers due to the lower cost. This approach allows them to get some revenues and experience, with the hope of eventually becoming a full-fledged factoring company. This strategy is fine, as long as you realize that running a factoring company is completely different from running a brokerage. The costs, needed skill set, risks, rewards, and challenges are very different. Do you have the capital? The first question to ask yourself is if you have sufficient capital to start factoring accounts. This attainment is not as easy as it sounds. Obviously, you need enough capital to service your clients. This simple table gives you … [Read more...]
How to Set Yourself Apart from Other Factors and Brokers
As far as I can tell, every factoring broker and every factoring company claims to have exceptional customer service, that they can fund clients quickly, and that their prices are the most competitive in the market. Everybody says and focuses on that almost exclusively. Because of this, factoring companies look the same from the outside. It’s easy for prospects to see how brokers market themselves and conclude that all factoring companies are the same – basically a dime a dozen. Is factoring a commodity? Let’s look at the other side of things. Most brokers and factors complain that prospects often don’t treat them well: prospects negotiate harshly, shop incessantly for better terms, and threaten to leave for a competitor at the … [Read more...]