About Entrepreneurs

Author: Marco Terry

Do you own a company that is growing quickly? If your company were a car, do you feel like you are pressing on the accelerator while at the same time stepping on the brake? Or worse, that your growth is stuck in neutral?

Slow cash flow is the biggest challenge to company growth. And business owners, like you, know that the biggest cash flow problem is having to wait up to 90 days to get paid by your commercial and government customers.

Going to the bank for a business loan won't help much, unless your company has a great past history. This is because banks give business loans based on past performance. What you need is a financing product that can finance your company based on its future potential. And who better to evaluate your future potential than yourself? This is where receivables factoring can help you. This is because receivables factoring is self-financing.

Receivables factoring, also known as invoice factoring, works by eliminating the 30 to 60 days it takes for commercial clients to pay you. It enables you to get a substantial portion of the money owed to you within a day or two of invoicing, providing you with funds to pay rent, meet payroll and more importantly - expand your business.

Imagine if you could get paid consistently, just two days after invoicing. How fast could your business grow? And without debt. This is how receivables factoring works:

1. You invoice your customers as you always do
2. You send a copy of your invoice to the receivables factoring company for financing
3. The factoring company advances you up to 80% of your invoice (20% is not advanced to cover potential disputes, etc.)
4. You get your money right away. The factoring company waits to get paid by your customer
5. Once your customer pays, the factoring company rebates you the 20% reserve, less a small fee

Factoring can be a very cost effective way of financing your business. The factoring fee is based on three factors:

1. The credit quality of your customer,
2. Your monthly volume and,
3. How long it takes customers to pay your invoices.

As a rule of thumb, monthly costs can go from 1.5% to 6% per month depending on these criteria. If you own a company that has a lot of capital tied in slow paying receivables and if you need financing right away, you should consider factoring your invoices.