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Detailed information on how to start your very own herb garden at home.
Grow Your Own Herb Garden

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Articles on Roses relating to planting, watering, fertilizers and treatment, pruning and total care.
How to Grow and Care for the Optimal Rose Garden

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A guide to growing, planting and caring for flavorful and healthy herbs.
Plant Herb Garden | Grow Herb Garden | Kitchen Herb Garden

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Welch: Police don’t take plastic
It was a dark night. I wish I could say it really was a dark and stormy night. It wasn’t. This spring may go on the record as the first one ever with no storms, except dust storms.

Read more on Wichita Falls Times Record News

Small Business Focus Swings from Survival to Growth Says American Express OPEN Survey
NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–For the first time since 2006, growth has surpassed survival as the number one priority for entrepreneurs, according to the American Express OPEN® Small Business Monitor, a semi-annual survey of business owners, now in its tenth year. Perhaps further evidence that economic recovery is reaching Main Street, more than one-third (35%) plan to hire, the highest level since …

Read more on Business Wire

‘Smart’ farms grow businesses with apps
The Square, a tiny, one-inch long device that can be plugged into smart phones and iPads, lets business owners process credit card transactions.

Read more on Canandaigua Daily Messenger

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by 5.9% (more than previous estimate of 5.7%) in the last 3 months of 2009? I thought President Obama was trying to destroy this country not make it better.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8539099.stm

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i keep up to date with the latest nominal gdp and export data on the world’s countries and the imf, cia factbook are showing huge growth in those countries last year.
In exports Russia jumped over a couple countries including Canada and the UK.
In nominal gdp Russia and Brazil grew by 20-25 %. Both countries pulled ahead of Canada and Spain.

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Paying employees, rent and suppliers are the three biggest expenses that most business owners face. If you are a wholesaler / reseller and buy and resell goods, your biggest expense is likely to be supplier payments. On the other hand, if you provide services, your biggest expense is likely to be payroll. Either way, making sure that your suppliers and employees are paid on time is critical. The solution to these challenges is to obtain an infusion of working capital, and that is where trade finance can help you. Trade financing helps ensure that you always have the funds to pay employees and suppliers – and thus – have the resources to grow your company.

Do you have clients that take 30 or more days to pay their invoices? Or, if you are a distributor, do you have clients that have placed large orders, depleting your capital resources? There are two trade finance tools that can help you in these instances. The first tool is called factoring financing. The second one is called purchase order financing.

Factoring Financing

Factoring is an ideal financing tool for companies that can’t afford to wait up to 60 days to get paid by clients. A factoring company can provide you with an advance of up to 85% on your slow paying receivables, providing you with working capital to pay employees and business expenses. Factoring is quick and can provide you with a payment within a day or so after invoicing.

Purchase Order Financing

PO financing is ideal for companies that resell goods to government or commercial clients. It can provide you with financing you need to deliver on your large orders. Purchase order funding works by providing you with funds to pay suppliers, enabling you to close more and larger sales. The transaction is settled once your customer pays for the goods.

Conclusion

Companies that need either domestic or import export financing can benefit from factoring and purchase order financing. And as opposed to traditional bank financing, both are relatively easy to obtain and can be set up in a few days.

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Most importers have seen their businesses grow dramatically in the past years. The drop in the cost of overseas manufacturing coupled with the insatiable appetite of US consumers for more and cheaper goods has created a bonanza for the industry. Both large and small importers have seen the size of their orders – and revenues – grow dramatically. However, for any business to grow successfully in this industry it must be well capitalized, or have a source of financing.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say that your company gets a very large purchase order (po) from your best customer. You, of course, would go to your supplier and try to fulfill the order. However, if your supplier is unwilling to extend you terms, you may need to post a letter of credit or similar instrument. This is where small and mid size importing/exporting companies run into problems. If they cannot post a letter of credit, they will not be able to fulfill the order and will lose the business. This is also where purchase order financing can help you.

What is purchase order financing?

Purchase order funding is a tool that can help you finance orders that you cannot afford to fulfill. It allows you to take large orders from great clients and deliver them, without using any (or little) of your own funds. PO financing lets you grow your business using other people’s money. It’s a great tool to take your business to the next level.

The basics of purchase order funding

A PO financing transaction is fairly simple. Once you have or are close to having a purchase order from your customer, you approach the PO financing company. The PO financing company then provides financing for the transaction, enabling you to purchase the goods from your supplier and deliver them to the customer. Once the goods are received and verified, the PO financing pays your supplier on your behalf. Payment to your supplier can be provided in a variety of forms, although it is commonly done using a letter of credit. Once the goods have been received, you send an invoice to your client and wait for payment. Once your client pays the invoice, the transaction between the PO funding company and your company is settled. If that transaction was structured properly and if your margins were good, this transaction should have required little if any out of pocket expenses from your company. This is why po financing is so powerful.

The cost of PO financing

The cost of PO financing will be based on a number of criteria, including your experience in the industry, the complexity of the transaction and the credit worthiness of the end customer. A rule of thumb for the industry is that a transaction must have profit margins of at least 20%, or better, to be affordable. That will allow you sufficient funds to cover the cost of PO funding and still realize significant profits.
Cost reduction tricks

The main cost driver in purchase order financing is risk. The risk in the transaction is reduced dramatically substantially once the product is delivered and an invoice is generated. A common trick to reduce the cost of the transaction is to factor the invoice, and use the factoring proceeds to close the purchase order financing part of the transaction. Since accounts receivable factoring is cheaper than po financing, this little trick can reduce the total cost of the transaction by a few points. To capitalize on this cost reduction trick, you should be sure to work with a factoring company that also does purchase order financing. That will enable you to close the purchase order funding component seamlessly.

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