What Business Couldn't use a Little Funding?

There are many ways business could spend a little extra cash if they had access to it regularly. Companies could expand, take on more work and create new opportunities.

Many people associate the word funding with start-up companies and those who are in debt. While some of our clients do use our funding for those reasons, there are others who use it regularly in order to expand their business opportunities and lower stress levels. There are all sorts of ways our clients use extra funding to improve and grow their business after the start up phase.

One of our commercial cleaning clients uses factoring to cover payroll. In their field they are paid monthly, but pay their employees bi-weekly. They need something in the interim to make sure their 40+ employees are paid on time and still keep business on track.

Another client, who works in commercial landscaping, takes advantage of factoring in order to bid on larger jobs. These types of companies are usually paid as they go but still need to buy materials, pay workers, rent equipment, etc. Without capital they are missing out on the bigger opportunities and hindering their growth. The extra resources allow them to take on larger jobs, buy materials and continue to grow without relying on the money coming in.

Several of our clients have obtained cash discounts or quantity discounts from their suppliers as a result of funding. One particular client was thrilled that she not only had enough cash to qualify for a quantity discount for her supplies, but the amount of money that she saved with this discount was more than our fees! This is an example of how IFG really can help a small business grow.

Funding can help companies get ahead, beat out the competition or get back on their feet. If you or anyone you know could benefit from alternative funding please give us a call, we'd love to help in any way we can. If you're not convinced see what our satisfied clients have to say.

Many people may think funding is only for companies in debt or in the midst of an emergency, but some companies use our funding continually. If you are interested in exploring new business avenues please contact us.

Bootstrap Financing for Businesses

When companies are low on funds, whether in start-up mode or a few years in, they start searching for alternative ways to improve their cash-flow. One of the most common ways to gain a little extra moolah is through small business loans.

The drawbacks to these loans are interest and collateral. Many businesses don't realize there are alternative ways to fund their compaines, with less risk and potential debt.

The organic craze has everyone in a tizzy. People all over the world are incorporating the organic lifestyle into their everyday routine via food, household products, clothing and a number of other sources. Now there is even a way to extend it into business with a little process called Bootstrap Financing.

Bootstrap financing is defined as "the process of growing a business more or less organically, without using significant outside sources of capital," by Steve Martin author of Instant Profits: Making Your Business Pay. It's not only a great technique for start-up companies, but for small to medium sized businesses in need of financial aid as well.

Under the term Bootstrap Financing there are five main types: Trade Credit, Leasing, Real Estate, Customers and Factoring.

• Trade Credit focuses on a vendor agreement allowing your company to receive goods and generate cash before your payment is due.
  
• If the funds to make a large payment on space or equipment are not available, leasing is a great solution in lieu of making large purchases.
  
• Companies that hold real estate may be able to borrow against, rent or refinance to make the most of existing assets.
  
• A customer is permitted to write a letter of credit, stating they will buy X amount of products from you, and in turn suppliers will allow you to purchase materials to manufacture the products using the letter of credit as collateral.
  
• Companies in need of immediate cash can take part in factoring, the process of selling accounts receivables for a percentage of the actual cost.

These procedures allow businesses to use what they've got to get ahead and leave loans as a plan "B". While there is nothing wrong with borrowing money, we have all done it once or twice before, there is a great satisfaction that comes with being debt free and doing it yourself.

To explore your financial and factoring options please contact us or visit our web site. We would love to help you explore alternative options for funding your company.

Contact us to open a dialog about your company's needs.

So what? Wells Fargo & Other Thoughts

We heard this week that bailed out mega-bank Wells Fargo made a profit in the first quarter of this year. Big whoop! Let's see, they borrow money at 0% and loan it out to people using their credit cards at 15 to 21% or more. How could you not make money? Any kid running a lemonade stand knows that you can make money with that deal.

The questions remain, "what is on their balance sheet?'' Hmmm, credit card accounts that will default soon perhaps? More bad mortgages? All kinds of credit derivatives?

So what happens when any of these items begin to go "belly up"? What happens if they lose big amounts of money in 2009 (in the billions)? Well we all know that they are "too big to fail" and our benevolent federal government will continue to prop up any zombie company (with our money) they believe falls into that category.

Enough is enough! Let the Tea Parties begin. You cannot solve a debt crisis with more debt! Let your representatives in Washington know that you have had enough of the spending that can never be paid off in our lifetime or that of our children and perhaps that of our grandchildren These policies are immoral and will only lead to more economic troubles ahead. And it is time to abolish the Federal Reserve!

The market must correct itself no matter what the duo of Tim & Ben think. They cannot throw more of our money at the problem and make it go away. They can only kick the can down the road which will make coming out of this economic downturn that more painful by prolonging the problem and even making it worse like Hoover and Roosevelt did during the Great Depression.

Success Stories

As we start our 4th year in business as an Interface Financial Group office we find ourselves thinking about the clients that we have worked with to this point. We'd like to take this opportunity to share some of our experiences. First, our clients come to us through referrals. We could not have grown our business and helped our clients grow their businesses without good referral partners. If you are one of those referral partners who trust us enough to make a referral to us, we THANK YOU.


Our clients say it best.

"Thank you for your service, we are able to keep moving and my stress level has dropped big time."

*****

"Jim, I wanted to take the time to say I appreciate you and the assistance from Interface Financial. Working with you and Connie has been a true pleasure and an absolute blessing for our growing business. I will pass your name on to colleagues, but I just wanted to say thanks for all of the hard work and effort you put toward helping us get to the next level."

*****

"Thanks again for what you allow our company to do - continue when times get tough and we are continuing to grow. You and Jim are awesome!"

*****

Our clients have a wide variety of businesses and their funding needs are just as varied. Here's just a partial list of the types of businesses that our clients operate:

Heating & Cooling Subcontracting
Freight Expediting
Contract Electronics Manufacturing
Metal Fabrication
Plumbing Supply House
Commercial Cleaning
Snow Plowing

Our smaller clients' funding needs may be less than $10,000 a month, while a large client may need more than $100,000 in one transaction. Some clients have used us weekly while others have used us just a handful of times. They all appreciate the fact that IFG's Invoice Discounting service is truly "use it as needed." While our clients have all needed the same thing, CASH, the reasons that they needed it is varied. The most common reason that they sell invoices to IFG is to obtain the cash that they need to make payroll. We have one client that sells invoices to us when he needs cash to buy equipment at auctions. Several clients have been able to obtain cash discounts or quantity discounts from their suppliers. After her first funding transaction with IFG, a client was thrilled that she not only had enough cash to qualify for a quantity discount on her supplies but the amount of money that she saved with this discount was more than IFG's fees! This is an example of how IFG really can help a small business grow. When we're asked, "What do you do at The Interface Financial Group?", our response is, "We provide working capital for small businesses." But we could say, "We provide stress relief." Our clients tell us repeatedly that it is such a relief to know that they can get the cash that they need to run their business. One client even went so far as to say that we saved his marriage. IFG has eliminated the fights that he and his wife would have regarding how they were going to make payroll. We hope that this has given you some insight into what IFG's Invoice Discounting service has meant to the clients that we serve. And since our business comes from referrals from you, you too have been a part of the success or our clients. Again, thank you for those referrals. Please continue to refer to us those businesses that you find that are experiencing cash flow problems.

Let us help the people you know find success. If you know anyone who could use advice or help financing their business please pass our information along.

hayes@interfacefinancial.com / Office Phone: 765-868-7030

You Are Not In Business Alone

Education should be a lifelong process, especially when it comes to your livelihood. The status quo is constantly changing in every industry and these days you cannot afford to be left in the dust.

I want you to look into some tools and resources to help your business. Take charge of your education and see what you can do.

Running a small business takes time, planning, implementation, experimentation and commitment. And once you get an idea off the ground and running, only 44% of small businesses make it past four years. Initial expenses are also extreme and sometimes unexpected; small firms typically spend four and a half times as much per employee to comply with environmental regulations and 67% more per employee on tax compliance than larger companies. The amount of stress surrounding a business owner is incredible and many feel it is soley their burden to bear.

Entrepreneurs are only as strong as the knowledge and support they have behind them. No one gets to the top all alone and one of the greatest resources in the business world are peers. Reading books, articles, blogs or any other public output of information from experts or thought leaders in the field will bring immense benefits. One very helpful resource we used starting out and still read today is www.entrepreneur.com (we recommend "Use Stories to Add Oomph to Your Brand"). The knowledge, insight and motivation gained from reading the work of your peers can push you in the right direction and offer you choices and ideas you didn't know were available.
There are too many uncontrollable aspects of life, but the fate of your business should not be one of them. There are a plethora of options and avenues that can and will help your business become one of a kind and successful; you just need to arm yourself with the right tools.

Let me know if any of these resources have been helpful to you.

Time to Get in the Trenches!

This is sort of a rehash of a previous post but I feel the message is so important that I'm including it again.

With the economic downturn at the front of everyone's mind, it is easy to play it safe in business. We forget that opportunities are constantly arising, no matter where the economy goes. Now is the time to outline some goals and strive to achieve them. Get in the trenches so to speak.

The Great Depression was a time when many fortunes and millionaires were made, despite the state of the economy. Those who prospered took into consideration the challenges of the shifting economy, modifying their products, services and business model. It was a time for serious reflection, and significant innovation.

Some of the ideas and products which came out of the Depression were the electric razor, supermarkets, the chocolate chip cookie, Monopoly and Laundromats. The same was true just a few years ago during the "dot.bomb in 2000. Google began in the mid-nineties and flourished through the dot.bomb as did Amazon. While many companies around them were failing, they found their niche in the market and are two of the most successful internet companies today.

The lesson: During this recession we too need to ask ourselves, "How can I do something better?" and "What do other people need?" in order to emerge successful. Your goal must be to determine: What do you need to achieve in order to really make a difference in your life and the lives of others? By researching and deliberating these simple thoughts you may become the creator of the next big thing.

When times get tough it brings out the best in the best people, i.e. Ruth Wakefield the mastermind behind Toll House Cookies.

We'll get through this economic storm unscathed if we choose to embrace, instead of ignore, the opportunities. Sometimes taking advantage of the opportunities requires cash flow, if you or your clients are sitting on receivables call IFG to help get the cash flowing.

Read more tips for surviving the recession.

Gold Nearing an All Time High

As one who has a more than passing interest in the economy and how the current economic storm affects all of us, I've been watching the precious metals market. Gold has now closed above $990 and some gold bugs along with market experts are expecting gold to go even higher than its all time high of over $1030 an ounce. When will that be? Some say soon others say after the price retreats again. If it does indeed retreat, then it will be a good time to buy gold and if you already own some, buy some more!

Silver is still lagging behind the historic price vs. gold and may be even a better investment since it too will go above its high set last year.

So what is the price of precious metals telling us? In my opinion it means that people are now losing faith in the dollar as well as looking to invest in something that has gone up in value for the past 8 years and if the affects of this massive new currency creation (inflation) by the Fed becomes a reality as it has throughout history when the currency is inflated, then those investors will have made some very wise choice indeed. Gold and silver would soar much higher and protect the wealth of those wise investors. I would encourage anyone to take a serious look at owning physical gold and silver as a store of wealth. If you need more information check out these Websites: GoldSilver.com and Silver-Investor.com. Are you prepared to survive the (still) coming economic storm? I hope so!

Dr. Chris Martenson's Crash Course

It would appear that more investors are looking to gold and even silver as a store of wealth. History is quite clear that this always happens during times of financial crisis.

Whenever the currency is debased and inflation occurs then precious metals become a safe haven. Some so called experts say that there is not inflation, I disagree! The supply of currency has increased! Now currently it is not being circulated very rapidly so what we are witnessing is a contraction of credit and an increase in the savings rate or hoarding of cash.

With government spending at an all time record high along with the Federal Reserve Bank's monetizing of debt the currency is indeed being devalued. Once the confidence in the dollar tanks, look out. You had better be prepared to witness the results of inflating our way out of this financial mess.

If you doubt anything I have presented here, then I suggest you "learn everything about the economy in the shortest amount of time." Visit the Crash Course prepared by Chris Martenson, PhD. Dr. Martenson is a scientist who understands the risks that we face today and has condensed his "End of Money" seminar to an online presentation. Watch it here and give me your comments. The URL is: http://www.chrismartenson.com/crashcourse.

Grateful to be so Busy

The past week and a half have been very busy for us and we are indeed grateful for all of the prospects we have. These have come to us through our networking efforts with a whole new group of contacts. Normally our referrals came mostly from bankers who currently cannot help a banking customer and those still do come our way. But we saw a downturn in those referrals during the last several months and quite possibly because the commercial lending pipeline is nothing but a drip for most commercial bankers.

We saw this coming and shifted our networking focus to include more business and cash flow brokers. In times like these we concluded that in order to grow our business and find new clients we needed to make some changes in our network marketing. We are delighted to learn that by doing so it has paid off.

If you are not getting all the new business you would like to have why not consider some new methods to reach those people you would consider your potential customers. It is important to recognize that things are changing in the market place and you need to embrace those changes in order to thrive.

Leave your comments about the success you've had by changing your strategies to grow and grab market share which you think would be beneficial to other business owners. By helping others you will increase your success!

I Need To Do More!

When it comes to blogging, I need to keep my promise to blog more. No real reason for not doing so but I have plenty of excuses! That's going to end as of today!

With businesses experiencing some tough times because of the economy we in business need to do more. More of the things that got us where we are in our business but also more in finding new streams of income, more marketing to grab market share and more networking in order to help others in business we trust.

If you want more business in this economy you need to do more. Look for ways to beat out your competitor. Look for more services you can provide your customers and learn how to be an effective networker. Check out Business Network International (BNI) for a chapter near you. And if you live in Indiana be sure to learn more about Rainmakers! I recommend these groups to help you help others grow their businesses. By doing so you will grow yours. Givers Gain!