If you are struggling in your business with cash flow, then you may have looked in to many ways of trying to improve things. When the money isn’t coming in like it should be, things can be extremely difficult and in these difficult economic times, it can be even worse. There are many things to try, but sometimes it can feel like there are no more options. If you have many outstanding invoices waiting to be paid, then it can be frustrating. You know that if you had that money, you would be able to manage easily but without it, you are struggling. Some people try invoice factoring to get around this but others are not so sure.
Invoice factoring is where you let another company take your invoices off your hands. They will pay you a percentage of what is due and then go about collecting the debts themselves. This means that you will not get all of the money that is owed, but some of it. It can really help improve things. You ay not want to not get all the money that you are owed, but sometimes you may feel that you will never get any of it and so this can be better than nothing. Or you may have to wait so long for the money that it may be too late and you may have gone out of business by then.
Some people do not like the idea of another company approaching their customers for money. They would prefer to continue to deal with them themselves, because they feel that looks more professional. This is something that can still be done with invoice discounting. You will still get paid a percentage of what you are owed but you will be responsible for collecting the debts. Obviously this means more work for you, but you will have no worries about the customers being approached by strangers asking for their outstanding payments.
This can be a great relief. It can give you some much needed money at a time when everyone is struggling. It can be very difficult to manage sometimes, especially if you are a small business and this can be the answer. Obviously the ideal situation would be for you to be able to collect your invoices immediately and get the money you need, but this is often not possible as your customers may be waiting for payments before they can afford to pay you. With times being hard for everyone, this is more and more likely to happen and so this is where invoice discounting can be very useful and help you to manage when things are tough.