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Archive for the ‘Cash flow finance’ Category

Business Finance for the construction industry

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

Anyone involved in the instruction industry will know how difficult it is to obtain working capital facilities. Due to the contractual nature of invoicing and applications for payment traditional forms of invoice finance are not available. The good news is that there are two or three independent finance companies that can provide funding against contractual debt and application for payments.

Specialist invoice finance companies use their own QS’s to asses work and provide funding that traditionally isn’t available via the high street banks. Whilst prepayments might not be as high as traditional invoice finance and factoring facilities the ability to get 50 or 60% of outstanding payments provides vital working capital for many businesses. As with any form of business finance the finance companies in question are all very different animals and provide slightly different forms of funding. XL Business Finance with over 12 years of experience can help you with speaking to the right funder.

 

 

Collecting Cash Before Christmas!

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

It can be difficult to get payments at  the best of times from your customers without having to deal with  Christmas.  Christmas often sees people spending money on presents  rather than on their due and payable accounts.  The following methods have been expertly provided by Roger Brown of NuOrder Intelligent Financial Business Consulting:

  • Send accounts early.  Sending your accounts out earlier than  normal will help you to get money in quicker and payments on time.   December may see you struggling to receive any money so send them  a.s.a.p.
  • Phone customers.  You might like to ring your customers  prior to their account being due to ensure that you will receive  payment on or around the account due date.  This could reduce the amount  of people likely to pay late.
  • Offer a Christmas discount.  As a  Christmas generosity you can provide a small discount to those  customers who pay their bill prior to the due date.  Your  discount only needs to be 1% or 2% off the total price payable which to a  customer can be a lot, especially when saving to buy their loved one  something special.
  • Deposits.  For new customers wanting to use  your business prior to Christmas you may decide to implement an initial  payment strategy which allows you to collect a portion of money from  your customer, ensuring that you have sufficient money coming into your  business.  Furthermore, if your customers are adaptable to your business  you may decide to ask for a deposit, only during the months of November  and December.
  • Part payment opportunities.  Depending on the  size of your customer accounts and orders, a part payment system might  be suitable for your business.  This system allows you to collect money  on a regular basis over a specified period of time without putting the  customer into hardship.  Again this will help you to collect funds for  your business.
  • Competition.  Again this will depend on your type  of business and what you can offer, however a competition can be setup  for account payers.  You might have a Christmas hamper or go to an  extreme such as a Christmas holiday, in which your customers will enter  free when they pay their account by the specified date.

Getting paid for your goods and services on time is important and  therefore you may need to implement some measures over the Christmas  period to ensure you receive your money when it is due and payable.

 

 

Can Asset Based Lending provide an alternative to high street banks?

Monday, September 5th, 2011

A traditional Asset Based Lender  or ABL predominantly provides  cash flow finance. The main facility they offer will be invoice  invoice discounting however they can also  provide stocking finance, plant and machinery  finance/refinance and for the right customers commercial mortgages as well. Although the banks serve a purpose for many businesses the amount of facilities that are available are often dictated by the size of the balance sheet and and previous years trading performance. Therefore the level of available funding isn’t necessarily related to the amount of available security. How many times  have you heard a business owner say that the bank has plenty of available security but the bank will not increase their facilities

ABL lenders look at things in a slightly different perspective. Whilst it is important that they buy into the business and are comfortable with its trading performance they are mainly concerned with the available level of security. An invoice discounting facility will provide funding of circa 85% of the unpaid debtors. They will also consider providing additional working capital secured against plant and machinery. They will lend anything up to 80% of its value depending on the circumstances around the deal. A true revolving stocking facility may also be appropriate and potentially commercial mortgage funding is also available. In addition an ABL lender is not necessarily after the clearing banking and as such you will be able to leave your clearing with your existing high street. This potentially makes for an easy transition to potentially more flexible and supportive funding arrangements.

 

 

Business Finance Alternatives

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

As I am sure most SME owners agree there are still a  few difficult years ahead when it comes to arranging business finance via the traditional high street banks.

In our opinion banks are in a very difficult position. They are under pressure to start lending to small businesses however many of these businesses are not strong enough to justify bank support. The banks have been heavily criticised in the past for being too cavalier with their lending policy. Rock and a hard stone comes to mind.

Thankfully there are many alternative business finance solutions including cash flow finance, asset finance and refinance, trade finance and EFG funding. More often than not there is always an independent finance company willing to structure a deal when the banks cannot help.

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