As the U.S. and global economy continues to struggle and credit gets tighter, steady cash flow becomes more and more important to the survival of a business. One source that has been around for decades is accounts receivable factoring; also referred to as invoice factoring. This tool has become an important small business money management strategy.

Invoice factoring is not just for manufacturers. Many types of business owners, including Dentists, Chiropractors, and other healthcare providers have turned to this method to insure a steady stream of cash into their businesses.

Kent Harlan, owner of Ozarks Capital Funding has been a reliable resource for factoring for healthcare professionals for a long time, and has even written a book about it that makes this tool easy to understand.You can read his blog article Factoring For Medical Providers and check out his book to learn:

- How factoring can be better than bank loans

- The easy application process

- How fees are determined – you’ll be surprised

- The other services factoring companies provide that will save you money

- How your company can take advantage of the infusion of working capital from factoring

- How factoring companies communicate with your customers

- How to find out if you qualify before you apply

- Why utilizing a factoring broker is advantageous to you

If you are in the Dental industry, you should also visit Kent’s website focused on Dentists at www.dentalpracticecash.com

There is one area that most schools are not able to adequately prepare most future Doctors and Healthcare practitioners for — that is the realities of opening and running their own practice. Setting up accounts, purchasing supplies, running a staff, money management and financial planning are just a few of the very real pitfalls that can sabotage a practice.

If a practitioner could just concentrate on helping their patients all day and not worry about the business end, many doctors would be more than happy. But in a healthcare office there are bills to pay and payrolls to meet, and with the current state of the economy, many practitioners are having a tough time of it financially.

“Over 20 years ago, I became a health care practitioner primarily to help people with their health. I went to classes, took the tests, and graduated from one of the largest chiropractic colleges in the United States as a Doctor of Chiropractic,” says Dr. Brian Dawson DC, author of the book Breaking the Profit Barrier –The Healthcare Practitioner’s Guide. Real pain and sorrow showed up early in my practice when I noticed there was not enough money to run the practice the way I wanted to and still help the most number of patients.”

Like many other healthcare practitioners having financial difficulty with their practices, Dr. Dawson attempted to seek the necessary help in order to salvage his practice and make it financially successful.

“I tried a few practice management consultants along the way which helped with other aspects of my practice, but this problem with the handling of money persisted. It really started to worry me,” he explains. “I didn’t seem to be going anywhere. I felt that I couldn’t reach the financial goals I had set for my practice or for my life. I had all these debts, but nothing to show for it.”

As with many health practitioners faced with seemingly never ending financial issues, the business end of running a healthcare practice began to be more than an annoyance or distraction. The bleak financial outlook began to seriously impinge on Dr. Dawson’s life.

“I have to admit that I was not happy during that time,” he says. “Because I was working just to pay bills, it took the fun out of practicing. I really liked treating my patients but I was usually worried or frustrated because I could not buy the things that I wanted for myself to enjoy life.”

The stressful financial situation also kept the practice from growing. Determined to succeed, however, Dr. Dawson continued to look for solutions that would help not only himself, but also other healthcare practitioners who were having similar business and financial difficulties.

After many years of investigation of various systems, Dr. Dawson realized the real root of the financial problems that many healthcare practitioners faced was one of proper money management. It was not so much an issue of how much money was coming into the practice; rather it was one of handling the cash flow of the practice in such a way that money was properly managed in order to make more money in the future.

“When people hear the words ‘money management’ they sometimes get the wrong idea,” notes Dr. Dawson. “Money management isn’t just accounting or keeping track of the money with billing and accounting software,” he says. “Money management has to do with what is basically a whole new way of thinking about money, cash flow, and finances. Done correctly, money management will put virtually any practice in control of their cash flow and on the road to growing profits stably.”

“The majority of us, even those who have gone to business school, are taught to manage money from a purely accounting point of view,” says financial and money management expert Sandra Simmons. “Accounting software is merely a look into the past and shows you where the money has been spent. True money management forces you to look into the future and invest in those things which are making you money. The correct money management point of view will get you to plan and predict how much income you expect for the week, and then set your budgets accordingly. It really is a forward looking point of view that puts the healthcare practitioner much more in charge of his or her financial future.”

Healthcare practitioners who use proper money management techniques have found that suddenly they feel much more in control of every aspect of their finances. Debt is rapidly reduced or eliminated, bills are paid in a very definite manner, and money is set aside to begin the process of building wealth for the practice.

Dr. Dawson actually combined forces with Sandra Simmons to form a company called Money Management Solutions. The company was specifically formed to help health practitioners, and business owners of every type to provide easy and workable financial solutions that they could use to resolve their financial situations.

Dr. Dawson and Ms. Simmons provide money management counseling services to those healthcare practitioners and business owners who would like individualized help. To that end, Money Management Solutions has an impressive track record of successfully turning businesses around so that they are well on the road to wealth and prosperity.

Knowing and learning how to run a business and performing the correct kind of money management practices can be a daunting task, Simmons and Dr. Dawson decided to automate the money management process to make it as easy as possible for businesses to get back on track.

“So after years of work, I helped launch our Money Management Business software,” he says. “As a Chiropractor, I knew that we had to have a software program that was going to be very easy to learn and use, so we’ve taken great care to make the information very user friendly and easy to understand. Most Doctors will find that they are up and running in a very short amount of time.”

Dr. Dawson is quick to point out that the money management software program is not meant to replace your current bookkeeping program, such as QuickBooks®. He emphasizes that it is definitely not billing software or an accounting program. It is a unique, one-of-a kind-money management program that works in conjunction with your bookkeeping program to put you on the road to financial wealth and success.

“You can learn to use the software program in less than 1 hour by watching video tutorials built into the program,” he says. “It is very easy to implement? You just fill in the blanks. You don’t have to think about it. The software does it for you. There is a simple interactive flowchart in the program to guide you all the way through each step. We’ve really tried to make it very user-friendly.”

In conclusion, Dr. Dawson promises that healthcare practitioners will see how easy it is to have more than enough money to meet your financial obligations and put the fun back into your practice. The software was specifically designed so that healthcare practitioners and business owners would not have to think about what to do with their money because the computer program does the money management and financial planning for you.

So, if you are a healthcare practitioner who is looking for ways to improve your practice, build wealth, achieve financial freedom, and devote more time to treating your patients, you owe it to yourself to find out more about money management solutions.

“I know about the challenges in the health care field,” states Dr. Dawson with great sincerity. “This Money Management software is my contribution to the Chiropractic profession to make these challenges become smaller, and make your purpose as a successful health care practitioner to grow larger each day so you can have more fun and help more patients!”

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For more information about money management or help with your healthcare practice, contact Dr. Brian Dawson, DC at 727.448.1011 or e-mail him at Brian@MoneyMgmtSolutions.com. To learn more about Dr. Brian’s Book for healthcare practitioners visit http://www.briandawsonbooks.com/

If your business isn’t doing as well as it used to; isn’t making enough income to meet your financial goals; the money management solution activity called Income Planning says it boils down to ONE THING…

The one thing you need to investigate is WHAT CHANGED. I’m not talking about looking outside your business at the economy, or the fact a competitor opened up down the street. That is something the practice owner can’t control. I’m talking about what changed inside the practice. Something did. It may be hard to spot, but investigating what changed can reverse the falling statistics immediately.

Here’s one example. I started working one-on-one with an optometrist who bought the Money Management Solutions software program. As part of the weekly money management process, we spent a great deal of time on income planning, and focused on promoting the business.

An investigation into what promotional activities had worked well in the past revealed that some of the most successful had been dropped out over time. Those were immediately put back into action, and the new patient and income statistics started going back up. We brainstormed creative new promotional ideas focused on new, innovative products and tested those.

In just a few weeks the new patient statistic increased even more. So far so good, but we weren’t satisfied yet.

Correct money management says it’s smart to have several sources of income so if one dries up, your cash flow is still okay. I noticed the optometrist most enjoyed talking about her work designing a line of signature sunglasses. Hmmm. Here we were trying to increase her current practice and she had much of her attention focused on a manufacturing-for-retail venture.

So what else had changed? She finally realized she was BORED with her current practice.  While she loves her work, the one practice was no longer a big enough game for her. She was trying to develop a bigger game to play by going into the sunglass design business, which is great, but, even that wasn’t enough. The discovery that she was bored, that opened the floodgates of opportunity!

What did she do to relieve her boredom? Last month she partnered up with another optometrist and they bought 6 failing optometry practices that had tons of potential all at once. That’s right, SIX! Needless to say, she is no longer bored.

By using the money management software  on a weekly basis for each of the new clinics, they turned a profit the very first month. Her financial statistics are on the rise, she is enthusiastic about her business again, and, to top it off, her first sunglass design just got delivered from the manufacturer, and they are gorgeous!

If your business was doing well in the past, but income and patient counts have been going down, then correct money management, and finding out what changed, can quickly lead to renewed growth. A great tool to help you find out what changed is Dr. Brian Dawson’s new book Breaking the Profit Barrier – The Healthcare Practitioners Guide so check out this book!

If you would like a money management consultation regarding your practice or business, contact Sandra Simmons at 727-448-1011 or email her at info@MoneyMgmtSolutions.com . Or visit her website at  http://www.moneymgmtsolutions.com/.

© 2008 Sandra S. Simmons. All Rights Reserved.

Are you a dental professional or healthcare provider in need of working capital? The simple solution could be invoice factoring.

Until recently, individual doctors, dentists and physician groups could easily go to their local bank and get all the working capital they needed.  But, while banks still loan money for that purpose, getting a loan or line of credit can be an uphill battle.

The ‘credit crunch’ has caused a major tightening in underwriting parameters at banks nationwide.  banks typically require a minimum credit score of 685, the practice must have a track record of profitability, and start-ups are excluded. Businesses who would have easily qualified for a line of credit six months ago are getting turned down.

The main problems with a bank loan are: it creates debt on which you pay long term interest at high rates, a low credit score locks you out of qualifying, and it often requires a personal guarantee and additional collateral.

Factoring is an excellent means of acquiring needed cash flow.  Medical accounts receivable factoring is the business of buying third-party accounts receivable at a discount so as to make a profit from collecting them. There are very positive differences between bank loans and invoice factoring.

• Invoice factoring is not a loan. It is an off-balance sheet transaction so the factoring fees are a deductible expense.
• Personal guarantees are not normally required, as they are for a bank loan.
• Funds can be received within a week of applying, provided all documents are received in good order.
• With invoice factoring, additional collateral is not required to be pledged.
• Funding is only limited by the company’s pool of accounts receivable, as opposed to bank financing, which usually loans a maximum amount.
• The credit of the business or its owners is not of major importance to the factoring company.

With invoice factoring, funding is limited only by the amount of third party receivables the professional has on its books.

Third party receivables are those amounts due from insurance companies like Blue Cross and government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.  With medical invoice factoring, the healthcare provider submits a batch of invoices to the factoring company and receives an advance at a rate that is determined by the contract.

The advance rate is typically 75% – 85% of the estimated net collectible value of the invoices.  The remaining amount (the reserve) is remitted back to the provider upon collection, less the factoring fee.

Are you a healthcare provider or dental professional in need of an infusion of working capital? Referring the best resources for medical invoice factoring is just one of the many money management strategies I provide to my clients to insure they achieve their financial goals and build wealth for their long-term financial freedom.

Another great tool I recommend reading is Dr. Brian Dawson’s new book Breaking The Profit Barrier – The Healthcare Practitioner’s Guide, so check out this book!