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...]
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...]
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...]
6 Tips For New Factoring Companies
In recent months I have been writing about brokers who want to start their factoring companies. This is an important topic for brokers since many want to move to the direct funding side of things. Unfortunately, most have unrealistic expectations about their chances of success. They like to focus on the potential positive aspects of the move, such as higher revenues. But they often ignore the obvious risks, such as losing principal or going out of business. Here are six tips that will help you survive your first year as a factor. 1. Double your marketing budget One of the toughest things in this business is getting clients. Due to intense competition, the cost of acquiring a client is very high. New factoring companies often underestimate … [Read more...]
How To Select A Market For Your Factoring Company
As far as I can tell, every factoring company is an expert and is also the best in the market when it comes to transportation, staffing, and security guard deals. Everyone offers the best terms, service, and turnaround times. At least, that is what they claim. Unfortunately, from a client’s perspective, there is little difference between factors. They all offer similar plans with similar benefits. So, factoring companies fight tooth and nail for every deal in these industries. However, every year, new factoring companies flock to those industries because they are coveted by factoring companies. In doing so, they face brutal competition from more established and better funded factoring companies. They usually lose. In reality, they … [Read more...]