New Zealand Business FinanceNew Zealand business finance. The on-line diary of an invoice discounter. Aug 8, 2010, Micro Factoring Contact.Complete the form and we will send you a breakdown of the costs and benefits of micro factoring so you can see if it will fit with your business. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Micro Factoring Contact." Aug 1, 2010, Tenancy Tribunal.How to collect tenancy tribunal orders in New Zealand. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Tenancy Tribunal." Aug 1, 2010, Micro FactoringThe micro factoring product seems to be catching people's interest. We believe we can develop this into something really worthwhile for a lot of tradesmen and similar businesses. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Micro Factoring" Jul 30, 2010, Debt Collection,Good debt collection and credit control systems are essential for any business selling on credit. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Debt Collection," Jul 21, 2010, Micro Factoring,Micro factoring combines the resources, knowledge, experience and skills of The Interface Financial Group and Total Debt Solutions. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Micro Factoring," Jul 18, 2010, Alternative dispute resolution methods.Alternative disputes resolution is a means for businesses to settle trade disputes without costly legal action and hopefully retain better relationships as well. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Alternative dispute resolution methods." Jul 18, 2010, Our Services,Whilst New Zealand Business Finance is a general interest website, we provide services in Debt Collection and Invoice Discounting. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Our Services," Jul 18, 2010, Invoice Discounting For TradesmenWe can provide invoice discounting for New Zealand tradesmen at little or no cost. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Invoice Discounting For Tradesmen" Jul 10, 2010, Free Invoice Discounting ? Yeah, Right.One of the most common objections I hear from potential clients for invoice discounting is that 'it's expensive'. Normally, I respond to this by highlighting the benefits of the programme - such as being able to pay creditors on time, and perhaps receving a discount or rebate for this; being able to take advantage of an opportuntiy; not needing to sell equity in the business, etc, etc. All of the benefits above are real and can potentially add value to the business of my clients. But now, I'm really pleased to be able to go a step further and be able to say, quite genuinely, that for some businesses we can set up an invoice discounting system at little or no cost to the business. How can we do this ? Well, for some businesses, we can set up the system so that the customer pays the discount. We can do this for businesses like electricians, plumbers, car repair workshops, etc. Any business which is generating a number of invoices each week and meets some straightforward criteria can potentially come on board with us and have weekly cash flow from the invoices they are generating and have the customers pay the discount. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Free Invoice Discounting ? Yeah, Right." Jul 5, 2010, It's a Long, Hard RoadWe seem to be going through a period of stalling recovery at present. Everyone very reluctant to spend any money and businesses very keen to recover money owed to them. It seems that in the second half of last year and early this year, we wall breathed a sigh of relief and thought we'd dodged a bullet. The recession's not so bad in NZ, we thought. But now it seems our excess debt levels are starting to catch up with us. Folk trying to pay down debt and sitting on their hands in terms of property purhcases, business investment and borrowings. This seems to be slowing things down again in the economy. Could we be in for the dreaded 'double dip' recession. Even if we are, the medium to long term picture for New Zealand should still be strong. Jul 1, 2010, Russia Trade Talks Resources,Russia New Zealand Trade Talks Resources. New Zealand Business Finance. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Russia Trade Talks Resources," Jul 1, 2010, Russia Trade Talk Resources,Russia New Zealand Trade Talks Resource page. Links, articles and information about New Zealand's Trade Talks with Russia. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Russia Trade Talk Resources," Jun 28, 2010, Russia New Zealand Trade Talks,Russia and New Zealand agreed to commence discussions towards negotiating a Free Trade Agreement in May 2010. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Russia New Zealand Trade Talks," Jun 26, 2010, St Petersburgh Economic ForumThis annual economic forum took place June 17th to 19th. This BBC link provides a good summary. Russia is increasingly reaching out to the rest of the world and developing more interdependent economic links as she looks to diversify. Jun 26, 2010, Factoring and debt collection for tradesmenWe are currently looking at ways to create synergies between our 2 core businesses of invoice discounting and debt collection. Follow the link to our sister site at Total Debt Solutions. Tradesmen can take advantage of the added value we can bring to an invoice disounting arrangement by providing credit control and debt collection services as well. Clients can have a raft of services provided with reduced overall fees. This kind of arrangement works really well for tradesmen such as electricians, plumbers and so on. Jun 24, 2010, Basic Accounting methods,Basic business accounting methods. Vickey Boatright explains the two basic methods businesses can chose. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Basic Accounting methods," Jun 11, 2010, Fair Go AppearanceYour esteemed correspondence graced prime time TV on Wednesday night. With my Total Debt Solutions hat on, Fair Go interviewed me regarding collecting Disputes Tribunal monies. We also knocked a couple of doors in Auckland. Jun 6, 2010, Russia Free Trade Talks StartSo, New Zealand has commenced free trade talks with Russia. Good to see. Russia is a significant economic force and world power and will undoubtedly become more important in the coming years. A well educated people, vast resources and a determination to be a world power. Following on the successful free trade deal with China, New Zealand is playing a long term game which will help to cement our economic growth and stability in the future. We'll be following events as they develop. I'm picking a long and slow process, but worthwhile in the end. The geo-political significance of it all should not be under-estimated. May 17, 2010, New Plymuoth Trucking Company Needs Cash to GrowNew Plymouth trucking company needed cash to grow. Interface Financial were able to fund them through a rapid growth phase. Permalink -- click for full blog post "New Plymuoth Trucking Company Needs Cash to Grow" May 11, 2010, Staff Placement Agencies Using Invoice DiscountingWe have several staff placement agencies using invoice discounting to ensure payroll is met each week and avoid cash flow shortages. This form of financing is ideal for this kind of business. Providing the certainty of cash flow and the flexibility to move with the business. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Staff Placement Agencies Using Invoice Discounting" Mar 26, 2010, Short Term Cash Is Everything NowCash has always been king. No different now, but access short term cash for working capital has never been more crucial. Businesses are really feeling the pinch as credit tightens and creditors slow. Mar 5, 2010, IFG Network Kicks Off in New ZealandIFG Network, the funding arm of the spot factoring franchise organisation, The Interface Financial Group, has commenced operations in New Zealand. IFG Network provides capital and transactional support to IFG's 150 international offices in New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Canada, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Bringing IFG Network to New Zealand will significantly increase the capacity of the organisation here in terms of both business development and funding capacity. Feb 18, 2010, New Zealand Connected for Invoice DiscountingThe Interface Financial Group is expanding it's presence around the world. The boutique invoice discounter is now establishing itself in the UK, Australia and Singapore. Already, a strong force in the US, Canada and New Zealand, these latest moves will improve their ability to carry on international transactions. This is good news for New Zealand exporters wanting to access short term working capital through discounting accounts receivables. Jan 28, 2010, Women in BusinessWomens Business Resources. New Zealand Business Finance's Womens Business Resources section is building a library of resources for New Zealand women in business. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Women in Business " Jan 28, 2010, Succesful Women WorldwideSuccessful Women Worldwide. Dagmar Gatell of 101 Small Business Opportunity.com shares her story as she meets successful business women around the world. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Succesful Women Worldwide" Jan 23, 2010, Small Business, Cash FlowSmall business cash flow is put under pressure from all sides. Negotiating your way through this problem is one of the key skills of the business owner. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Small Business, Cash Flow" Jan 23, 2010, Importers Can Take OpportunitiesImporters can take advantage of short term working capital facilities to get great deals while the NZ dollar is up. The bargains that can be had in the current world environment will more than make up for the cost of this kind of finance. Follow the link for some case studies. Jan 19, 2010, It's All About Cash Flow Now2010 is going to be all about cash flow for many businesses. If the cash is still flowing, businesses can continue to service their obligations and work through whatever their situation is. For many businesses in New Zealand, it's going to be about recovery after the recession. Activity levels will be increasing, order books filling up. The trick will be maintaining adequate cash flow until profits are realised. Dec 29, 2009, Next Year ?It's been a tough year. A lot of businesses have struggled. It seems like we'll probably come out of recession and start growing now. The fallout for businesses will likely continue for a few years to come though. The population here in Godzone is on the increase - watch out for the hosuing market picking up - it may not go out of control as credit will still be tight, but the basic laws of supply and demand will have to have an upward effect. Nov 17, 2009, New Zealand Business Finance ContactNew Zealand business finance dot com contact information. Permalink -- click for full blog post "New Zealand Business Finance Contact" Nov 9, 2009, So the world didn't end then ?A year ago you would have thought the world was going to end. Total economic meltdown ....... never mind about your assets or liabilities, just make sure you've got a couple of chickens in the back yard and know how rig up some solar power. Maybe it's still happening, but slower than we thought. Or maybe, people and the wrold economy are more resilian than we thought. Here in Godzone, whilst some have and are suffering, it really hasn't been as bad as we thought for most people. Maybe we're just cushioned these days and don't appreciate the meaning of all this debt we've taken on - as a country and as individuals. My take, though, is that the principles of business and life remain the same. My guess is that life will go on and we'll get through the current recession as we've got through all previous ones, and come out the other side older and wiser and hopefully stronger. Aug 25, 2009, Relationships are CurrencyIn case you haven't noticed, we are in the middle of an extended period of banks being even more tight with credit than they usually are. Overdrafts pulled with no notice. Nit picking analysis to decide on the most modest of loans. So, alternative finance becomes the name of the game. Whether its tapping the family, vendor finance or connecting with private money in some arrangement or other. Whatever the details, somebody will need to trust you with their money. For someone to trust you with their money, they will need to trust you as an individual. (They will also need to believe in the likely success of what you are doing - but that's another story). For this trust to be present, you will need to have built some sort of relationship with them. It will help enormously if you are genuine, and sincerely want to build a relationship. It will also help if you sincerely understand that the lender/investor is entitled to their money back and it's up to you to make sure that happens. How does trust get built in a relationship ? - Slowly. Trust gets built up little by little. Every time you do what you say you will. Every time you act with integrity and honesty. Every time you keep a confidence or listen to someone. You build trust by doing any and all of these things. The other side of this coin, however, is loss of trust. Trust can be lost much more quickly than it can be gained. You might get away with one small integrity slip if you have a good history built up, but it won't take much for trust to be destroyed if you act dishonestly or without moral courage. So, building relationships, of all kinds and at all times - not just when you want something - is essential to success in life in every way. When you want money for business it is no different. Your access to funds and negotiability with creditors will be greatly effected by the level of trust and quality of relationships you have built. Jul 7, 2009, How To Succeed in BusinessWomen are well suited to business and often have much more potential to succceed than they realise. Permalink -- click for full blog post "How To Succeed in Business" Jun 24, 2009, Credit Control Top of Priority ListCredit control is always important for businesses, but now the credit crunch is really starting to bite, it is super important. It is so much more difficult to access flexible financing to ride out the peaks and troughs of the business cycle and deal with unexpected cash flow shocks. May 14, 2009, Selling A BusinessSelling A Business: Easier And With Less Stress. Selling a business is something that most business owners only do once. Like anything else done for the first time, and with no training or preparatio Permalink -- click for full blog post "Selling A Business" Apr 22, 2009, Property FundamentalsIn the Dom Post today there was an update about net migration turning around. Likely to be 15,000 positive for the year. On top of that, bear in mind that births over deaths will be plus 35,000 or so. That'll make 50,000 or so population gain in New Zealand in 2009 - and they've all got to live somewhere. Next, consider the remarks about the home construction industry - we apparently need to build 22,000 new homes a year to keep up. We have been averaging 14,000. Bob Jones the other week, confirmed that there is no over-supply of property in this country as there is in some parts of the US etc. These are the property market fundamentals - supply and demand. Interest rates and other stuff do effect the market - but the real underlying drivers are immigration, births over deaths and the supply of stock. Eventually - perhaps sooner than we might think in the current doom and gloom - rents have to go up and then demand for property from buyers will soon follow, whether that be first home buyers faced with high rents and low interest rates, or property investors for whom the numbers stack up again. So, I'm picking that the property market could recover in 2010 and not be down for as long as some think. Apr 8, 2009, Risk MultipliersI saw a business yesterday that operates in the horticultural sector. They also have exposure to international markets. The risks inherent in both have a multiplying effect on this business' current crisis. They have experienced various weather and MAF related dramas over the past few years, some quite costly. They have also experienced expensive problems in overseas markets (trading internationally is always several times more complicated that just trading domestically), and now the credit crunch has dried up their markets. It occurred to me that this industry is especially frought with risk and that to operate successfully a business needs a solid and diversified domestic market to support basic cash flow. From this platform they can they chance their arm internationally. Mar 14, 2009, News is HistorySo, financial Armegeddon is finally here. Reality is finally catching up with us in Godzone as credit dries up, unemployment starts to rise and everyone's scared about what's going to happen next. Well, guess what, cash is still cash, value is still value, people still need to live somewhere, eat, drink, travel and all the rest of it. So,for this year it'll be a case of the quick and the dead in business terms. You'll need to be on your toes, flexible and thinking with a clear head. Panic is not the order of the day. There's always ways round things. But things are changing so fast, that, really, news is history. What's the case today may not be the case tomorrow with regard to a whole host of stuff. Feb 18, 2009, Whose up for a bargain ?There's going to be plenty of bargains around in the property arena in the next few months. My take is that there will be a floor on falling property prices based on the population figures holding up well in the coming months and the fact that there will be plenty of shrewd investors dusting off their cheque books right now. So, I doubt whether there will be a total crash of the market. Feb 15, 2009, Larger NZ businesses now struggling.We're starting to the recession really bite now, with some relatively large New Zealand companies having to re-size, re-structure or get taken over. A couple of examples in the week just gone are Stevenson Group in Whangarei, a concrete products outfit, being taken over by Fletchers; and Williams and Adams, the long established Wellington car dealership downsizing. If these sort of businesses are struggling, it's going to be a very tough ride for a lot of the very small businesses which abound here. Feb 7, 2009, Cash in DemandAdam Bennett in the Herald on Saturday highlighted the fact that there are plenty of bigger businesses having to get creative about raising cash now. The banks don't want to know about taking on new risks. Big name listed firms can go to the market and get funds like Fonterra did, but lesser lights may be struggling to repeat the excercise. Last week I was talking with a trucking firm who've been around for 35 years, a reasonably big outfit by NZ standards. They needed extra facilities having incurred major repair costs. It would have been a no-brainer only last year for the bank to help them out, given their track record. But the bank have said no. Feb 7, 2009, Vegetable Exporter, Manawatu.A Manawatu based vegetable exporter secured short term business finance to help him over the busiest season. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Vegetable Exporter, Manawatu." Feb 5, 2009, Business Finance Landscape Very DynamicWe are living through very dynamic and ever-changing times. The business and finance landscape is altering on a daily basis. Even more than usual, thinking ahead and making sure you have options in terms of cash flow are hugely important. Whether it's to take advantage of the endless opportunities that will present themselves, or simply to be able to ride out problems with bad payers or unexpected expenses. If you are not prepared and have some contingencies, it's going to be a very unforgiving year. We haven't as yet felt the full impact of the credit crunch here in New Zealand. There is undoubtedly worse to come over the coming months. There's simply less liquid capital sloshing around, and we're not at the top of the list for the international money men. Jan 20, 2009, Look for opportunities2009 will be one of the most fascinating and challenging business years for decades. There will be tough times for many, and no doubt a few casualties. There will also be no end of opportunities. Fortune will favour the brave. The brave will, however, need to be smart with their cash management and decision making. I believe then key to taking advantage of opportunities is to do enough homework to know you've found an opportunity when you stumble across one, but also be ready to be decisive and take action when the time calls for it. Jan 8, 2009, Happy New YearHappy New Year to one and all. I trust you're well rested and ready for what promises to be the most interesting and dynamic year for New Zealand businesses in a long time. Things have got off to a brisk start here at the international headquarters on New Zealand Business Finance.com Our portfolio of clients in the short term wokring capital arena has changed over the past few months, with a drop off in the roading contractors and truckers, and an increase in the importers and recruitment agencies. We also took on a vegie exporter who did their first transaction before Christmas. We should have a case study up on that one soon. Dec 24, 2008, Cash Will Definitely Be King in 2009Wow ! What a year. So much happening in the world of finance on the world stage and locally. 2009 promises to provide Kiwi businesses with their toughest trading environment in a very long time. The property market will stay depressed for some time, I would guess at least 2 years. But when it goes off again, it could be another boom. We don't have an over-supply of houses to live in and the population is increasing (births over deaths) despite the exodus to Aussie. When immigration increases again, as it will surely do before too long, that will put upward pressure on the hosuing market and we'll be off again. In the meantime, what a great time for the more entrepreneurial among us. Whether it's property or business purchase, or growing the business you're in, there will be bargains and opportunities galore. This will be the time to position yourself for the next boom. Cash, naturally, will remain king - as it always is. Now, though, the consequences of not having access to liquidity will be harsher than they have been for some time. Dec 24, 2008, Export Credit AgenciesExport credit agencies are government agencies which encourage exports from their country through providing finance, guarantees, insurance and so forth, for exporters. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Export Credit Agencies" Dec 4, 2008, kapiti, aluminium windowsA Kapiti aluminium windows company uses short term working capital to overcome a short term cash flow crisis, Permalink -- click for full blog post "kapiti, aluminium windows" Dec 3, 2008, Documentary CollectionsDocumentary collections provide exporters with a higher level of protection than open account trading, and provide importers with a higher level of protection than payment in advance. Permalink -- click for full blog post "Documentary Collections" Dec 3, 2008, We Ain't Seen Nothin' YetAttended Westpac Christmas drinks and nibbles last night. Good turn out. Got talking to a couple of folks and naturally conversation turned to the state of the economy. One was a top local laywer in the commercial area. A veteran of a few economic cycles and apparently very well informed on the world scene. His take was that we haven't really felt the full blast of the economic downturn yet here in Godzone and that a lot of folk will be in for a major shock next year. Another in our group reported listening to Bob Jones the other week. Apparently Bob likened New Zealand's position to being in a very comfortable suite at the back of the Titanic - it still feels like we're doing OK, but we're going down like the rest of the world.
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