Fed Reveals Plan to Spark Business Lending

According to the Credit & Collections World Wide web site, the Fed and Treasury officials announced the creation of a “new Term Asset Backed Securities Loan Facility which will lend up to $200 billion to holders of securities that back credit card, auto, small-business and student loans” this morning.  This is a strategic move is hoping to jump-start the issuance of new consumer loans and business loans backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration.

Officials from the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve hope the move will “enable a broad range of institutions to step up their lending, enabling borrowers to have access to lower-cost-consumer-finance and small-business loans.”

Click here to read the entire post: Fed Unveils Plan to Spark Consumer, Business Lending.

eBay of Working Capital Goes Live

Awhile back, PRN Funding blogged about The Receivables Exchange (TRE), an up-and-coming online accounts receiveable marketplace for business owners who want to turn their receivables into cash instantly by putting their invoices up for bid and specifying what kind of discount it is willing to offer.

In his article for The New York Times, writer Brad Stone said “The site provides a much-needed financing option for companies that are finding the doors locked at traditional credit markets.  It could also be a safe financing alternative for distressed start-ups that might otherwise have to sacrifice equity in a conventional bridge loan.”

Business owners and accounts receivable factoring firms are both intrigued by and weary of the developing company, and only time will tell how successful or unsuccessful The Receivables Exchange will be.

Primary-Care Doctors Leaving Medicine in Droves

The Physicians’ Foundation recently conducted a survey of 150,000 doctors nationwide, and 49 percent of the 12,000 respondents reported that they were considering leaving medicine because of “too much red tape generated from insurance companies and government agencies.”

Last week’s American Medical Association annual meeting predicted a shortage of 35,000-40,000 of primary care physicians by 2025.  According to a survey published in the September issue of the Journal of the Medical Association, only 2 percent of med school students plan to practice family medicine.

PRN Funding has written before about using temporary nurses to help fill the gaps when it comes to the nurse shortage.  Perhaps this physician shortage is an opportunity for locum tenens to seize.  What do you think?

This post referenced an article on CNN.com.  Click here if you want to read the entire article: Half of primary-care doctors in survey would leave medicine.

Small Businesses Turn to Alternative Funding, AR Factoring

Arden Dale wrote an article in this week’s Wall Street Journal reviewing three alternative credit sources for small businesses who are being turned down for traditional bank loans.  Specifically, the article discussed accounts receivable factoring, borrowing from friends and family, and peer-to-peer lending.

Executive Director of the International Factoring Association (IFA), Bert Goldberg, advised business owners to only consider factoring companies who follow industry best practices.  He recommended choosing an invoice funding firm who is a member of the IFA because “all members have agreed to adhere to a strict code of ethics.” 

Note to our readers: For those healthcare vendors looking for an specialized factoring firm, PRN Funding, LLC is a proud member of the IFA.

Getting to Decision Makers

The Haley Marketing Group had a very interesting write-up in last week’s Net-Temps Recruiters e-newsletter, in which they shared different tactics for salespeople to get their foot in the door when it comes to getting their marketing message in front  of the right person.

We decided to include the recap of the article for our Factoring Blog readers below:

  1. Do your homework first
    • identify the right decision makers
    • discover their MBA (ideally, before making any approach)
    • know the value you can deliver (quantifiable if possible)
  2. Plan to get in the door
    • grab the decision maker’s attention – find a creative way to get the door open
    • network
    • partner
  3. Keep the door open
    • educate – teach decision makers how you can help
    • add value – position yourself as an expert not a sales person
    • build credibility – prove the value of the solution you can provide
    • nurture relationships – stay top-of-mind between calls, until a decision is made

Click here to read the entire article: Getting to Decision Makers.

Hospitals in the Financial Crisis

There was an interetsing blog post in the Wall Street Journal’s Health blog last week discussing some of the challenges hospitals are facing as a result of the nation’s financial crisis.

Lisa Martin, a senior VP on Moody’s health care ratings team told the WSJ Health Blog that hospitals have been postponing plans to sell new bonds to fund capitals improvements like renovations and new buildings.  She also said that hospitals are holding more bad debt.

The American Hospital Association CEO Rich Umbdenstock told the blog that hospitals with an existing variable-rate debt have seen a big jump in the interest–in some cases up to 10 percent or more.  He also said that higher-income patients less likely to make charitable donations to the local hospital.

PRN Funding has been following the healthcare cash flow crisis for a number of years.  Our team wanted to also point out that as hospitals face this financial crisis head on, they will continue to extend payment terms for their vendors as well.

Click here to read the blog post: The Financial Crisis Takes a Toll on Hospitals.

Prescription for the Health Care Crisis

PRN Funding’s consultant liaison, Nikki Flores, had her article featured in September’s issue of Growing Wealth Magazine.

A Prescription for the Health Care Crisis discusses how the health care industry could benefit greatly from accounts receivable factoring, both on the facility side (hospitals, nursing homes, medical clinics) and on the vendor side (temporary nurse staffing agencies, medical transcription services and medical supply companies).

The article also gave brokers and cash flow consultant some advice on how to locate and market invoice factoring for temporary nurse staffing agencies.

PRN Funding Interviews on YouTube

As an accounts receivable factoring firm with a niche in funding nurse staffing agencies, medical transcription services, medical coding companies and medical billing companies, PRN Funding is heavily invested in internet marketing and web-based advertising.

PRN Funding has utilized ideas and suggestions from The Karcher Group’s (TKG) web design and web marketing services for over nine years to increase its internet reach.  In fact, starting The Factoring Blog was one of TKG’s suggestions, and look how much it’s grown since we first launched it just three months ago!

Check out PRN Funding’s YouTube Interview!

Click here to see TKG’s thoughts on PRN Funding.

Landing a Business Loan After Bankruptcy

Who does a business owner turn to for financing when he/she has been  turned down for business loans due to a personal bankruptcy?

Business Week columnist, Karen Klein, tackled this question earlier this month (Landing a Business Loan After Bankruptcy).  Noting that it’s hard for entrepreneurs to get startup capital in general, Klein said it’s even harder to get bank financing now because banks have tightened their lending standards.

Although Klein suggested asking friends, family and/or other strategic investors to put a monetary interest in the new business, she also recommended accounts receivable factoring.  PRN Funding couldn’t agree more with this advice!

For nine years, PRN Funding has been able to provide  healthcare staffing funding, medical transcription invoice factoring, and medical coding accounts receivable financing to numerous clients who have had less-than-perfect credit.  These healthcare vendor clients know that PRN Funding extends credit based on their customers’ ability to pay, rather than the business owner’s personal credit.

Check out some of PRN Funding’s client success stories to see just how PRN Funding’s accounts receivable factoring program was able to help.

Cash Crunch Hits New Orleans Hospitals

Five New Orleans-area hospitals struggle to pick up the pieces in a post-Katrina version of the healthcare cash flow crisis, according to an article in The Times-Picayune.

A report issued by the Government Accountability Office broke down the exact losses:

  1. Tulane University Hospital and Clinic lost $42.6 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $37.6 million in 2008
  2. Touro Infirmary lost $36.4 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $15 million in 2008
  3. West Jefferson Hospital lost $5.8 million in 2007 and will likely lose another $3.5 million in 2008
  4. East Jefferson Hospital lost $29.6 million in 2007 and is projected to lose another $23.9 million in 2008
  5. Ochsner Health Systems lost $31.6 million in 2007 and will likely lose $23 million in 2008

Click here to read the entire story: N.O.-Area Hospitals Bleeding Red Ink, Federal Report Says

Older Posts
Newer Posts