Bill Jones works as a Tax Preparer in eastern Mississippi and had been looking for some type of home-based business to start during the “off season”. His tax business was growing and he was very active from January through April each year, but after his customer’s tax returns were filed he had considerable “free time” to devote to another business venture.
One evening, while attending a local small business networking event held by his local chapter of SCORE, he brought up the subject of business opportunities with some of his friends, one of which suggested he look into becoming a small business finance consultant, which would dovetail nicely with his current profession. Bill knew a little about that opportunity and also knew many of his tax clients had businesses that were always in search of loans and accessible working capital, so he decided to explore that suggestion further.
Bill did a Google Search for “business finance broker training” and found the IACFB’s website. After exploring the site, he registered for newsletters and also signed up for IACFB’s FREE Learning Lab for Factoring Brokers to find out more about the profession. At first glance, this looked exactly like the perfect type of “affordable” part-time business opportunity he was seeking.
After finishing the lesson in the Learning Lab, he determined this business opportunity was indeed perfect for him and it also complimented his tax preparation business. It was also definitely one he could operate from his desk top computer at his home office.
Ready to get into the business, Bill saw that IACFB had a unique Freelance Factoring Broker Program which had some features he really liked. These features included…
- LOW COST OF ENTRY: With just a $179.95 reimbursable e-learning training program, the IACFB’s Freelance Factoring Broker Program was, by far, the least expensive “professional” home-business opportunity he had found.
- EXCEPTIONAL INCOME OPPORTUNITY: Because of the residual, life-of-account income paid by factors for referrals, Bill deemed that this was a business he could build up over time, and eventually earn $30,000 – $50,000 or even more per year…PART-TIME, with IACFB’s help.
- LOW MARKETING COSTS: To uncover leads each month, Bill would be primarily using exactly what he already used now: networking, classified advertising, and social media. For his factoring broker business, he would also invite business owners in his local area to speak directly with an IACFB Account Executive. For Bill, the cost of marketing and actually operating his new business would be minimal.
- TRAINING: Bill’s FREE Factoring 101 training was comprehensive and also included IACFB’s popular print training manual with a complete section on startup marketing tips for new brokers. This training was all that would be required to get started but the program also included Factoring 202 training as well for marketing training and support with something called Business-in-a-Box marketing aids.
- WEBSITE SUPPORT: As an IACFB member and Freelance Broker, Bill would be provided with a professionally designed WordPress factoring broker website including a blog and although he already had a website for his tax preparation business, since this site was free and complimentary, it could be linked to his tax site giving him twice the lead-generating capabilities on the web.
Bill decided to sign up and become an IACFB Freelance Factoring Broker but he first checked to see if his website domain was available by visiting DataMax Hosting. After checking for availability, he was happy to see his was still available so he immediately signed up for the program and purchased his domain.
Within 24 hours, Bill was provided complete login instructions to Campus IACFB Factoring 101 and Factoring 202 training classes and lessons and also viewed the sample mail stuffers and postcards templates he could order.
One of the primary methods Bill would use to generate clients was to align himself with an industry factor that would assist him with informative factoring teleconferences he planned to hold each month for small business owners. For each teleconference, Bill’s goal would be to have 10 to 15 business owners from his prospect list attending. Although he new his training would be sufficient to hold the teleconferences himself, he knew that working with and advertising the BDO as a special “Guest Speaker” would assist in filling the seats each month for these teleconferences and he felt that with the BDO’s help in closing, he could expect to generate at least one new client each month which would build his new factoring broker business rapidly..
USING DIRECT MARKETING
When building his tax business, Bill had successfully used direct mail marketing with telephone follow up to build his clientele so he had advanced past the simple techniques of using social media, networking, and classified ads as marketing tools to locate prospects. After logging in and viewing the marketing materials available in the IACFB’s Factoring 202 Campus ANNEX, he discovered a great selection of colorful direct mail stuffers and cover letter templates he could immediately use. Additionally, Bill discovered that IACFB supported an inexpensive ($25 per month) CRM (Contact Relationship Manager) called Pipedrive, which he could use to develop and completely manage his prospecting efforts and lists of business owners and he immediately completed the form in the IACFB Training Campus to get his 30 Day FREE trial of Pipedrive. Once installed, Bill view the Pipedrive lessons in Factoring 202 which assisted Bill in making a few modifications to his Pipedrive system so it would be perfectly set up for his new freelance factoring consultancy.
BILL’S FIRST FACTORING CLIENT
Bill generated his first factoring client after about two months. It was a local manufacturer of steel staircases for apartment buildings that was in need of a cash flow solution due to slow paying general contractors. The client had attended one of IACFB’s free teleconferences and afterwards, expressed a definite interest to Bill in employing factoring during Bill’s follow up call.
Bill immediately put the manufacturer in touch with his factor’s BDO and underwriting the deal began. The client generated about $200,000 in invoices each month and payments from the general contractors were typically received in 60 days. Bill’s commission on this single, average client would be approximately $500 – $600 per month. He would continue to receive such checks on a monthly basis from his factor so long as his newly referred client continued to utilize the services of the factor.