North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA) announces New Members And Officers

The North American Merchant Advance Association (NAMAA), a 501c non-profit industry association that provides guidance and helps influence and shape the merchant cash advance industry through leadership, education and the sharing of information, announced today the addition of four new members to its organization as well as the election of new officers. For more information on this story, click here.

NAMAA is the only industry voice for the merchant cash advance industry and currently represents 80%+ of the largest merchant cash advance providers in the industry. NAMAA also offers risk management tools to allow merchant cash advance providers to reduce their default rates from merchants that have previously defaulted with other merchant cash advance providers.

Note: David Goldin, editor of this blog is also the President of the North American Merchant Advance Association.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Merchant Cash Advance Green Sheet Article

The Green Sheet just published an article on the current state of the merchant cash advance industry entitled, The squeeze in merchant cash advance.

Like I've said all along, the 2007 Merchant Cash Advance model doesn't work. There will only be a few legitimate merchant cash advance providers doing any real volume when the dust settles.

Note to Merchant Cash Advance Providers: It's not how much you fund a month, it's how much you can collect back. To those providers that don't understand, you need to be able to collect the money back to make a profit and stay in business.

SBA Loan Article Indicates More Opportunity For Alternative Financing Such As The Merchant Cash Advance Product

According to a recent article on CNNMoney.com, titled A grim year for small business lending, "The SBA Loan volume plunged 36% in 2009 as banks slammed their vaults shut to small businesses."

This is yet another example of how an alternative financing program such as a merchant cash advance is starting to be looked at by business owners who in the past utilized traditional loan products such as a SBA loan or a small business unsecured line of credit from their bank.

As the media is reporting time and time again, small businesses can not get access to the necessary capital they need to drive their business. This will lead to an increased opportunity for those in the merchant cash advance industry as we are starting to see an increase in applicants who in the past utilized their local bank as their source of capital.

Furthermore, the lack of traditional loan products readily available in the marketplace can be a tragic situation for many small businesses if they can not get access to capital for the upcoming holiday season - which can amount to 50% - 75% of many retailer's annual sales.

It will be interesting to see the demand levels in the coming weeks for the merchant cash advance product as retailers looking to borrow from their banks are being shut out.

Merchant Cash Advance Provider CEO David Goldin of AmeriMerchant Featured Again In The New York Times

I want to thank Brent Bowers again of The New York Times for featuring me in a follow up article in today's business section of The New York Times. I believe AmeriMerchant is the first and only merchant cash advance provider to be featured in The New York Times.(now twice). The original article was in August 2007 regarding the AdvanceMe patent situation. This article features four entrepreneurs, myself being one of them, that were previously featured in the paper and following up to see how they are holding up and prospering in this challenging economy. An online version of the article can be found here

Merchant Cash Advance Demand - More Positive News - Small Business Confidence Rises To Highest Level In 18 Months

As I've pointed out previously, in order for the merchant cash advance industry and/or traditional business loan products to see an increase in sales, there has to be business owner demand for the product.

What drives demand? One key factor is a business owner's willingness to take on additional debt or obligation. What drives this willingness? Economic Confidence - they have to be confident they can pay it back, they have to be confident they can do something productive with the money, they have to be confident it makes sense to open a new business, market/advertise, renovate, etc. In most cases, be on "offense" rather than "defense."

The good news is according to the latest Discover® Small Business WatchSM, economic confidence among small business owners jumped to the highest level in in 18 months in August as more owners expressed faith that the U.S. economy is on the rise and gave signs that they are more willing to invest in advertising and new inventory. While we aren't out of the forest yet, this is all good news and what I predict will be a large demand for retailers to stockup with inventory for the holiday season. If a retailer isn't properly stocked for the holiday season with inventory to sell, they may as well close their doors....

AmeriMerchant Launches Merchant Cash Advance Portfolio Servicing Program

AmeriMerchant, one of the oldest merchant cash advance providers in the industry, announced today its new Merchant Cash Advance Portfolio Servicing Program. This program is designed for companies that are funding merchant cash advances and looking to reduce their overhead associated with the MCA business. In addition, this program can be used for creditors / investors / lenders of Merchant Cash Advance providers that are looking to preserve their capital and are interested in exiting the business as well as generating additional revenue in the future.

Editor's Note:The author of this blog is also the President & CEO of AmeriMerchant

Merchant Cash Advances A Solution For Advanta Cardholders?

According to bloomberg.com, Advanta Corp, a leading provider of small business credit cards, recently terminated its customer credit-card accounts due to a reported astounding 20% bad debt rate. For those former Advanta customers that need access to working capital in this challenging credit environment, perhaps a merchant cash advance can be an excellent alternative solution to a traditional business credit card which requires a personal guarantee unlike a traditional merchant cash advance.

Merchant Cash Advance 2009 Update - Amazing What 12 Months Can Do

The merchant cash advance industry has certainly taken a 180 degree turn from where it was 12 months ago. Due to the economic climate and the tightening of the credit markets has resulted in many cash advance companies that have ceased operations, are only funding renewals and/or were forced to liquidate their portfolios by their credit providers. Furthermore, a good portion of merchant cash advance agents (specifically the large "phone rooms", that received much negative press in 2007/2008) have ceased operation as well. A large portion of these agents were born out of the mortgage industry. The merchant cash advance industry is maturing and there were 10s of millions of dollars worth of advances given in 2007/2008 that never should have been advanced. This may have been industry types that don't work well with this product, holdback %s that created too much risk for the MCA provider and/or providing capital to people that didn't have the credit worthiness to pay it back. Unfortunately, many new merchant cash advance providers learned the hard way that this is not an easy business at all.

The good news is those players that have been established for a while and have strong distribution channels that aren't "pumping junk paper" into their company will reap the benefit as the economy turns around. While banks are still tight with their business lending requirements, many businesses are also hesitatent to take on additional debt / obligations in this economy, which can cause a decrease in demand for alternative financing products.

I think we will see a few more players close up shop in 2009, but those merchant cash advance providers that can ride out 2009 will emerge in 2010 even stronger and the "boat will have left the dock" for any new players trying to make a major penetration into the merchant cash advance market.

Alternative To A Merchant Cash Advance - Sell Your House?

Here is a link to an interesting story on CNN, entitled Selling their home to keep their small businesses alive. This story is evidence on how difficult it can be for small businesses to obtain traditional loans and the fact that banks are not making small business loans. While many people feel that alternatives to a loan product, such as a merchant cash advance is expensive, I think selling your house can be a lot more expensive....

Merchant Cash Advances And FICO Scores

It is interesting to see during this recent business credit crunch that the average credit profile for a merchant cash advance applicant is on the rise. We have seen a plethora of FICO scores in the 700s and even 800s which typically first seek traditional bank loans and credit lines before seeking alternative funding products such as a merchant cash advance. As I mentioned in my previous post, Merchant Cash Advance And The Business Credit Crunch, that the current conditions of the credit environment is an opportunity to introduce businesses to the merchant cash advance product that historically may have sought other options.

As I also pointed out previously, these better credit applicants will be less receptive to "cheap marketing" techniques such as voice broadcasting but require a more consultative approach about this product. There is an opportunity here that once the better credit score applicants are exposed to this product that they can use it in conjunction with traditional bank loan products once the credit markets eventually open up should the traditional product not be able to meet 100% of their needs. For example, a bank may only be willing to eventually give a business a $100,000 line of credit when they need $150,000 and this is where they can mix it with an additional $50,000 through a merchant cash advance. Time will tell, but I believe the average FICO score of the merchant cash advance customer will increase and remain higher once the credit markets / banks open up again to small businesses.

Merchant Cash Advance mentioned in MSNBC / Entrepreneur.com article

msnbc.com mentions the merchant cash advance product in a recently featured article entitled Control Your Cash Flow which talks about how businesses can reduce their vulnerability during this recent credit crunch. One of the ways it talks about how businesses can do this is to "Raise capital in innovative ways other than traditional banking." and specifically mentions about a merchant cash advance, namely "If you accept credit cards, there is something called a merchant advance where a third party will come in and review what your revenues have been and advance you capital today that you pay back in anticipation of future credit card receipts." This article appears to be syndicated from Entrepreneur.com and further backs up the idea that the merchant cash advance product has become a mainstream, accepted form of alternative financing for small to medium size businesses.

Merchant Cash Advance Cost Comparison

I have received several emails about the cost of a merchant cash advance compared to other working capital solutions. One selling point of this product is that while it's more expensive compared to traditional small business loans (assuming the merchant can qualify for a small business loan as especially in this credit crunch, banks have raised their small business loan criteria even higher), the cost is pale in comparison to any equity solution including taking on additional investors and/or giving up equity in your business. Keep in mind that a merchant cash advance is not a loan product and does not have absolute repayment like a loan which also requires a MCA provider to charge more for that compared to a traditional small business loan. With a merchant cash advance, once you sell a MCA provider your future credit card / debit card receivables that is all the MCA provider is entitled to, no future upside in the business, no profit sharing etc. So what is more expensive? A) Selling your future credit card receivables / debit card receivables at an average discount of 26% or B) Giving someone a percentage of your business forever or until you have to buy them out a premium? I can assure you that option "B" will far exceed any discount that you sold your future credit card / debit card receivables for.

AdvanceMe Loses Merchant Cash Advance Patent Appeal

I just received word that AdvanceMe has lost their appeal on their patent. I thought the call I got was a joke because the hearing was just last Tuesday, turns out the court realized in two seconds that there was no merit to this appeal. It shows you how little basis AdvanceMe had to even appeal this decision. You can see the court's document by clicking here.

The Electronic Transaction Association (ETA) has already reported on this "lightning fast" ruling as well. Click here for the story.