Turning The Corner In 2011

Recently both Wells Fargo and Chase banks published their 2011 Economic Outlook reports. Both of these reports (and many others, from other respected firms) almost mirrored each other. The overall theme is that 2011 is the year that the US economy begins to turn the corner and slowly, oh so very slowly, start the path to recovery.

Below is a synopsis of both reports and the most important aspects that relate to our small- and medium-sized business owners:

• Consumer spending, representing the majority of aggregate demand in the US will benefit from a streak of positive reading by mid-2011 in the form of lower unemployment rates and rising real personal income
  
• Personal income is up 4.1 percent year-over-year compared to a decline of 2.1 percent last year at this time, so the increase in spending is not as strong as in past economic recoveries
  
• Extension of the Bush-era tax cuts and the two percent reduction in the payroll tax will spur businesses to add to their payrolls as the slow economic recovery continues
  
• Households are right-sizing their debt load and this behavior will remain persistent for many years, so much of the increase in consumer income will go to lowering debt rather than increased consumption as in past recoveries
  
• Big business is also moving forward with stalled projects, building out retail and distribution networks and supported by signs of bottoming of nonresidential construction

Most of our clients have been saying the above in their own words for the past quarter, "Hey, its starting to slowly get better." And I'm sure that most merchant cash advance funders are starting to hear the same as American Finance Solutions does from its clients' need for cash, "Hey, I've got this opportunity that I want to take advantage of...." For those of you agents selling the MCA, it may be time to change your sales approach from, "what problem do you need to fix with funding" to "what opportunities do you want to take advantage of"

AFS has started 2011 with record fundings in the first two weeks as well. Yes, its only been two weeks, but its already starting out to be great year.