http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html New Zealand business finance. Keeping up to date with the business financial sector. New Zealand perspective. en-us business finance Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:30:30 GMT Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:30:30 GMT new-zealand-business-finance.com http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Recruitment-and-Staffing Recruitment and staffing continues to be a good niche for us. These businesses quite often have to wait a couple of months to get paid. Invoice discounting systems can help to keep the cash flowing. I'm guessing the labour market won't soften too much as the econnomy softens, so these businesses will still be pumping. Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:13:04 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Business-cash-advance A business cash advance is not easy to get(in case you hadn't noticed). A few weeks ago I signed up as a potential investor on a NZ based website lookiing to marry up businesses needing cash with potential investors. Not much has come through,just a couple of not-to-promising things. Anyway, today there was an enquiry for someone starting up a kind of medical taxi thing in Auckland. Good them for doing it, but the biggest problem with their pitch was that they wanted 'working capital'. You'll never get a serious investor to provide working capital for start up, unsecured,unless there's something very special about it. Cash up front for people to pay themselves while they find out difficult business is(which is primarily what 'working capital' amounts to)is a non starter. I hope I don't sound too harsh,because it sounds like the business could be meeting a real need,but that doesn't mean it will be a viable business. Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:02:22 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Small-Business-Equipment-Financing Small business equipment financing is often a challenge. It's sometimes difficult for the small business to present clear security for the lender, but sometimes businesses don't realise where they have vlaue. I referred someone to Captain Mainwaring the other day. He had invested a lot of time in doing up a feed out machine for farmers. It had a value of $65,000 with no-one having security over it. He approached me for short term capital via invoice discounting, but it was going to be much easier for someone to find him money securing it against the machinery. Tue, 24 Jun 2008 05:56:09 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Business-Networking Over the last couple of days I've noticed a couple of examples of alternative business networking breakfast cropping up. As regular readers may know, i'm a member of BNI, which is now very well established in NZ. I've been a member for three years and highly recommend it. I hope these other breakfasts work out too, networking is definitiely the way to go for a lot businesses, and particularly in an economic downturn. The BNI system seems to work well because they've been around for 20 + years and have been through all the mistake and development phases and have distilled all that into a formula that works. Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:59:07 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/property-market-cycle.html Property market cycle. How all the cycles are inevitably out of sync with eachother and how we should welcome and embrace this as business people. Sat, 21 Jun 2008 11:03:59 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Net-Migration-Bottoms-Out---Hold-on-tight Net migration has been falling for a couple years from its highs of plus 40,000 or so a few years ago. Last December it went into negative territory. Reports for the last couple of months suggest its turned around again, with positive gains in April and May. It seems the government predictions of plus 3,000 for 2008 will be an underestimate. The importance of all this ? Well, with the property investment cycle going into its down phase and the development cycyle likely to go very negative for a year or two, immigration will be the catalyst for the next boom. Bear in mind we have positive population growth (births over deaths) of plus 30,000 per annum. Add in positive migration and you have a relatively rapidly growing population. that will mean higher rents and more pressure on housing. I'll do a full article on the naturally out-of-sync cycles, but the short version is - hang on tight - expect some very dynamic and variable circumstances in the next twelve months or so. Hang on tight to your property as well if you can. It'll probably continue to soften for a while yet, but it won't take long to recover once interest rates start coming down if there's population growth to drive it. One of my hobby horses is that in the medium to long term New Zealand's population will rise faster than government predictions. This is good news for our economy overall. Lots of folk arriving from India apparently. Pretty industrious bunch on the whole, so its good to have them here. Sat, 21 Jun 2008 09:52:31 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Cash-Squeeze Every second conversation I have seems to indicate that things are really starting to bite. Be it retailers, tradesmen or whatever. Folk are putting away their wallets big time. Meanwhile, all the banks I talk to are saying they have plenty of cash. They're pretty strict about giving it out at the moment, though. Give it another 3 or 4 months and we'll be seriously in recession mode. Survival will be the name of the game for many in business. I've banged on about these being interesting times, etc. Its taken a while, but things are really happening now, internationally and locally. The holiday's over. This oil crisis isnt just a cycle thats going to go away in a few months. Food is going to become more expensive every year. Its as though all the worlds' chickens are coming home to roost at the same time. Meanwhile, here in Godzone, our indebtedness is finally cathcing up with us. There's going to be some serious financial pain around for the next year or more. Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:43:23 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Westpac-Economist---Extraordinary-Times Attended a breakfast in Wanganui today. Brendon O'Donovan, Westpac Chief Economist was the speaker. Easy to listen to and able to hold forth on all things economic, as indeed he should. What stuck in my mind was that he referred to us living in 'extraordinary times' economically. He's right about that. Seems like they'll have to be re-writing some of the economic text books over the next few years. To summarise, Brendon's picking a technical recession for the next few months, but pretty good chances of an upturn next year. He's picking interest rates to ease later in the year but not by much. Long term, our ability to produce food reliably will put us in a good postion on the world stage. Some good questions from the floor. Best one probably was around why we have such low productivity. Answer seems to be around investment/capital rates and infrastructure, if I grasped it correctly. Anyway, for all us small businesses, boxing on and surviving for the time being, and being ready for opportunities that will be coming along, seems to be the order of the day. Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:53:45 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Is-this-peak-oil-? It seems to be fashionable among business finance commentators in the press to pat us on the head and tell us not to worry about oil running out because there's heaps left. Now, I'm no expert on this topic, so if anyone wants to put me straight on what follows, feel free. It seems to me though, that even going on the numbers that the 'there's heaps left' lobby work on, the reality is peak oil is just about upon us. i.e. it's not going to run out a week next Thursday, but we're rapidly passing the point where oil can be economically found and extracted at such a pace that it can keep up with rising demand. There were a couple of articles in yesterday's Herald which seemed to be wanting to explain about how speculation and limiting of supply by the Arabs to keep the price up was distorting things. In the same clutch of articles though, if I was reading it correctly, it seems that the most optimistic projections suggest that we've used a trillion barrels of oil so far; that we know the whereabouts of the next trillion and that will likely last another 40 or 50 years. Then there is probably another trillion or so barrels waiting to be confirmed/found. This may last another 40 odd years. So, that means that oil would run out, given current usage projections, by the end of the century ! Add to this the fact that the figures for China and India, etc increasing their consumption seem to be revised upwards every year, and it seems to me that peak oil will be upon us very soon, if it isn't already here. Just because we've got plenty of oil around in the sense that current and future demand can and will be met for some time to come, once we know there's less than a hundred years or so of the stuff left, then surely that's a big issue and the laws of supply and demand will push the price ever upwards. This will then have a huge socio-economic effect. Am I missing something here ? Sun, 15 Jun 2008 09:37:43 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-ethics.html Business ethics are hugely important. It's not just about being hones or not doing something fraudulent. Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:34:41 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Business-Ethics I should know better really. For 25 years I worked in mental health. Sometimes with drug addicts who were always trying to trick you into getting them more drugs. Always experiencing the worst side of folk it seemed. For a few years I worked as a counsellor and programme provider with blokes on Protection Orders or referred from the Department of Corrections following assualt convictions, I did over 2000 clinical hours discovering every version of bullshit, how to avoid reponsibility. How people could lie and bullshit so much, they actually got to the point where they believed what they were saying was true. How they could blame everyone else for their problems, minimise their own culpability and deny they had done anything wrong. I had several line manager and senior management roles over the years. In every position there were always endless issues with people's integrity and professionalism in some way or other that had to be dealt with. I became used to it and even got a sort of perverse satisfaction from it, thinking that I was learning a lot about life and people and how they tick. So, now I've been business for a few years, involved in a few business organisations and dealing with money and complex business transactions (somtimes when folk are desparate for money), why am I shocked and stunned to come across examples of poor business ethics and outright dishonesty ? To an extent I was ready for it in the invoice discounting business. Obviously, you have to have your antennae well tuned for folk trying it on. But what's really shocked me is being part of an organisation - a referral type organisation- that's built on trust and developing long term relationships, and there are folk found to have been taking a free ride, not paying their way. Some have engaged the services of other members and then not paid them, or ripped them off in some other way. It beggars belief ! And they think we're going to refer business to them ? I'll be a lot more careful in the future. I'll have to dredge up some of the models and methods of those days working with the violent blokes. Ok, enough. I'm going to have to write a full page article on ethics and stick it on the site. Get it out of my system. Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:06:49 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/free-online-business-advertising.html Free online business advertising for contributors to New Zealand Business Finance. We will give you a one way incoming link to your website, plus you can promote your business via your article. Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:35:37 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Creative-Capital-Ideas One of my clients is a retailer. He 'gets it'. This is good. Not all of my clients 'get it'. What he gets, is that in business it is necessary to work together with others and for everyone involved to profit, for business to succeed. This client is able to have a much expanded capital base and to grow his business in all sorts of different ways because he is prepared to view the provision of short term working capital as an investment in his business and to share some of the profits with the investor. Once a business person gets their heads beyond the idea of borrowing/lending money to grow their business and thinks more broadly and creatively about how they can attract investment in their business, then things can happen. Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:36:31 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Cash-flow-Options-for-Growing-Businesses I had a coffee this morning with the car service/repair guy from my business breakfast. He seems to one of the few people in the trades who understands that he has to grow to a certain critical mass and have a certain number of employees working productively under him, for his business to make money. So many trade type businesses grow rapidly and the shrink back or go bust. Their accountant tells them they were making more money when they were a one-man-band. This may be true, but the answer is not to shrink again. The answer is to do a better job of being a businessman. When a business grows, the business coaches tell us, it will experience three problems - time, people and money. If you can leverage other peoples time, people and money effectively then you will be a successful business owner. Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:09:57 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/financial-turmoil.html We live in interesting times. A period of economic and financial turmoil. Not just economic cycles but changes fundamental factors. There will be winners and losers. Sun, 08 Jun 2008 06:41:22 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#New-Paradigm-in-Finance-? Diana Clement writing in the Herald today talks about the 'Topsy-turvy' world of finance that we are now in and how many have yet to adjust. For a good few years now, I've been of the opinion that historians will look back on this period as some kind of turning point in world affairs. It'll probably have a name, a la the industrial revolution. My guess is that it will be framed at one end by Sept 11 2001, and we don't know yet what will signal the end of the period. In the world of business and business finance we are now seeing seismic shifts as part of these changes. Fundamental changes in things which we've previously taken for granted, rather than just the normal business and financial cycles. Oil gradually becoming scarce. Food becoming expensive again after 50 years of declines in the real cost. Water and its management becoming vital (it always was, of course, we just took it for granted). Inflation returning. Throw in the end of a long housing boom, and the reckoning up for a country living on credit, and the New Zealand financial scene is probably at the start of a major housekeeping excercise. .........No doubt playing our small part in this pivotal period in world history. Sat, 07 Jun 2008 07:27:42 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/medical-recruiters.html Wellington based medical recruiters solve the cash flow dilemma of this business with an innovative invoice discounting solution Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:49:43 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#John-Key-Makes-Sense-on-the-Economy Attended a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in New Plymouth today with John Key as the speaker. A few years ago, when Don Brash was running National, I swore I would never vote for them, simply because of all the devisive, racist stuff he seemed to be coming out with to court the res kneck tendancy. I'm still not sure whether that stuff will come to the fore or not under National, but I have to say that John Key makes an awful lot of sense when he talks about business and the economy. You do get the feeling that this guy knows what's required for New Zealand to grow its wealth. If that happens, then we can spend on whatever social and environtmental programmes are necessary. But first you have to have the economy right. Is there any chance of National/Labour coalition, with National driving the economic strategy ? Probably not. Wed, 04 Jun 2008 21:44:09 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Fixed-rate-roll-off---ouch-! I got a bit of a shock today when one of my mortgages rolled off its fixed rate. Only a hundred k or so, but to go floating would cost nearly $60 a week extra ! This has got be happening to a lot of folk a present, and its got to be hurting too. There's going to be a phase of reckoning up and assets changing hands and so forth. Having said that, I was chatting with Captain Mainwaring earlier today and he recloned a lot of folk, after a period of shock and re-adjustment in the last 3 months, have decided that life goes on after all and their still out there doing stuff and spending and borrowing money - what else are we going to do - curl and die ? Wed, 04 Jun 2008 07:58:38 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Quality-is-the-thing For my sins I'm doing some study at the moment - Diploma in International Trade. Its very stimulationg and gets the old brain roaring off in lots of different directions. I'm using the process to develop my import/export business. As part of that, I'm in negotiations with a couple of parties about representing their products to overseas markets, especially China and Russia. Anyway, my point is that all roads lead to quality when it comes to this sort of business. There is no point mucking around in the mid ranges. The noveau riche in China, Russia and elsewhere are only into the highest quality, elite stuff. I like this, you get to deal with a better class of business person, if you know what I mean ? People who understand what's required in this market tend to be the best kind of entrepreneurs. Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:03:59 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-cash-advance-levin.html Business cash advance for Levin based trucking company. Short term cash flow crisis overcome. Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:53:08 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Banks-Acknowledge-Tightening The big cheese was down from Auckland last week. We managed to squeeze in 14 meetings in 2 days, mostly with bankers. Plenty of coffee and a couple of good lunches, you know the drill. Anyway, between the nicities, a theme emerged that, whilst the banks in New Zealand seem to have avoided too much exposure to losses on the collatoralised debt carry-on in the US, they are finding off-shore money more expensive to come by. Also, there is a general sense that we haven't seen the worst of the current downturn yet, so there's a general sense of caution about lending. This is no great surprise. I'm picking there'll be a fair few casulaties around the place later this year. Could be a good time to pick up real estate bargains in the run up to Christmas. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 23:16:37 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/Napier-Roading-Contractor.html Napier roading contractor uses invoice discounting to overcome a short term cash flow crisis after a period of rapid growth. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:29:23 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Good-ideas-need-execution Lots of people will tell you they have a great idea for a business. Believe it or not, lots of the ideas you idea might actually be quite good. But you know as well as I do, when you hear them that very few will actually turn into a successful business. The biggest reason is for failure is not so much that the idea was bad, but that the execution was either wrong or lacking. Either the business model wasn't robust, or some crucial element was over-looked. Or, very often, the business owner simply wasn't persistent enough. Ideas are a dime a dozen, really. Effective execution of workable plan is gold dust. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 11:01:55 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Real-Estate-Turning I had a couple of days in Auckland this week checking out the state of the property market. It's definitely pulled back a good 15 from the highs of last year. I reckon though it could drop another 10 to 15 further through this year, even if interest rates come down. It's getting harder and harder to borrow money and generally the banks are wanting a 20 deposit etc etc. Also, a lot people are sitting on their hands metaphorically business and investing wise. So, a few more months of not much happening and some properties stuck on the market and my guess is that Auckland come November/December this year will be absolute prime for bargain hunting. So, I'm going to keep any eye on the market. Next trip, I'm going to check out some mortgagee auctions and see what real proces are being paid. Fri, 23 May 2008 02:36:18 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Is-this-phone-working-????? I nearly rang telecom earlier this week, I thought my phone wasn't working ! Fortunately, someone got in touch trying to sell me some advertising or something, so I knew it wasn't a technical issue. But, seriously, the phone has gone completely dry. I'm amazed. I've been waiting for the credit squeeze/economic downturn thinking the phone would be red hot and the biggest problem would be choosing which deals to do. But no, new enquiries have dried up almost completely. I guess everyone is sort of sitting on their hands and trying to weather the storm. Existing clients and established networks are still producing deals. Just goes to show the importance of good networking and persistence. We are in a very interesting phase at the moment. Tue, 13 May 2008 21:41:37 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#New-Business-Loans-Harder-to-Come-By "Banks shift to Credit Crunch Mode" is the headline in today's Taranaki Daily News business section. Liquidity pressure...funding constraints...etc, etc. Finance is not going to be as readily available is the guts of it. 30 of the big banks funding comes from overseas and the simple fact is there's less capital available than there was. The folk who are going to find it tough will be smaller businesses who are under-capitalised, especially if they experience rapid growth or an unexpected cash crisis. Be prepared, get as much access to liquidity as possible, think ahead, have good systems in place for maintaining cash flow. When I was in the UK last November/December, I got the distinct sense that the credit crunch was a much more serious issue than we realised down under. It now seems that we're going to find out over the next few months what it's all about. Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:38:46 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/electrician-pay.html Invoice Discounting facilitates an electrician pay day for Wanganui electrician. Mon, 21 Apr 2008 04:02:50 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/fragrance-retailer.html Fragrance retailer accesses short term working capital using the Artificial Middle Man system. Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:42:34 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/client-testimonials.html New Zealand Business Finance.com clients give feedback on their experience. Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:17:36 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Share-Milkers I was contacted by some would-be sharemilkers today. They are taking a 25 share in a farm. It doesn't really fit the invoice discounting side of things but Captain Mainwaring might be able to help them, so I've passed it on. It's been a big week for referrals going around in my network. I've received one and given out four. The best kind of advertising. You have to be patient with it, but it really works in the long run. Tue, 15 Apr 2008 04:50:42 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Gloom-and-Doom I've never heard so much economic gloom and doom. Worldwide problems. Food riots, credit crunch,you name it. We're in for some tough times. I guess it had to happen eventually. Thu, 10 Apr 2008 04:36:45 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Credit-Squeeze-Starts-to-Bite It's been a while coming - the credit squeeze seriously hitting New Zealand - but I think I can confidently say that the business finance market has changed in the last few weeks. Existing clients are using us more -invoice discounting mainly - . Bank referrals have increased as well. Then banks seem to be enforcing their rules striclty now - not cutting people much slack at all. It's going to be a seriously busy remainder of 2008, I'd say. Tue, 08 Apr 2008 20:15:04 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Business-Networking On Thursday the two New Plymouth chapters of BNI (Business Networking International) had a joint breakfast, as we do from time to time. There were over 50 people present and a real buzz about the place. I'm a great beleiver in networking and especially the BNI system, which emphasises that it's an active thing that you focus on, not just something that happens because youn know people. Anyway, I made a couple of good connections that I'll follow up. The BNI netwrok has produced a few really good clients for me in the past three years. I don't get an avalanche of business from it, but I enjoy it and it's good value and it's certainly more than paid for itself. Sat, 29 Mar 2008 02:09:42 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Focus-or-diversify? My greatest strength as a business person is keeping a lot of balls in the air at the same time. Having diversified interests means there's usually something going well. It expands my networks,and when it all comes together, produces great results. So,no prizes for guessing my biggest weakness - that's right,sometimes too distracted by other things to focus on core business. This can lead to problems at times. From talkikng to others,it seems to me that the focussed effort approach is very popular among Kiwis. There's certainly a lot to be said for it. I believe though,that most truly great entrepreneurs do have diverse interests, and their greatest skill is to find ways to be responsible for lots of things without everything falling apart. Finding the right balance at the right time is not always easy. Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:19:02 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Business-Leverage Business leverage comes in all shapes and sizes. It's not just about money. It's about other people's time and other people's know how, tools, skills, etc. Many small businesses struggle with growth. They run out of money, run out of time, and can't employ people effeciently. Many of the small business owners I talk with say they could grow their businesses significantly if they could manage those problems. A lot seem to give up when they get over-whelmed by the complexity and stress of it all. I hear a lot of tradesmen say that they earn more as a one man band than when they employ people. But I reckon if you develop the skills to handle people and can grow with your business - either putting on diffferent hats or getting the necessary leaders on board or whatever, then ultimately you'll grow your business a lot more Tue, 11 Mar 2008 04:25:31 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Each-to-his-own Bit of a hangover this morning after the conference dinner. I do remember some good conversations though about how everyone is developing their business. Some of our guys are deliberately shaping their business to aim for the bigger clients. I'm happy doing whatever comes along, and quite like doing lots of smaller clients. It's all business at the end of the day. One thing seems universal at the moment - everyone's phone is ringing more. The world and his wife needs more cash for their business. Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:30:25 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Not-Factoring Every workplace and industry has technicalities which, whilst being of little or no interest to the outside world, provide hours of endless fun and fascination to the immediate participants. In the world of invoice discounting, one such topic is 'is this factoring or not'. Without boring you with all the details, I have been in the 'we're factoring' school. Others prefer to emphasise the difference, the short version of which is that factors lend money against the security of debtors whereas we don't lend money as such, we just purchase invoices at a discount - hey, don't nod off at the back, there. I'm off to our New Zealand conference for the next two days. I'm going to try and avoid spending too much time discussing these sort of details. It should be fun, always a pretty social event. Wed, 05 Mar 2008 17:27:44 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Trucker-cant-get-loan The other week I blogged about a new sign up for the invoice discounting. Another haulage contractor, he had managed to have 3 trucks roll in as many months and so had some serious cash flow issues. Anyway, a week later he explains that he's hoping to get a loan from the big outfit that he contracts to. Now. I've seen this happen before. On one occasion the big contractor did in fact advance some funds, but it didn't last - their not in the business of lending money. Well, on Thursday our fellow came back to me and it seems that he didn't secure any finance. So, on Friday we managed to fund him $50k. It's a good business and I think he'll be pretty disciplined about how he uses us, so hopefully a happy ending. We also started funding the latest recruitment agency this week. Not as much as she was hoping for but the paperwork isn't there to back up what she wants. It's getting really tight for smaller businesses needing finance at the moment. I had one bank referral this week who couldn't even get $5k for a month from them. Sat, 01 Mar 2008 05:45:20 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/invoice-discounting.html Some folk get it and some folk don't. I had 2 referrals on the same day this week within half an hour of eachother. One was a funeral director and the other a headstone/monumentalist - quite a co-incidence. Anyway, the point is the funeral director seemed to get it and the monumnetalist didn't - the importance of capital in business and the difference between lending money and investing capital. Invoice discounting is a method for folk with capital to invest money in the businesses of folk without sufficient available capital. The discount is a way for the investor to share in the profits of the business using their capital, whilst they're involved. The invoice discounter does not take any shares (equity) in the business and there is no debt on the balance sheet of the business (because you're selling an sset), hence the need to clip the ticket on the invoices. Also, because it's such a flexible system, the business can wean itself off and stop using the invoice discounting whenever it likes or is able. Fri, 22 Feb 2008 03:44:20 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Cash-flow-crisis Another trucking company signed up today. They've hit a cash flow crisis due to several trucks rolling in quick succession. Other finance options have proved too difficult to set up, but it looks like we can help. It looks like a sound business, so hopefully we can ge them backon track. Sun, 17 Feb 2008 07:16:50 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/women-in-business.html Join the move toward women in business. Audrey Owen, Retirement Investigator, writes about trends regarding women in business. Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:28:50 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Another-Recruiter Things are getting flat out busy. Yesterday I was down in the Wellington region signing up another recruitment agency for the micro-factoring. Looks like a good client - growing business - opportunity to go further. I'm plodding along with my study. Interesting stuff, all about international trade. Carving out some quiet time is the important thing- I can do it if I plan it. Thu, 14 Feb 2008 04:19:04 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/women-business-loan.html Helping women access business loans. New Zealand resource. Wed, 13 Feb 2008 19:45:03 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#International-Trade-Studies-Commence This week I started my studies for the Diploma in International Trade. Hoping to school myself up in the ins and outs of importing and exporting, having started to dabble in that arena. A mountain of stuff to read and that sinking feeling along the lines of 'have I bitten off more than I can chew'. Once I got into it though, it's pretty stimulating stuff. Possibly too stimulating for someone like me, whose main weakness is perhaps ripping in to too many good ideas at once. But, never mind, I'm learning to focus and make sure things are complimentary, so hopefully we'll be fine. One of the main benefits I can see is that the Trade Finance section of this bespoke website should develop significantly in the coming months. Sun, 03 Feb 2008 04:47:39 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Cost-of-money I notice in the paper yesterday that the BNZ had put up it's interest rate because of the increased cost of inter bank lending. This is a sign of the increased scarcity of capital. The reserve bank's interest hasn't gone up,but the cost to the BNZ of accessing funds on the world market has gone up. Getting funds is becoming more difficult. Liquid positions are good news. Opportunites will abound. Wed, 30 Jan 2008 21:38:48 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/retail.html It's been a day for 'artificial middle man'deals. This idea seems to be gaining traction slowly. I like dealing with the folks who are involved, and it's great to able to come up with solutions that work for them. A number of enquiries seem to be for particularly small amounts at the moment. I've done a page all about financing businesses on credit card debt. My rationale is, you might as well. If you believe in your self and what you're doing, it'll work regardless. And other, apparently cheaper ways of financing are often more expensive in the end. If the business isn't going to work, well you might as well find out anyway. The lessons you learn will be invalubale. The longer I'm in business, the more I appreciate that it is a totally different mindset to paid employment. You need a completely different relationship with money to really succeed in business. Mon, 28 Jan 2008 04:32:08 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/New-Zealand-case-studies.html New Zealand business finance case studies. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:04:38 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Persistence-in-Business There is nothing more imoprtant in business than persistence. Don't get deceived by financial planners telling you to pay off your house or establish a wealth base first - bollocks, if you'll pardon the expression - if you've got the vision, the energy, and above all the persistence, you can do it. In some ways your better off with little money to start with, that's how you develop your skills. As Ernest Rutherford famously said: "We don't have much money....so we're going to have to think". I've read my fair share of business books. Some more credible than others. Some more readable than others. My favourites are well written biographies of career business people who did it their own way. Biographies about successful historical figures and politicians etc can also provide similar inspiration. Anyway, my point is, if you were to distill the single most important, pervasive and essential element which connects all these individuals it would be.....persistence. Other things matter too, of course, but, without turning this blog into a major theses, the guts of it is, absolutely nothing is more important on the road to success than persistence. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 03:49:25 GMT http://www.new-zealand-business-finance.com/business-finance-blog.html#Will-The-sky-Fall-in-? Scary stuff on the stock markets. Regular readers know I'm firmly in the camp of good business people keep going through good times and bad. But you do get the feeling that the credit crunch could get pretty tough over the coming months. Will we feel the full force in Godzone ? Not sure, and I don't want start sounding like some smart arse bank economist and try and predict the whole thing. What I do know, though, is that if things get tough, money will be harder to come by. Acceessing the money will be more important than interest rates or terms and conditions. Who you know and what you know, will matter. Captain Mainwairing is snowed under at the moment. Charging around the North Island seeing a whole bunch of people. Looks like I might be working a bit closer with him on few deals this year, which will be good. We've even talked about getting into Christchurch now there's a direct flight from New Plymouth. Wed, 23 Jan 2008 08:32:46 GMT