Business Owners Find Ways to Finance in Tough Times

A report for Business First recently wrote an article about entrepreneurs in Columbus, Ohio who are finding unique ways to obtain financing in a down economy. We’ve summarized some of the key points below:

One business owner applied for a Wheeler Entrepreneurship Enterprise Program grant from The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, which cover the costs of interns. In addition, the interns brought a lot of their own equipment (i.e.) laptops, so the business owner didn’t have to pay for computers.

The same business saved on office space by setting up shop in German Village’s Qwirkm which is a collaborative for independent professionals can work together for a low monthly membership.

Another business owner saves on office space by having it’s employees work from home and communicate virtually. In addition, the owner often barters for services with other companies.

Some small companies can also take advantage of an incubator, which is a way for people to advance their ideas and get a funding stream, according to the VP of Park National Bank.

What’s more, small business owners can take advantage of accounts receivable factoring to help even out their cash flow during this tough economic times.

Click here to read the entire article: Small-business owners find ways to buck financing trends.

Transcend Acquires Medical Dictation Services, Inc.

From time to time, PRN Funding’s medical transcription factoring specialists are asked the following question: What is going on in the medical transcription industry as far as mergers and acquisitions are concerned?

That’s why we took the time to report on Transcend Services’ recent acquisition of Medical Dictation Services, Inc. (MDI).

At the end of August, Transcend Services, the third largest provider of medical transcription services to the U.S. healthcare market, announced that it would acquire Medical Dictation Services, Inc. for $16.2 million.

In a press release issued August 26, MDI Chief Executive Officer, Dorothy Fitzgerald, said: “I recognized that we needed a larger partner to achieve our long-term growth objectives. A critical concern for me was to find a partner that recognized MDI’s potential and was committed to providing excellent customer service.  I am convinced that Transcend is the best partner for MDI, it’s employees and customers.”

KPMG Corporate Finance LLC and Suender M&A Advisors initiated the transaction and co-advised MDI.

Click here to read the entire press release: Transcend Announces Acquisition of Medical Dictation Services, Inc.

2009 National Staffing Employee Week

The American Staffing Association (ASA) has estimated there are 2.7 million temporary and contract employees who work for staffing firms in the U.S. every day.  To honor these workers, from September 14-20, is a week devoted to them.  There will be planned luncheons, banquets, and office parties throughout the week.

The ASA has given some tips on how to improve your event this week.

  • Place thank-you stuffers inside check envelopes
  • Give out award certificates to all of your employees
  • Send thank-you postcards to clients to thank them for their business
  • Spread the word about your event by sending a press release to your local media

Materials for the tips listed above can be found at americanstaffing.net.

Staffing Industry Growing as U.S. Comes Out of Recession

According to the American Staffing Association (ASA), the demand for temporary and contract workers increased significantly from July to August.  After 35 years of the ASA collecting data at, analysis shows that temporary help employment growth and gross domestic product is strongest when the economy is coming out of a recession.

Since the end of June, the index has grown in seven consecutive weeks (the longest consecutive growth in 21 months).  It is at its highest level this year despite being down overall from June 2006.

The index is evidence that the recession is close to being over.

To get more information about the ASA Staffing Index, go to americanstaffing.net.

Home Health and Hospice Business Builders Workshop

Calling all home care and private duty business owners! From September 16-18 at The Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY, home care and private duty companies will have the chance to improve their marketing and public relations strategies to increase their sales.  The workshop will also help businesses with the recruiting and training side of home care and private duty. 

The best part about the program is the 100% money-back guarantee-if you don’t see improved sales within 90 days of attending the conference and implementing proven strategies, participants can get their money back and keep the course materials. 

Three of America’s top health care speakers, Dr. Tray Dunaway, Elizabeth Jeffries, and Stephen Tweed, will be on hand to help with the interactive programming. 

This workshop is nontraditional in the sense that there will be no formal speakers.  It is an interactive setting that includes one-on-one training to develop new sales and marketing techniques.  Participants will work in small groups to achieve these goals.  Also, they will see video playback of their presentations and get a chance to hear from the experts on their progress. 

To learn more about the workshop, click here.

Bipartisan Bill Nearing Completion

Janet Adamy, Jonathan Weisman, and Greg Hitt of The Wall Street Journal gave an update Tuesday on health care reform…

The bipartisan plan that has been in the works in the Senate Finance Committee by three Democrats and three Republicans is slowly on its way towards completion.  The plan, the latest version of which was handed out by Max Baucus (D-MT) over the weekend, does not include the controversial public option.

In a speech given yesterday, President Obama stated that he continues to believe a public option is the best way to “…improve quality and lower costs.”

On Wednesday, Obama will address Congress in an attempt to lay out his vision of getting the final bill up to par with his standards.  Until now, Obama has given this task to Congressional leaders and Senatorial committees that have only created more confusion.

Meanwhile, the Senate Finance Committee hopes to finalize its version of the bill by the end of the week.  Thus far, their bill would cost less than $900 billion over 10 years and would give health insurance to millions of uninsured Americans.  In place of the public option is a group of new not-for-profit insurance co-ops that would compete with private insurers.

While the plan would require most Americans to have health insurance, it would not require businesses to provide insurance to their employees-a provision that should win over Republican support.  Another aspect of the bill that Republicans will like is that it is paid for through spending cuts and revenue increases and does not increase the national deficit.  The plan would also give tax credits to the low to middle-income Americans to help them buy insurance and expand Medicaid for the nation’s poorest.

A lot of parties are pleased with the newest bill, but insurance companies are already complaining.  The bill includes a fee placed on insurance companies that will be based on their market share.  Crafters of the bill hope this new revenue stream would ensure a deficit-neutral plan.

Robert Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America’s Health Insurance Plans, said, “New taxes on health-care coverage will only make coverage less affordable for families and small businesses.”  Other sources of revenue in the bill include eliminating wasted funds in Medicare, which crafters say will not lower the quality of care to seniors.

We will keep you updated on Wednesday’s events surrounding health care reform.

To read the entire Wall Street Journal article, click here: Key Week for Obama Starts on Feisty Note

58 Million Credit Card Holders get Credit Lines Cut

According to an Associated Press article, credit card companies, pressured by the faltering economy, cut credit limits to 58 million card holders from April 2008-April 2009 even those these card holders didn’t necessarily have bad credit scores. 

In fact, FICO, a company that produces credit scores, reported 73% of the 33 million card holders whose lines were cut between October 2008-April 2009 had no new negative information in their files.  Craig Watts, spokesman for FICO, speculates that lenders probably accessed different information to base their decision on whose credit lines would be cut. 

Consumers, who are already feeling the pinch of the economy, are questioning why they are being punished. 

Gail Hillebrand, senior attorney with Consumers Union, said, “The consumer perception is that ‘I did everything right and my limits were cut’ is true.”

FICO’s explanation was that some card holders had negative information, such as late payment histories, that affected their credit lines.  Late payments are a sign that a consumer is a higher credit risk. 

More than just the individual consumers depending on credit cards are the business owners who depend on personal credit cards for everyday business expenditures. 

Hillebrand said these small business owners are having severe cash flow problems.  Without a smooth cash flow, a small business struggles to pay their employees on time as well as buy new inventory and/or equipment to expand.  Luckily, accounts receivable factoring can help these business owners when their credit lines are cut.

To read the entire Associated Press article, click here: Banks Cut Credit for 58M Card Holders in 1 Year

Entrepreneurs Struggling to Get Tradition Funding

John Tozzi, a writer for BusinessWeek, wrote a piece recently describing alternative sources of funding for entrepreneurs…

As the economy slowly improves, banks that have severely tightened their lending standards won’t be loosening them any time soon.  In fact, a recent survey conducted by the Federal Reserve of senior loan officers shows that banks will maintain high lending standards for another year and a half.  Paired with a terrible job market and a credit card industry that has significantly lowered limits and increased interest rates, entrepreneurs who wish to start a business are finding it more difficult than ever.

Luckily for these funding-starved businesspeople, there are alternative funding sources that don’t break the bank.  These include asset-based lenders, merchant cash advance providers, and factors. PRN Funding is an exampled of a factoring firm.

According to the Commercial Finance Association, asset-based lending increased 8% in 2008; increases are also expected in the coming years. 

There are other unique lenders sprouting up who are trying to take advantage of the credit-depressed market.  Jim Mayer, an entrepreneur from Chicago, is bringing back a firm he started in the 1980s called DiversiCorp.  His company specializes in collateral control-reassuring creditors by safeguarding their inventory after it is shipped but before it is paid for.  The inventory acts as the collateral while outside lenders extended the credit. 

To read the entire Business Week article, click here: Entrepreneurs Turn to Alternative Finance

Summary of Health Care Reform Up Until Now

Jonathan Weisman, Neil King, and Janet Adamy wrote a piece for the Wall Street Journal today documenting the key moments in the debate over health care.  The information has been summarized below for The Factoring Blog’s readership…

Back in 2005, a coalition of liberal health care groups, named the Herndon Alliance, asked focus groups what they thought of a potential government overhaul of the health care system.  The response was similar to what Democrats were seeing at their town hall meetings this past August: A government overhaul would raise costs and reduce care for those already insured. 

Weisman, King, and Adamy write that insured Americans, a majority of which like their current coverage, do not believe there will be any benefit to them by changing the system. And if anything, they believe it will do them harm.  Also, Americans aren’t buying proponents’ claims that the $1 trillion plan will be deficit neutral and not increase taxes. 

Former President, Bill Clinton, has been through this process before.  Back in 1994, his health care plan was defeated due to similar concerns.  With the deficit as high as it is and the economy as bad as it is, the current fears are heightened significantly.  The only difference between Obama and Clinton has been a strategy by Obama to line up supporters from leaders in the industry (health care insurers, pharmaceutical makers, and care providers) believing he could win over Republicans as well.  However, Weisman, King, and Adamy say this strategy proved to be a big failure as public outcry about the public plan got louder every day.

Meanwhile, politicians in the Senate Finance Committee are no closer to getting a bipartisan bill on the table.  A start-up team of 11 Senators quickly downsized to six.  The three Republicans left on the team refuse to include the public option in any bill along with other liberal provisions, which Democrats won’t change. 

Republicans have been calling for Obama to renounce the public option provision if serious talks about a bipartisan bill could progress.  The president has yet to do so, and there are no indications he will listen to the majority of Americans who don’t want the public option. 

President Obama is in a difficult spot right now.  On the one side, Democrats say they won’t support a bill without the public option.  On the other, Republicans and fiscally conservative Democrats will not vote for a bill that includes a public plan.  The only feasible way for Obama and the Democrats to pass their version of health care reform will be through reconciliation, which requires a simple majority to pass a bill instead of the standard 60 votes in the Senate. 

Obama is in the process of planning yet another speech, this time to Congress, which will be broadcast live in primetime to the American people sometime next week. 

In what seems to be his last-ditch effort to push a bill through, will he succeed? Or will he just go down in history as the second politician to fail in reforming health care?

To read the entire article from the Wall Street Journal, click here: Wrong Turns: How Obama’s Health-Care Push Went Astray

Health Care Debate Continues as August Recess Ends

Jonathan Weisman and Janet Adamy provided an update to the health care debate yesterday in the Wall Street Journal…

After a month of heated town hall meetings and nasty exchanges between the right and left, the health care debate is still going strong.  A final bill has yet to be accepted.  However, a number of things could change between now and the artificial September 15 deadline, set by President Obama, for the Senate Finance Committee to come up with a bipartisan bill.  One thing that could happen is nothing at all.

The ‘Gang of Six’ negotiators on the Senate Finance Committee, a group of three Democrats and three Republicans, are no closer to a bipartisan bill than they were before the recess.  The Democrats are claiming the three Republicans refuse to have serious talks about reform.  This is now spurring a last-ditch effort by Democrats, in hopes of persuading the American people, that Republicans are to blame for the stalemate.  They are also hoping that Senator Edward Kennedy’s death will aide them in passing reform. 

A bipartisan bill would be very difficult to hammer out in the next couple of weeks.  People close to the President say he is going to go in a slightly different direction when he addresses the nation sometime in these next two weeks.  Obama will try and lay out exactly what he wants in the final bill. 

The chances of passing the final bill appear to be slim.  Democrats would need 60 votes to pass it, although they could go the nontraditional route of reconciliation and get it passed with a simple majority.  If Democrats do this, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said, “There’ll be a minor revolution in this country”. 

What do you think Obama will do in his next address to the nation?

To read the entire Wall Street Journal article, click here: Democrats Try Tougher Tone on Health Plan

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