By Tina Hamilton
If you are an entrepreneur in your start-up year, you are still learning the ropes. You may have tenacity, family support, passion, and past experience in the industry. However, you canÂt be managing every aspect of the business at once and all too often young companies find unpaid contracts and invoices piled on the desk.
In worse case scenarios unpaid invoices can sit around for months and cause companies to fail to meet payroll or face challenges in ordering inventory. Knowing your options is vital to keeping your head above water. One of the best solutions to this all-too-common problem is Invoice Factoring due to its successful record in helping businesses continue to flourish by providing instant cash. Continue reading to learn how it works, and what to look out for.
Cash Flow problems
Getting a cash advance on your unpaid invoices can be what saves your starting business. But finding the right invoice factoring company is equally vital to protecting your assets, as is the ability to get paid off your unpaid contracts.
Fee
When paying a company to collect on your Factoring Accounts Receivables you want to find one that will charge you zero money upfront and take no more than 10 percent of your recovered unpaid invoices. Asking a business to pay upfront is counter-productive and defeats the purpose of getting a cash advance.
Reputation
A factoring companyÂs reputation is extremely important. It is paramount that businesses take the needed time to do thorough research on any company they consider working with. If there are a lot of negative remarks surrounding a company is it best to keep looking for another provider. It is completely normal to find one or two bad reviews on any business in any industry. Perhaps your business even has a bad review. Do not let one bad review shake your faith in a company, but if the negative feedback stifles the positive, dealing with them is not worth it.
Terms
Make sure the terms are just as agreeable as the rates. You may not be buying a used car, but you can still try haggling a bit to get the terms to an appropriate arrangement. If you find a company with excellent rates but the terms need some improvement, try doing a little research until you do find a company with better terms and present your finding to the provider you are trying to work with. Often they will try to save face by matching or beating a competitorÂs terms. When it comes to negotiating terms you can follow advise from online articles that help entrepreneurs negotiate traditional bank loans. Although the products are totally opposite from one another, the art of negotiating is not.
Moving forward
Once you have been paid out on your invoices be sure you learn from the experience so not to repeat the same action from happening again. Perhaps hiring someone to manage accounts is in order. This would also free up some of your time to spend elsewhere in the business.
Finally, positive thinking is a powerful, contagious force that helps drive business forward. Be sure that when you finally nail down your business processes, you line them in a silver layer of positivity.
