In today’s competitive market, it is a must for businesses to build strategies that enable them to stay ahead of the curve. This remains true for businesses belonging to the chemical industry as well, especially so for the small and growing companies that aspire to expand globally. One of the most effective ways of accelerating business growth is to consistently scale up the business.
The key challenge is that small and emerging businesses do not always have the required capital at the ready to take up large-scale projects that can contribute to improving business visibility and revenue. This is where invoice factoring or invoice discounting can prove to be a great facilitator. It can help businesses optimize cash flow.
A healthy cash flow allows them to best cater to clients’ increasing requirements, as well as give them more leeway in terms of payment schedules. In addition, invoice factoring can also help a company sail through any unforeseen financial crisis that may arise due to sudden fluctuations in the market.
What Is Invoice Factoring?
In the chemical industry, products are often exported via contracts featuring payment terms that do not require the buyer to pay for the goods for multiple months. Waiting for many months to receive payment can be challenging for suppliers who must pay monthly bills. Invoice factoring is the best tool to address this challenge.
It is essentially a type of post-export finance wherein you assign your invoices to a third-party finance provider. This provider will pay you immediately for your invoices and then collect the money from your customers. The key purpose of invoice factoring is to optimize cash flow, enabling businesses to keep their operations running smoothly. Let’s take a closer look at the main advantages of invoice factoring for small and growing chemical businesses.
Key Benefits of Invoice Factoring For Small Businesses
1. Quick & Easy Access to Finances:
With invoice factoring, exporters get quick access to funds that would otherwise be tied up for months on end. By factoring your invoices, you can bridge the time gap between raising an invoice and receiving the payment. They can use these funds to keep the business processes running smoothly while they wait for the customers to make payments.
Businesses need a healthy cash flow to handle multiple financial responsibilities such as paying employees, settling monthly bills, investing in new inventory and tools, expanding to a new location, and so on. This quick capital enables businesses to take on new opportunities.
2. An Economical Solution:
During its inception, invoice factoring was considered an expensive finance solution. This is now a misconception. The new-age factoring solutions are designed in a way that they can be easily leveraged by small and medium businesses.
Today, it is possible to receive an advance of up to 95% of the invoice amount with factoring fees as low as 1.5%. The fees are calculated based on multiple factors like the nature of your business, which sector it belongs to, the number and the value of invoices, and your customer’s creditworthiness.
3. Quick Approvals:
Another challenge that small and growing businesses face when seeking funds is that they have limited collateral to offer. Moreover, they might not have the necessary documentation. When seeking capital from finance providers like banks, documentation and collateral are two key criteria that growing businesses may find difficult to meet. Invoice factoring can be the ideal answer here.
Most growing businesses are eligible for invoice factoring as they do not need a perfect business credit score and do not have to provide a strong balance sheet. Getting approval is usually fast and hassle-free. In most cases, the invoice is cleared by the factoring company in a day or two.
4. Off-Balance Sheet Financing:
Invoice factoring is one of the quickest ways to optimize working capital. Unlike bank financing, factoring companies can provide off-balance sheet funding; the finances will not be reflected as debt in the ledger. Invoice factoring companies do not require businesses to provide a detailed track record as the funds are granted based on individual invoices and not the exporters’ credit history.
Factoring is quite different from taking a business loan or lending. Here, a third-party company buys the sales invoices from businesses at a discounted price. Another benefit is that, unlike bank loans, there is no obligation to pay monthly installments with factoring.
5. Tailored Solution:
One of the main benefits is that factoring solutions come with flexible terms. Businesses can agree upon short-term arrangements with invoice factoring companies depending on specific business needs. It is not mandatory to sign up for long-term commitments. Businesses can simply choose which invoices they want to assign to the factoring companies, and pay a minimal fee for their services.
In the case of loans, you are obliged to use the capital gained on certain processes or equipment. With invoice factoring, businesses do not have this limitation. The cash you received can be used to meet any business requirement.
6. Increase Sales & Profits:
Growing businesses do not always have the luxury to offer credit to their customers as they may need quick capital to serve other purchase orders. They cannot wait for payments for long periods. Most customers look to work with businesses that provide longer payment cycles or credit solutions.
Invoice factoring enables small and medium businesses to offer flexible payment terms while also maintaining a steady cash flow. This can help businesses welcome new clients on board, leading to increased sales and revenue. Funds received from the factoring company help businesses invest in new product launches and build better strategies to attract potential customers.
Scale Up Your Chemical Business with Tradewind
Aspire to take your chemical business to newer heights? Here is your opportunity to accelerate business growth with Tradewind Finance. We are one of the leading international trade finance companies with over 180 employees working from 20 offices located in 12 countries. Our highly trained staff offers world-class customer service and truly understands global trade.
We specialize in cross-border transactions globally for sales made on open accounts, letters of credit, and documentary collections payment terms. Using purchase order funding, inventory lending, letters of credit, and structured guarantees, our financing helps align the needs of both buyers and sellers. Our solutions are offered in multiple currencies, eliminating the risks of currency exchange.
We solve short-term cash flow issues by purchasing your company’s accounts receivable in exchange for an advance of up to 95% of the total invoice value. Then, we collect the full amount from your client upon invoice maturity. Once the invoice is paid in full, we send you the remaining balance. In addition to factoring your export accounts receivable, we can also finance your full supply chain.
