Thursday, December 23, 2010

First Data Becomes An Approved Processor Of AmeriMerchant Merchant Cash Advance Program

First Data, one of the largest merchant processors in the world, has entered into an agreement with AmeriMerchant to become an approved processor of the AmeriMerchant merchant cash advance program. This deal will expand AmeriMerchant's market share by allowing First Data ISOs to offer the AmeriMerchant merchant cash advance program to their merchants. For more information on this story, see the story in The Green Sheet or ISO & Agent

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

First Data SpendTrend Report Positive Indicator For Merchant Cash Advance Revenue?

The following information can be seen as positive news for the merchant cash advance industry.

Nation's Restaurant News is reporting that First Data released in their October 2010 "SpendTrend" report that "Consumer credit- and debit-card spending in restaurants and bars grew by 9.5 percent in October year-over-year, the highest growth in more than 18 months."

Being that First Data has a huge amount of merchants to collect data from, this is a very positive indication that perhaps consumer spending could be on the rise for at least restaurants. This information holds well for the merchant cash advance industry as the amount of money a restaurant and/or bar can qualify for is based on their monthly historical credit / debit card processing totals.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Looking To Acquire Merchant Cash Advance Providers and Merchant Cash Advance Resellers

If you are a merchant cash advance provider (fund your own merchant cash advance deals) or a reseller of merchant cash advances with an office, sales staff, etc. that caters to the US or Canadian marketplace, AmeriMerchant is currently seeking potential acquisitions in the marketplace. If you are interested, please contact me directly at dg@amerimerchant.com. All inquiries will be kept confidential.

-David

NOTE: The editor of this blog is also the President & CEO of AmeriMerchant.

Monday, August 2, 2010

AmeriMerchant Consolidates With Leading Canadian Merchant Cash Advance Provider

AmeriMerchant (http://www.amerimerchant.com) one of the oldest and largest merchant cash advance providers in the United States and CanaFunding (http://www.canafunding.com), one of the best established merchant cash advance providers in Canada, have announced a merger of their operations that will allow AmeriMerchant's US-based sales channels to offer a merchant cash advance product to the Canadian marketplace.

For more information, visit the story in the Financial Post, a Canadian newspaper.

Editor's Note: The Editor of this blog is also the CEO of AmeriMerchant.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Merchant Cash Advance Industry Update

I've received feedback from many people inside and outside of the merchant cash advance industry asking when I think the merchant cash advance industry will continue to expand again. There are obvious signs that there aren't enough good deals out there when many providers are marketing "they specialize in deals that no one else will take."

I think while we keep reading that "banks aren't lending to small businesses", I don't think that is the whole picture, I think that an important aspect that people are overlooking is "do business owners want to borrow right now?" Whether it's a traditional business loan or an alternative financing solution such as a merchant cash advance or factoring, businesses don't appear to be wanting to take on as much obligations as they have in the past.

Until the macroeconomics change where unemployment goes down and consumer spending goes up - why would the average business owner in July need money to buy more inventory when their current inventory isn't selling? Why would the average business owner open another location in this environment (compared to the % of owners that did this say 4 years ago)?

Until the macroeconomics change, I don't think the demand level for business owners to take on additional obligations, including alternative financing products such as a merchant cash advance, will increase substantially compared to previous years.

I think this will also put pressure on some merchant cash advance providers, especially ones that don't have substantial capital to ride out this storm, to start funding deals they shouldn't be funding, etc. which leads to a bigger disaster down the road as many merchant cash advance providers (most who aren't still in business) learned a couple of years ago.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Merchant Cash Advance Featured In American Express Business Card Holder Article

American Express publishes a series of articles for its business card holders. One recent article entitled, Alternative financing: Where to turn when the bank says ‘No’ by Elizabeth Wasserman lists the merchant cash advance as alternative financing solution when the banks say "no" to a business.

The article quotes AmeriMerchant and myself as follows:

A handful of independent finance companies will give merchants a lump sum upfront in exchange for a share of their future credit-card sales. Different than a loan or lease arrangement, a merchant cash advance is based on a business’ monthly credit-card sales history, says David Goldin, CEO of AmeriMerchant and a founding member of the North American Merchant Advance Association. "It's a buy-and-sell transaction," Goldin says. "We buy $10,000 in future credit card sales today for $8,000 and we get a specified percentage of future sales from customers."

Editor's Note: David Goldin is the President & CEO of AmeriMerchant and the author of the merchant cash advance blog.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

North American Merchant Advance Association Announces Merchant Cash Advance Best Practices

While merchant cash advances have been around for quite some time, like many industries it has seen its share of scrupulous and unscrupulos providers. The North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA) recently released it's recommended Best Practices for the Merchant Cash Advance Industry.

As a founding member of NAMAA, I commend our co-members which make up the majority of the players in the merchant cash advance industry for coming together to ensure the merchant cash advance product is sold and executed properly so that it helps the merchant and doesn't hurt the merchant.

For those merchants reading this blog, proceed with caution when doing business with a non-NAMAA merchant cash advance provider. NAMAA members who bear the association logo on their website have taken the time, capital and commitment to ensure their offering is made in a standup way and helps them stand out from certain providers in the industry who have used tactics that the industry and the association look down upon.

Buyer beware, stick with a NAMAA member and look for the following logo:

Monday, April 5, 2010

Merchant Cash Advance Partnership Between United Bank Card and AmeriMerchant

I am proud to announce that United Bank Card, Inc. (UBC), ranked by the Nilson Report as one of the largest payment processors in the United States, and AmeriMerchant, one of the oldest and largest providers of merchant cash advances, announce their partnership to offer working capital to both potential and existing United Bank Card merchants. For more information on this partnership, click here.

This partnership will allow United Bank Card's 100,000+ merchants access to working capital in a environment that can be extremely challenging for small businesses seeking a traditional loan product from the bank.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Merchant Cash Advances Weren't Around in 1942

Merchant Cash Advances weren't around in 1942, but business bank loans were. According to today's Wall Street Journal article, Lending Falls at Epic Pace, US banks posted last year their sharpest decline in lending since 1942. Does anyone see a merchant cash advance opportunity for all those businesses in 2010?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Merchant Cash Advance Demand

Many merchant cash advance providers are indicating there is less demand for the product the last few months compared to this time period last year and the year before. There are several factors that can be responsible for this including many merchant cash advance providers were funding deals in the past that they would not fund today (and paid a very hefty price for doing so, namely going out of business). I think one of the key reasons which I have pointed out in the past is there also has to be an increase in business owner confidence for there to be an increase in demand for the merchant cash advance product.

The NY Times had an interesting article yesterday, entitled Businesses Reduced Inventories in December which further validates my theory, that if business owners don't have confidence in the economy, they are going to market / advertise less, hire less and stock lower inventories.

The article indicates, "The weakness in inventory rebuilding in December was an indication that businesses, still struggling to emerge from the deepest recession in decades, are not yet confident enough in rising sales to begin rebuilding stockpiles on a sustained basis."

As the CEO of, AmeriMerchant, one of the oldest and largest merchant cash advance providers in the space, I can tell you that a very common reason why merchants turn to alternative financing such as the merchant cash advance product is to stock up on inventory.