Business Loans vs. Factoring: Why is Factoring a Good Option?

Many businesses are seeking loans right now to help deal with the challenges of COVID-19 and the quarantine. If you’re looking for financial solutions, a bank may be a great option, but it isn’t your only option. Factoring may be a more flexible and sensical option for your business right now, depending on your specific needs.

 

How is Factoring Different?

While a traditional business loan gives you a set amount of money to be repaid over time at a specific rate, factoring is a much more variable financial tool. With factoring, you send your invoices to your factoring company and not your clients. The factoring company pays you for the invoice right away and worries about getting the money from your client.

At J D Factoring, we offer non-recourse factoring, which has an extra step. Depending on the circumstances, if your client fails to pay your invoice, we don’t ask you to return the money that we already gave you for that invoice. This gives you some risk protection from your clients’ own financial woes. During COVID-19, when many companies will face challenges, this risk protection is absolutely critical.

Less History Required

When you apply for traditional financing options through a bank, you may find yourself turned away because you are too new and do not qualify for financing. That’s understandable from a bank’s perspective, but factoring companies have significantly more flexibility in this regard. We can often take on new businesses that wouldn't otherwise qualify for a traditional bank loan.

More Than Credit

We take much more than credit into account. While credit is a factor for your application, we don’t make our decision primarily based on your credit. This process is especially beneficial for businesses that have begun recovering from a spell of financial hardship, or who have recently faced difficulties.

Banks are Busy

Thanks to restrictions on businesses during COVID-19, many companies have had to reach out to banks for business loans and other financial support. As a result, banks are busier than usual. Plus, most major banks are focusing on their current clients right now, which may mean that you need to wait much longer to even find out if you qualify for a business loan.

That wait can be an even larger problem in these financially uncertain times, especially if your cash flow is strained. You may be missing out on business opportunities, or even on the opportunity to fulfil essential goods and services that people need during COVID-19. In that case, you may want to reach out to the team at J D Factors. We can process your application faster than most banks can right now.

We Help Banks, Too!

That said, J D Factors can also help banks through this challenging time. If you’re facing huge delays, like taking three or more weeks for a process than normally takes one week, consider referring clients that are unlikely to be approved for a loan at your institution to us. This referral will reduce your internal workload, increase customer satisfaction with your institution, plus we pay a commission on clients you refer to us!

Bankers Use J D Factors as a Short Term Solution for High Risk Clients

As a financial institution, are you serving your small and medium sized business customers as well as you can? How many potential customers are you turning away because they don’t qualify for financing? The solution isn’t to lower your standards, but to help businesses qualify for your services. You need a short-term solution that can get your potential business customers on the right path.

Factoring may be part of that solution. Factoring can give your clients the healthy cash flow they need to improve their credit, pay down their debt, and eventually qualify for your financing or other products. Everyone benefits: your small and medium business clients get the financial support they need, and you gain a new client who is grateful for the past assistance you provided.

How Factoring Helps Your Clients

Do you find you have clients that you’d love to help, but their credit score, debt, or other aspect of their business disqualifies them? You can still help these clients by pointing them to another option: accounts receivable financing, or factoring.

With factoring, your clients will receive the money they invoice for immediately. This can help them build a positive, healthy cash flow they need to make the investments required to support hypergrowth or otherwise improve their business.

J D Factors goes a step further and offers non-recourse factoring. This means that we take on the risk of bad debt and don’t demand money back from our clients, even if their customers never pay. So, if you have a potential client whose financial troubles are partly due to their unreliable customers, non-recourse factoring can help them eliminate that risk and start to recover.

How Suggesting Factoring Helps You

As a bank or financial institution, your loans will always be in demand. It’s just a question of whether those who want your financing are eligible for it. Factoring is the perfect way for you to help new clients qualify for your services.

Factoring doesn’t have to compete with bank loans. Chances are, the clients you send J D Factors will continue to use factoring until they are ready and qualify for traditional financing with your organization.

You should also recommend factoring to your clients because when you show your potential clients that they have other options, they trust you. You demonstrate that you care about their business, even if you can’t help them right now. That makes them much more likely to return to you when their business is in a position to take on a loan.

Further, when you send clients to J D Factors, we can give you a referral payment. If the customer you send us doesn’t work with you again, you’ll have earned something for your time helping them.

Contact J D Factors to learn more about how we can partner together, to strengthen small and medium sized businesses across Canada.