As an account receivables factoring firm who specializes in funding medical staffing companies, factoring invoices for medical transcription services and providing financing to medical coding companies, we (PRN Funding, LLC) made a big announcement today.

In order to serve our clients to the best of our ability, PRN Funding is now accepting VISA, MasterCard, and American Express credit cards as a form of payment on its clients’ invoices.  Traditionally, PRN Funding has only accepted checks and direct deposits.

Click here to read the entire press release on PRN Funding’s web site: PRN Funding Now Accepting Credit Cards.

Every month, Discover Financial Services publishes a Small Business Watch report on its Web site.  Here is a list of some of their Small Business Key Findings for the month of November:

• 44% of small business owners have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, up sharply from 38% in October. This is the category’s highest rating since April 2008, when the same number of business owners reported cash flow issues.
• 33% of owners who sell business-to-business said they had cash flow issues in the last 90 days that caused them to hold off paying some bills
• 51% plan to decrease spending on business development over the next six months, up significantly from 42% in October and a record high in this category
• 65% of business owners view the economy as poor
• 54% of business owners believe economic conditions for their business are worsening, and only 15% feel conditions for their business are improving
• With the results from an election poll, business owners want President-Elect Barack Obama and Congress to make taxes a top priority, even though 64% said they are not confident that the federal government and Congress can address the needs of America’s small businesses

Q: Do you feel the results of this poll are in line with your own business?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.