How A Broker Can Help You Get Medical Business Factoring Loans

As a medical practitioner, you probably have a lot on your plate right now. You have patients to deal with on a daily basis. You need to check that you’re paying your people and your rent on time. You have to make sure that you’re stocked up on medical supplies, and that your medical and dental equipment are working well. So when you find that you need more capital for growth, it can be discouraging to discover that you have more work to do when you try to get the medical business factoring loans you need.

It may be tempting to just look for a factor online through Google. But not all factors are created equal, and some are worse than others. But a factoring broker may help you find the top factoring company for your needs.

  • They can match you with a factoring company that specializes in medical clinics. Not all factoring companies are ideal for clinics. Here, the problem is that a factoring company must be experienced in dealing with government institutions like Medicare and Medicaid, along with the third-party insurance companies. This requires special skills and experience.
  • Brokers can lead you to factoring companies that match your funding needs. Just how much money do you need on a monthly basis? Every factoring company has their own funding levels. A factoring company that only offers a few thousand dollars a month in funding may not have the financial resources to provide you with hundreds of thousands a month. At the same time, a factor that deals with huge volumes of invoices may not bother if you’re just a very small clinic that needs only a paltry sum of money.
  • Brokers can help you find the most reasonable fees. The fee structure of factoring companies can be very complicated, so it may be difficult to use as a way to compare one factoring company from another. However, a broker can help explain the pricing structures, and make you see things that you may have overlooked.

For example, a factoring company may boast that they only charge 1% in fees for their services. But a broker can point out that this only applies for ten days, so if insurance companies take a long time to pay then you also pay more. Then there are other fees as well, including start up fees, fees for each invoice, and late fees. All this must be accounted for so that there are no nasty surprises when the factoring company takes its cut.

So should you use a factoring broker? It is probably a good idea. After all, in the health care industry we encourage patients to see a doctor instead of self-diagnosing and buying outrageously hyped-up supplements and cures online. It’s the same thing with obtaining medical business factoring loans. It may be a very good idea indeed to have a professional guide you through the process. The broker can help make sure that the financial state of your medical clinic remains healthy!

Small Business Factoring Invoice 4 Tips

4 Tips on Getting Paid with the Right Invoice

When you engage in small business factoring invoice, the factoring company gives you an advance on what your customers are supposed to pay you. The typical top factoring company will usually advance you about 70-80% of the value of the invoice. When the customer pays in full, the rest of the money is sent to you after the factoring company takes out its fee.

If your customer pays late, then usually there’s an additional fee involved. And if your customers don’t pay at all, then you’re obligated to return the money that was advanced to you.

So it in your best interest to make sure that your customers pay. And did you know that you can increase your chances of getting paid just by improving your invoicing? Here are some tips that have resulted from studies involving hundreds of thousands of invoices:

  1. Put your logo on the invoice. Why shouldn’t you put your logo there? After all, it boosts your branding, and it’s another chance to increase the visibility of your logo and your brand.

But according to the study, an invoice that contains the company logo is actually 3 times more likely to be than an invoice that doesn’t have a logo.

There are several possible reasons for this. Perhaps your customer overlooks the invoice because it doesn’t look official enough, or perhaps the lack of a logo simply makes it look unimportant. But whatever the reason, it makes perfect sense to add your logo to all your invoices.

  1. Put the due date on the invoice. This is perhaps too obvious a tip, but you’d be surprised at just how many invoices lack this crucial piece of information. It was found in the study that up to 24% of invoices were sent out without an explicit due date at all!

It seems a logical conclusion that invoices without a due date are much less likely to be paid, and the study proves that conclusively. It was discovered that when the invoice contains an explicit due date, it is 8 times more likely to be paid on time. So put that date on the invoice, and make it prominent. Don’t just put the date on which the invoice was issued and then say that it is due on 30 or 60 days. The deadline has to be explicitly stated.

  1. Include the terms in the invoice. That means if you expect to be paid in 30 days, state it clearly on the invoice (along with the due date). It was discovered that when the terms are stated, the invoice is 50% more likely to be paid than if the terms were not there.
  2. Include only one name on the invoice. Address it to 4 people, and the invoice is 50% less likely to be paid. After all, people can see the invoice and figure that other people are responsible for paying it.
  3. Be polite. Use phrases like “please” and “thank you”. Invoices with these phrases are 5% more likely to be paid.

All these improvements on your invoice require very little effort on your part. But they can sure increase your chances that your small business factoring invoice gets paid!

How a Top Factoring Company Can Help You Run Your Medical Clinic

Running your own medical or dental clinic is a huge undertaking, and usually you can’t go at it all by yourself. Not only will you need employees, but eventually you’ll need more funding especially if you plan to grow your practice. For many healthcare professionals, a top factoring company may be of better use than a bank in securing the funding they need.

  • Banks take too long. Banks nowadays are very cautious about lending money to a small business. Even if you do qualify for a business loan (and that’s a big “if”), the entire application process takes an interminable length of time. The bank will ask a lot of questions. The bank will take a very careful look at the state of your finances, how you plan on using the money, and how you plan to repay the loan.

In contrast, a factoring company takes a shorter time to decide on medical business factoring loans. And they’re also much more likely to provide the funding you need.

  • You can use the advance money for growth. In factoring, you get most of the money upfront from the factoring company, instead of waiting a long time for the payment from your customer. And you can do a lot with that money. You can make sure your people get paid on time, and that you have the working capital to cover various expenses necessary to run a medical clinic from day to day.

You can also use the money to get more advanced equipment. For example, if you’re running a dental clinic you may wish to offer advanced computer imaging technology so that you can offer state of the art aligners such as Invisalign. You can also expedite the production of crowns so that it only takes a single visit to the clinic. You may even offer dental implants to replace missing teeth, instead of just ordinary dentures.

Your clinic may also benefit from additional advertising as well, and you can use the money to improve your clinic’s website.

  • You get extra services. It’s not just the funding through which a factoring company can help. Essentially, they can handle your invoices for you, and you can check up on them easily online. The factoring company can organize your invoices to see which payments are due and how much you’re going to get in the future.

The factoring company also deals with the third-party insurance companies, along with Medicare and Medicaid. Dealing with these institutions is one of the most frustrating aspects of running a clinic, and now you’re spared from the trouble. You can now concentrate on providing the best care you can for your patients, which is probably why you became a doctor in the first place!

As a doctor, you’re sworn to help people get better, and that’s what you’re trying to do with your medical clinic. But let a top factoring company help you, so that you can provide even better service to your patients.

Why Factoring is a Great Source of Staffing Agency Funding

Technically speaking, there are several ways of obtaining staffing agency funding. You can approach a bank and apply for a loan or line of credit. You may sell shares of your company to a venture capitalist in exchange for some capital. Some are even tempted into use their credit cards to pay for expenses necessary to run a staffing agency.

However, many agencies have discovered the many benefits of factoring staffing accounts receivable. In factoring, you don’t have to wait for your clients to pay you in full in 30 or 60 days. Instead, you get about 75 to 85 percent of the value of the invoice at once from the factoring companies, and you can use this money to pay your workers and hire new ones.

So what makes factoring such an advantageous option? Here are some of its very beneficial features:

You Can Get Your Funding Even With Bad Credit

It’s not very easy to get a loan from a bank, even at the best of times. And if you’re familiar with banks these days, you know that it’s never the best of times. And so if your staffing agency is new or has bad credit, getting the funding can be virtually impossible.

That’s not the case when you approach a factoring company. These factors don’t really give a damn as to what your credit score is. They’re much more concerned with the credit worthiness of your customers. When the factor advances you the money, your customers are instructed to pay the factor directly, so it makes sense that the factor wants your clients to have a good history of paying their bills in full and on time.

You Don’t Need Collateral

When you obtain a loan from a bank, in most cases you’re going to be asked to put up property as collateral to secure the loan. Since you’re running a staffing agency, your company doesn’t have a lot in the way of heavy or expensive equipment. So as the owner you may have to put up your own home as collateral.

In factoring, there’s no need for this sort of thing. You don’t need to put up your corporate assets and your personal assets are untouched. The factors only need a lien on your accounts receivable. That’s it.

You Can Scale Your Funding

You have lots of leeway regarding how much advance money you get so that you can boost your readily available working capital. In a way, it’s like having a line of credit or using a credit card. You can only take as much money as you need. If you don’t need much, you can just submit several invoices instead of all of them.

But lines of credit and credit cards have limits imposed by the lender. With factoring, the limits are only defined by the volume of your sales. So the more successful you become, the more advance money you can have available for your staffing agency.

So if you’re in need of staffing agency funding, think about factoring. It may be the key for the growth of your staffing agency.

 

Looking for a Staffing Company Loan? (Tips )

When you run your own staffing company, it’s not always easy to monitor everything that’s going on. Things can slip down the cracks, and you may end up s in need of a staffing company loan. It may help your staffing company cash flow if you try to automate the billing process, however.

But how do you do that? Here are some suggestions offered by experienced business owners:

Hire an Accountant

Or you can outsource the entire billing process to an accounting firm. You have to admit, if you’re running your own business that doesn’t mean you’re going to be a great accountant. As the owner and manager of a staffing company, you may have been a people person who’s always delighted in seeing people find employment, and not exactly a dedicated number-cruncher.

By hiring an accountant, you spare yourself many hours of work on your billing and accounting. These things can be a distraction, when you have more important things to do which are much more suited to your skills. You can then concentrate on finding new clients for your workers, providing their training, and making sure they have all the supplies they need to do their work properly.

Synchronize Your Billing System with your Accounting System

If you insist on doing the accounting yourself, or if there’s no budget for an accountant, the least you can do is to make sure your invoicing and billing system is set up properly with your accounting platform. All the data must fit and complement one another, and all your accounts must reflect the current state of affairs.

By synchronizing your invoicing and billing with your accounting system, you save precious hours of work. What’s more, you get a more accurate idea of your company’s financial state, and you minimize the chances of error.

Be Updated with the Latest Technology

Regardless of what billing and accounting software you use now, every now and then you should go online and check out new tools available. When it comes to accounting software, things are always changing and improving. Even though you may have to learn an entirely new process, the new technology may represent a much better way of doing things for your accounting. You can’t just keep on using the same old programs.

Make It Easy for Customers to Pay

If possible, get a platform that allows your customer to pay automatically through online or mobile means. When you can accommodate a variety of payment methods, you give your clients fewer reasons not to pay on time. Making things easy for your customers benefit you as well.

Don’t Forget to Add a Personal Touch

Instead of sending cold collection mails and payment reminders, you may want to use a more friendly personal emails instead. It’s been demonstrated that often a personal email is much more effective in encouraging customers to stay on track than a coldly professional automated message.

It’s not unusual for your business to need a staffing company loan every now and then. But by automating your billing properly, you may not need a loan as often as you think.

How to Smartly Use Staffing Company Cash from Factoring

When you start your own staffing company, your startup capital is spent first on office rent and supplies, recruitment and advertising so you can get customers. But when your company begins to attract a fair amount of clients, you’ll need to grow and for that you need more staffing company cash.

While you may try to get a loan from staffing direct lenders, you may also want to try factoring instead. Your clients often pay you for your workers’ services in 30 or even 60 days, but with factoring you can get that payment (or at least 70-80% of its value) from the factor in advance.

So how should you use your available working capital? Here are some ideas:

  • Improve your website. A website for your staffing agency is one of the most convenient tools at your disposal. It serves as an advertisement for your customers so that they know what kind of personnel you’re offering and at what rates. Here you can list down all the services you can perform for your clients.

It also serves as a recruitment tool for potential workers as well. You may not even need to have your potential applicants come in to your office. Instead, they can take a few tests online to see if they have the skills you’re looking for. If they pass, your website has your address and contact information so that they can come in to your office.

  • Hire new workers. If your staffing agency is attracting more clients, you may need more workers to meet the demand. That means lots of additional expenses. Not only do you have to meet your increased payroll, but you will also need to get insurance for all your new workers. And then you also need new supplies, such as time cards, orientation material, or workplace supplies such as uniforms.

Recruitment may not always be easy, and to attract more applicants you may have to advertise for workers more extensively. You may also need to grant bonuses for referrals.

  • More training for workers. Even if you carefully screen your workers for their skills, you may need to provide more training for them. New workers will have to be taught about how you want things done, because their performance will reflect the professionalism and productivity of your staffing company. You’ll want to make sure that they are courteous as well as knowledgeable about their tasks.

You may also want to provide additional training for current workers. For example, if you’re running a janitorial service you may want to teach some of your workers how to clean carpets properly.

If you’re running a car repair service, you may want to make sure that your workers are all familiar with all the new technology that cars have every year. At the same time, you may want to teach younger mechanics about how classic cars and antiques should be handled.

As the owner of a staffing agency, you’ll find that you’ll always need more staffing company cash. Luckily for you, you can get needed capital from factoring companies if banks won’t grant you a loan.

The Drawbacks of Non-Recourse Factoring

In regular factoring, you receive an average of 80% of the value of the invoices you submit in advance. You get the rest when the customer pays in full, and only after the factoring company takes its percentage off the top. The factoring company has the recourse to get its advance back from you if your customer doesn’t pay within a specified time period, which is usually 90 days. But in non-recourse factoring, the factoring company doesn’t have that option.

This looks like a better deal for you, because you won’t have to return the advance if your customer suddenly declares bankruptcy. But looks can be deceiving, and your non-recourse options may not look so attractive when you realize the consequences.

Limited Invoices for Factoring

The first disadvantage is that some of the invoices that may have been factored would now be rejected. In factoring, the factoring company always investigates the creditworthiness of your customers. If they think that the customer is too risky to extend credit to, then they may refuse to provide an advance or demand higher fees with lower advances.

But with non-recourse, the definition of “risky” becomes broader. Some invoices that would have been factored in the regular recourse factoring method will now be rejected if they pose any kind of risk that they may become bankrupt.

Lower Advances and Higher Fees

Even if a customer is now approved for factoring, the advance you get from the value of the invoice will be lower. In regular factoring you get an 80% advance on average. Now 80% probably represents the highest possible advance you can get. In general you’ll get a lower amount than that, and some small business factoring companies may even just offer 40% of the invoice value.

And yet, while the factoring companies try to minimize their financial risk, the fees they ask for will increase because of the inherently higher risks with non-recourse factoring. The average 3% in fees that factoring companies ask in regular factoring may jump to as high as 6% per 30 days. That’s in addition to other standard fees that your factoring company may charge you with that are part of the non-recourse option.

Affected Customer Relations

When you’re engaged in non-recourse factoring and you have a new customer, your factoring company plays a greater role in how you deal with that customer if you want the resulting invoice factored. The factoring company can determine which customers should be offered credit, and they may even insist on a credit limit for certain customers.

The factoring company may also have a different approach to collections as well. In regular factoring, they can remain friendly when sending reminders, because they know that if the customer doesn’t pay up then you have to send back the advance you got. But now the factoring company may become firmer in insisting that your customer pays on time so they can be sure of getting their advance back from the customer.

All in all, there may be some instances when non-recourse factoring may work very well for you. But in general, you may want to stick to regular factoring so that you can maximize your funding and limit the fees you pay.

Common Fallacies about Toronto Accounts Receivables Factoring

Trade receivables financing specifically invoice factoring is becoming very common all over the world. However, in Toronto accounts receivables factoring is still subject to a lot of misconceptions. So to set matters straight, here are some of the more common fallacies:

  1. Factoring is only for large companies. Admittedly, this fallacy was actually a fact more than 2o years ago. But today, factoring is used by small and medium sized businesses as well. This is especially true since the recent recession, when banks became much more cautious about lending money to small businesses. The factoring industry opened its arms to SMBs and this relationship has become stronger since.

By 2013, factoring worldwide was a $3 trillion business, and that’s not all with large corporations, obviously. According to Forbes, alternative means of capitalization for small businesses such as factoring would be a major trend for 2015.

  1. Factoring is very expensive. Again, this depends on how you look at it. At first glance, it is true that the cost of factoring may be greater than what a bank would charge in interest for a business loan. But according to one report, big banks approved only 21% of small business loan applications in January 2015. That’s a rejection rate of 79%! For small banks it’s a bit lenient, but the approval rate is still less than 50%.

So you don’t compare the cost of factoring to the cost of a bank loan, which is something you’re unlikely to get anyway. What you should compare it to is the cost of not getting the money from factoring. How much would it cost you if you can’t get the funding needed to cover the payroll, buy supplies, or get a move on in your advertising? If the advance money you get from factoring increases your sales to up to 50% then isn’t that money well spent?

  1. Factoring is a last-ditch effort to save a failing company. Now this is absolutely not true at all. While some companies do use the money for such dire emergencies as meeting payroll, the truth of the matter is that factoring companies mostly do business only with companies with a future. The factors think that the company can overcome these temporary setbacks.

The real truth of the matter is that most businesses use factoring for growth, and not just for survival. The proof is that they have creditworthy customers who pay fully and on time, which is what the factors look for when they offer the advance on accounts receivable. They give you the money in advance so that you don’t have to wait 30 or 60 days, and they get back the money when the customers finally pay up.

  1. The collection methods of factoring companies may alienate customers. Again, there is no truth to this nonsense. Factoring companies simply notify your customers of where they should send their payments, and they also send them very polite notices about overdue bills. When there’s a real problem about a non-paying customer, then you’re called in and you’re asked to deal with your customer yourself.

In Toronto accounts receivables factoring is also poised to make a big splash among the small business market. When the truth about factoring spreads, there’s no doubt that small businesses will take advantage of this opportunity for capitalization.

The Five Keys to Obtaining a Staffing Company Loan

It’s not always easy to get a staffing company loan from a bank or from any other lending institution. It takes a lot of time to process, and your chances of actually getting a loan may not be as high as you’ve hoped. But it’s very common to need more staffing agency funding especially when your company grows and acquires more clients, so you may need to either persist in getting a loan or try to get funding from factoring companies instead.

So if you’re determined to get a loan, here are some of the considerations to which you need to pay particular attention:

Character

Who are you and why should a lender lend you money? When you apply for a loan from a bank, you need to convince them that you have the character and the skill to pay back what you borrow.

That starts with looking professional, and you need to prove it in other ways as well. You have to provide records and proof about your educational attainment and work history. Your personal credit must be outstanding, and it will really help if you have excellent references from the people with whom you’ve done business in the past.

Business Conditions

You’re going to need a business plan, as well as any formal analyses you have regarding your industry. Your bank will want to know how you view the trends in your particular industry, whether you’re providing personnel for IT, for security guards, or for janitors.

You’re also going to have to explain how you plan to use the loan, and how you plan to repay the money in light of current economic conditions in your industry and your area.

Finances

A potential lender will also take a very close look at your financial state. Just how much in assets do you own, and how much debt do you carry? What are your current expenses, sales, and profit margins? How is the state of your company’s cash flow? Do you always pay your bills on time?

Aside from looking for evidence that you have the means to pay back the loan, the bank will also want to know your personal investment in the company. For example, if you’re just starting a staffing agency, the bank would feel better if you already have some money stored away to use, and you’re asking for a loan to add to that money. It shows that you’re seriously committed to your business. Banks, however, may not lend you money if you didn’t even bother saving some money to help fund your business.

Collateral

This is often a problem for staffing agencies, since your company doesn’t usually have much in terms of assets and expensive equipment. You may have to offer a personal guarantee for the loan. Usually, you will have to put your own personal assets up as security. So if you have full ownership of your home, you will usually have to offer that as collateral..

With all these things to consider, it’s easy to see why factoring has become so popular! But if you look good in all these areas, then you stand a very good chance of getting that staffing company loan you need.

How a Staffing Factor Helps a Security Agency

A staffing factor is company that specializes in providing staffing agency funding. They offer an advance based on their customer’s accounts receivable, so that staffing agencies can cover urgent expenses such as payroll. Here’s one possible scenario in which factoring really helped a staffing agency grow.

XYZ Security Company

XYZ Security Company offers security guards for malls and for gated communities. The company often has cash flow problems, because their customers tend to pay only after 60 days. That means they have to cover payroll for 8 weeks before they get paid.

The company considered getting a bank loan, but they were rejected because they don’t have enough assets to use as collateral. So the company always strives to keep some money in the bank so that they can cover the costs of new clients.

Growth Opportunity

XYZ Company’s reputation has grown over the last decade, and now they have been approached for a lucrative contract. A property company has asked that XYZ provide security guards for their 25 gated communities. However, the property company only pays invoices in 75 days. That means the XYZ Company has to cover the payroll for 11 weeks before they get their first payment.

Each community has two gates, which means they need 50 guards at any given time. Since the guards have to be there constantly, XYZ had to provide three shifts of 8 hours each per day, and that means every day will require 150 guards total. Each security guard earns $600 a week on average, so every week the XYZ Company spends $90,000 on payroll. But the contract says that each week the security company gets paid $117,000, which represents a 30% profit margin.

The Factoring Solution

XYZ Company only has $100,000 in its bank account, but they need $90,000 for 11 weeks before they get any money from the property company. So without a loan, they couldn’t accept the contract.

But here’s where factoring helped. A typical factoring company charges 1% for every 10-day cash advance, and provides 80% of the value of the invoice as an advance. That means XYZ gets an advance of $93,600 for each week, which is more than enough to cover the weekly payroll for the guards.

After 75 days, the factor is paid in full by the property company for the first week of the security job. The factoring company then subtracts 7.5% of the value of the invoice. That’s $8,775 and so the factor sends back $14,625 to XYZ.

Thus, XYZ still earns a profit of $18,225 a week on the contract! That’s a yearly profit of $947,700. Can you imagine that XYZ almost said “no” to almost a million dollars a year?

That’s how factoring companies can really help staffing agencies. Unlike other types of businesses, staffing agencies must meet its considerable payroll responsibilities. Now thanks to a staffing factor, XYZ Company was able to meet payroll and still earn substantial profits. The 7.5% in fees was truly worth it!