Capital rationing is a common problem for small and large firms. Read this article to learn how factoring financing can help you grow your company by providing strategic financing.
Capital rationing is an all too common problem in the current economic environment. Simply stated capital rationing occurs when you have more profitable projects than funds to implement them. Because of this, firms must ration (or limit) their expenditures and only do the most profitable ones - those that have the best internal rate of return or highest net present value. However, capital rationing may also prevent you from launching profitable projects, limiting the scope of your business.
At a much simpler level, it means that you are not making as many sales as you could. Let's say that you have $50,000 and have two sales opportunities. Each sale opportunity requires a $50,000 investment to buy supplies and deliver the service. Sale opportunity #1 has a return of 15%. Sale opportunity #2 has a return of 20%. Logically, you choose sale #2. But what if sale #1 is still profitable for you? Wouldn't it be great if you could also pursue that project? Well, you can't because you lack funds. You have to ration your capital and can only pursue one opportunity. This can be painful for business owners that are forced to turn sales away.
One obvious solution to the capital rationing problem is to get business financing. That is easier said than done, especially in the current economic environment. Both business loans and lines of credit can be used to deal with capital rationing but can be difficult to obtain, especially for small and midsized companies. Qualifying for a business loan usually complicated and requires that a company be profitable for a number of years. Usually, most banks and institutions will also require substantial collateral before providing a business loan.
One alternative is to use factoring financing. Most companies have to wait 30 to 60 days before their invoices are paid by commercial clients. This has a negative effect on cash flow and many times affects a company's ability to take on new projects. Invoice factoring provides an advance on your slow paying invoices, eliminating the payment wait. This accelerated payment enhances cash flow, providing funds that can be deployed to start new projects.
Whether factoring can help with your capital rationing problem is a complex question that varies based on each opportunity. However for many companies, especially those that are payroll intensive (e.g. staffing companies), factoring financing can provide to be the right solution to finance growth.
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