When Banks Say No To Small Business, American Finance Solutions and TransFirst Say Yes!

Even if you've been reading this blog for a month you know that small business owners are having crisis in accessing capital that has not been seen since the 1930s. I rarely use this blog in self promotion, but this week announced a very significant partnership that continues to fuel our growth.

American Finance Solutions, a leading provider of Merchant Cash Advances (MCA), and TransFirst, one of the nation’s top transaction processing solutions, are teaming up to provide small- and medium-sized business access to the
working capital they need. Through a joint referral relationship, TransFirst expands its product portfolio to include American Finance Solutions' Merchant Cash Advance product, helping clients' access capital quickly, despite tightening credit markets.

"TransFirst works with partners that demonstrate a track record of success," said Steve Rizzuto, President of Independent Sales Services for TransFirst. "We are happy to add American Finance Solutions to our suite of innovative, customer-based solutions. They have a unique funding product that provides our small business clients with capital in less than 48 hours. TransFirst will enable split funding for AFS’ product line of merchant cash advances and welcome their clients to our outstanding processing services”.

American Finance Solutions is proud to be partnered with a leader in the payment processing industry such as TransFirst. This was a win-win-win for TransFirst, their customers and AFS. We are happy to serve them, providing value-added benefits, and look forward to continued success in 2010 and beyond."

Alternative Finance Companies Here To Stay

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Business week recent wrote an article on entrepreneurs accessing alternative finance companies. You can read the entire article here. It confirms what most of us already know, banks have virtually shut their doors to all types of financing for small business! Credit lines (both secured and unsecured), equipment financing and even personal credit cards to business owners are all being denied.

The articles highlights the fact that alternative lenders, such as traditional factors, reverse equipment leasing and merchant cash advance financing is becoming the mainstream for business owners out of necessity. All of the above and more expensive than traditional bank financing since they involve the financing company taking on more risk.

As for merchant cash advance, it seems that we have finally made it out of the infant-stage of our new product and are now entering the mainstream. For our agents selling the product, now is the time to expand into new business types that have not used the MCA before and target clients with very good credit who would not have considered the product before.

SBA's New Floor Plan Program

The Small Business Administration recently announced a new Dealer Floor Plan program to assist car, motorcycle, boat and motor home dealerships secure financing for inventory. This should help many of our clients in this business, but you have to act fast as funds may run out.

Details are as follows:

Dealer Floor Plan (DFP) Financing Pilot Program
Beginning July 1, 2009, the SBA will introduce the Dealer Floor Plan (DFP) Financing. This program offers government guaranteed loans to finance inventory for eligible auto, RV, boat (including boat trailer), motorcycle, manufactured home and other dealerships under a new pilot program that runs through September of 2010. When each piece of collateral is sold by the dealer, the loan advance against that piece of collateral is repaid and the dealer borrows against the line of credit to add new inventory. Here are some of the highlights:

* Size of the loan is $500,000 (minimum) up to $2,000,000 (maximum)
* Borrowers will receive a fee reduction as outlined in the recent changes to the standard 7(a) loan programs
* The maximum guarantee is 75% as opposed to the 90% in the standard program
* The maximum term for the DFP loan will be five years
* Loans will only be made for inventory that can be titled

For complete details visit http://www.sba.gov/floorplanfinancing/index.html

CIT Groups Pending Bankruptcy

CIT Group may be the largest financial player you never heard of. CIT has over one million customers, most of whom are small- and medium-sized businesses. Unfortunately with bankruptcy looming for the financial giant most of these companies will see their credit lines slashed or completely disappear.

If you're one of the above business owners, it's time to devise a backup plan. No matter what the end result for CIT, its current financial struggles signal that credit is going to get harder than ever to come by. When these business owners do come across credit it is going to be very expensive. It all comes down to the basic Economics 101 and the law of supply and demand. There's a very limited supply of credit and a swelling of demand. The swelling is continuing to grow at a very rapid pace.

This will affect the merchant cash advance industry as well. Agents and funding companies can expect a huge influx of demand and increased applications and conversions over the next few months. Many MCA companies may be increasing rates in an effort to limit their funding amounts as they may hit ceilings on their own access to capital.

The end result is definite opportunity in the industry of Merchant Cash Advance to gain a new client base and expand into other industries.