| Accounts receivable sale finances growth |
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Bruce Freeman Q. I’m a small-business owner and am finding it difficult to get a bank loan. I’ve heard of something called factoring. What is it and when is it time to consider alternatives to traditional bank loans? A. As the credit crisis spurs traditional lenders to tighten credit standards and raise fees, more small-business owners and entrepreneurs are seeking other ways to start a business or keep it going. Small growth-oriented businesses and established midsized companies often require additional working capital when money is tied up in accounts receivable, and obtaining funding from banks and other traditional resources means a long and arduous process. Furthermore, how many times have business owners heard that the check’s in the mail? For small-business owners and contractors, it’s a phrase heard all too often and it evokes wry grins or agonizing groans, depending upon whom you ask. Even when dealing with household corporate names, delayed payments are surprisingly common as head offices decide contractors or vendors can wait 30, 60 or even 90 more days. It turns out companies that provide interim financing to these struggling small-business owners by purchasing their creditworthy, outstanding invoices – minus a fee – comprise a thriving, if little-known, global industry. It’s called factoring, and it’s worth an estimated $1 trillion a year worldwide, with $100 billion of that in the United States and about $4 billion in Canada, according to Factors Chain International, a global network of leading factoring companies. According to Brian Birnbaum, one of the founders of Liquid Capital, “factoring is the purchase of corporate accounts receivable. It’s generally used when a company is in its infancy or experiences a growth spurt and gives that company access to capital through non-traditional means.” A factor purchases a business’s accounts receivable and gives it a large percentage of the total creditworthy accounts receivable upfront and the remainder when they are collected. The factor handles all the credit checks, collects the accounts receivable and ledgers the receivable so the client is able to concentrate on growing its business. For information, go to www.liquidcapitalcorp.com. |
Working with Liquid Capital has helped us meet our major goal of raising some capital to repay a loan that we would not have been able to put together quickly enough otherwise.