Small Business Lending Fund and State Small Business Credit Initiative Blocked

TradingMarkets.com reported on the vote over the Small Business Lending Fund and State Small Business Credit Initiative today. Republicans blocked the small business bill with a 58-42 vote this morning.

The bill was intended to create the Small Business Lending Fund, which would set aside $30 billion to help local community banks get the capital they need to lend money to small businesses. In addition, the bill would help support small business initiatives run by states across the country that are struggling due to local budget cutbacks.

Click here to read the speech US Senator Patty Murray gave shortly before the vote.

United Way Names Cleveland Invoice Factoring Firm a 2010 Pacesetter

Taken from the official PRN Funding press release:

Last week, PRN Funding, LLC was recognized as a United Way 2010 Pacesetter. The Cleveland-based accounts receivable factoring firm was one of the first 84 companies to lock in their increased campaign donations to the United Way.

“PRN is pleased to be in a position to provide leadership assistance to support the United Way in fulfilling its crucial mission.”

The donations will be used to fund the 202 health and human service programs that help of 450,000 Greater Cleveland residents every year.

With years of experience in healthcare industry, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within healthcare vendor industries. PRN Funding offers financial resources to these companies by purchasing their accounts receivable–a process known as ‘factoring’, which provides the cash needed to sustain and grow a healthcare business.

CFA Issues Statement to Fed’s Small Business Lending Conference

The Commercial Finance Association (CFA) issued the following statement to the Federal Reserve small business lending conference in regards to the importance of issuing funds to independent commercial finance companies:

“The Federal Reserve conference, [held on Monday, July 12] about increasing lending to small business is yet another example of political theater. Once again, our nation’s lawmakers have gathered to share vague ideas, point fingers and simply agree that the small business credit crunch continues.

“Disappointingly, no tangible solutions are being offered. The Commercial Finance Association continues to believe that providing support to independent commercial finance companies, a crucial source of capital for small businesses, is absolutely imperative. Independent commercial finance companies extended hundreds of billions of dollars to U.S. small businesses in 2009. Additionally, more than half of these lenders increased their credit commitments in 2009, during a time of severe economic distress, thereby enabling many U.S. businesses to survive. Our elected officials and our nation’s banks should remain committed to extending credit to independent finance companies. Doing so will set in motion a sequence of events that will allow these lenders in turn to provide additional funds to small businesses, allowing them to add jobs and make meaningful investments in their operations. This is a tangible, practical and needed step that will help fuel real economic recovery in America.”

How to Control Small Business Cash Flow

An informative article written by Max Newnham, entitled: Knuckle down on cash flow terms gives some practical advice for business owners who are struggling to keep a healthy cash flow.

For the benefit of our business owner readership, PRN Funding condensed the article down to it’s main points:

Too often, business owners focus primarily on sales and fail to administer and manage their companies appropriately. As a result, invoices oftentimes go out late, and there is rarely any follow-up on overdue invoices.

In order to prevent the above situation, small business owners should be upfront about payment terms and late-payment penalties before agreeing to take on new business.

Furthermore, companies should set credit limits for new accounts and monitor how much business is being done. If it jumps significantly, the payment terms should be re-visited and possibly re-negotiated.

Next, when it comes to collecting, small business owners will be more productive by making phone calls than sending out threatening letters or statements with stickers.

It’s comforting to know that out of all the suggested small business tactics for managing cash flow, PRN Funding is able to assist with each of these steps. Contact us today for more information on our invoice funding services.

Medical Transcription Funders at ACE10

Austin, TX-PRN Funding is exhibiting at the Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity’s (AHDI) Annual Convention and Expo at the Hilton Austin August 4-7, 2010.

Owner of PRN Funding, Phil Cohen, and Account Manager, Ryan Elliott, will be available in booth 511 to speak to attendees about PRN Funding’s medical transcription accounts receivable factoring program.

MTSOs and medical transcriptionists are encouraged to stop by PRN Funding’s booth to get a sticker as part of the Wheel of Prizes game. After visiting with participating exhibitors and collecting stickers, attendees can turn in their completed cards for a chance to spin the Wheel of Prizes. In addition, convention attendees will judge exhibitors and their booths during the exhibit hall based on two categories: Most Friendly Booth Staff and Most Creative Booth.

With years of experience in the medical transcription industry, PRN Funding has a precise understanding of the unique challenges within medical transcription. PRN Funding offers financial resources to these companies by purchasing their accounts receivable–a process known as ‘factoring,’ which provides the cash needed to sustain and grow a healthcare business.

Cleveland Seeks Proposals from Medical Staffing Agencies

The medical staffing invoice factoring specialists at PRN Funding received a mis-directed letter last week that we thought might be interesting news to our local Ohio healthcare staffing agencies. For the sake of our Ohio staffing agency owners, we’ve posted the letter below:

Greetings:

The City of Cleveland, Department of Public Safety, Division of Correction is reviewing the viability of pursuing service contracts with outside vendors to provide certain inmate services. Your organization has been identified as a potential partner is such an endeavor. Enclosed you will find information in the form of a “Request for Proposal” highlighting required services and products.

Please review the Request, and, consider how your business could, or, could not become a provider. A pre-proposal meeting will be open on July 16, 2010, for all interested vendors; at that meeting, and and all questions regarding services in question will be welcome. The application deadline will be July 30, 2010. A final decision will be made some time afterwards – it may be that no vendor is chosen, and, that the City will continue with its in-house system.

We ask that you carefully consider the enclosed Request as a potential new business opportunity, and wish, your organization the best during this process.

Sincerely,

Joseph Stottner, Acting Commissioner

Walmart Does All…Even Small Business Loans

Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. announced yesterday that it is testing an online program with Superior Financial Group to offer small businesses loans between $5000-$25,000 to its members. The decision to offer these small business loans came as a result of a November 2009 survey, in which nearly 15 percent of Sam’s Club’s business owners reported being denied a loan to run their operation.

According to the official press release, “the Sam’s Club small business loan pilot program is a first-of-its kind and will complement other offerings that cater to small business including low rate merchant credit card processing, convenient order-ahead programs and early shopping hours.”

Sam’s Club members who apply for a small business loan will receive $100 off the application fee, a 20 percent discount and a 7.5 APR, which is a 25 basis point discount. (NOTE: The Sam’s Club Membership fee is $35/year.)

PRN Funding’s Take:
It’s a good thing that Wal-Mart is trying to fill a business loan gap with their pilot program, however, the loans are backed by the Nation’s leading Small Business Administration (SBA) lender. Therefore, there will still be stringent lending criteria that a small business owner will need to meet in order to qualify. This is bad news for brand new businesses and companies who have less than three years of operation.

Still, there’s hope, as small business owners can test out accounts receivable factoring to help fill in the cash flow gaps. Even if a small business owner has been turned down by a traditional lender, accounts receivable factoring firms will be able to fund them.

Little is Known about Small Business Lending

A $30 billion plan to offer capital to small banks with incentives to loan it to small businesses just passed the House of Representatives on June 17, but no one really knows whether or not it will increase small business lending.

There’s an underlying problem when it comes to small business lending – lack of information.There’s no data available to discern why small business lending is down, nor is there any information available to determine what a proper fix might be.

The three most common hypotheses are as follows:

  1. Banks are unwilling to lend,
  2. Small businesses are not interested in borrowing, or
  3. Today’s small businesses don’t have good enough credit to borrow.

In order to help shed some light on the small business lending picture, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta recently started a quarterly survey. In addition, regulators are starting to make banks report small business lending each quarter, rather than annually, and the Treasury is considering using data from credit bureaus as well.

For more information, read: What We Don’t Know About Small Business Lending.