Are you a small business owner who is sick of dealing with slow-paying clients?
Clients who take forever to pay can put a huge damper on your business. Long payment cycles can lead to cash flow restraints, which can cause you to fall behind on important business expenses such as payroll and inventory.
Luckily, invoice factoring can help prevent these long payment cycles from negatively affecting your business. What is invoice factoring? And, how can it help your business?
Check out this guide to learn everything you need to know about invoice factoring.
What is Invoice Factoring?
Invoice factoring is a type of financing that allows businesses to receive cash advances on their accounts receivable. This way, instead of waiting weeks or months to receive payments on invoices, your business can get paid quicker.
This means you can use the funds you’ve earned right away to continue growing your business. Typically, invoice factoring companies will advance 70 to 90 percent of the invoice value upfront.
Invoice factoring is also referred to as invoice financing or accounts receivable factoring.
Once you’ve chosen a factoring company to work with, you can start selling your invoices to them for working capital. Once the invoice has been verified, the factoring company will pay you a percentage of the invoice, and you can begin using that money right away.
Once your customers eventually pay their invoices, the factoring company will pay the business owner the remainder of the invoice, minus a small fee.
Benefits of Invoice Factoring
So, why should your business consider invoice factoring? Here are some of the biggest benefits of invoice factoring:
Get Cash Fast: Obviously, one of the biggest benefits of invoice factoring is that it allows you to get cash quickly. This way, you’ll have immediate working capital to continue operating and growing your business.
Improve Cash Flow: Invoice factoring also allows you to improve your business’s cash flow while still keeping loyal customers on longer payment terms.
Easy Approval: You don’t need to jump through a lot of hoops to be approved for invoice factoring. If you don’t want to get a loan from a traditional bank because you have poor personal credit, no collateral, or limited operating history, invoice factoring is an excellent alternative.
However, it’s important to understand that invoice factoring does come with application fees and processing fees. Before you sign up for invoice factoring, make sure you understand all of the extra fees and that you have enough room in your budget to pay for them.
How to Choose an Invoice Factoring Company
If you’ve decided that invoice factoring is for you, the next thing you need to do is choose an invoice factoring company. Here are some tips for choosing the right company:
- Make sure the company offers flexible, short-term contracts
- Look for companies with excellent customer service reviews and superior customer service
- Make sure you understand their rates and fee structures
You may also want to choose an invoice factoring company that has experience working with other companies in your industry. For example, if you own a retail shop, you can look for retail invoice factoring companies.
Invoice Factoring: Time to See for Yourself
Now that you know more about invoice factoring, it’s time for you to decide if it’s right for your business. If the answer is yes, then the next step is to research factoring companies.
And, be sure to check back in with our blog for more tips and tricks on running your small business.
