Just image, you are a small manufacturing company, business has been good, but yesterday you received a call from a customer who wants 50,000 widgets in 45 days. The customer is a large account and if you turn the business down, he may never call you again.
Problem: You need to hire more staff to meet the manufacturing needs of this customer. AND the customer said nothing about an advance payment. In fact he mentioned that he would be paying net 30 once shipment was received.
You need working capital and you needed it yesterday
You sit down and you start to think. Well lets see, it will take much needed time to apply to the bank for a loan, your wife threatens to leave with the kids if you refinanced the house one more time for business reasons and your credit cards are maxed out.
As you look around your messy yet effective office you wonder where you can get the working capital you need?
Sitting in front of you is your secretary mailing out invoices. You slowly walk over to her desk and you ask "Whats the total amount of invoices that we have outstanding at this very moment?
Your secretary looks on her computer, moves the rat around a few times, clicks a couple of times, and then hits something that makes the printer start singing. She looks up at you with those "I want a raise" eyes and says, "its coming out on the printer"
You walk slowly over to the printer and pick up the sheet of paper. Just when you think you are ready to read and understand the page another page prints. She says very softly, "the second page will give you the total" You pick up the second page and allow your eyes to scroll down to the bottom of the page and much to your surprise the total amount is well over $300,000.
You don't want to call a Factoring company because, they will discount your Invoices and you won't get all your monies OR do you?
Your secretary reminds you that all the fees for Factoring the Invoices is tax deductible and in the end the Factoring will cost you nothing. (Your secretary is taking tax classes at night, something about becoming more valuable to the company and earning more money) She also reminds you that you can Factor the Invoices and be paid up to 92% of the total invoice amount within 48 hours. Plus, the Broker does not charge you.
It is at this point that you try to remember why you married your wife instead of your secretary?
You quickly change from that thought back to who should I call? There are so many Sharks in the water and about $200,000 of the invoices are Government Contracts.
You know you need a Factoring company whose rates are fair and who can deal with the endless paperwork that the Federal Government requires to Factor one of their Contracts.
Needless to say, he called me; the names have been changed to protect the guilty.
This article was written by C. Ingraham, Broker for Government and Corporate Invoice Lines of Credit at http://www.taxeswilltravel.com