If it is taking too long for customers to pay your invoices, a factoring firm can get you paid faster. Factors will purchase your receivables and advance you a large portion of the money right away so you don’t have a cash flow pinch. Factors also help you streamline your receivables collections process.

Our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio is Tom Nort, CEO of Facteon, an Atlanta based factor. Tom explains how you can get paid sooner by cashing in your receivables to get funds for business expansion.

Topics include:

• Factoring can help small business — by providing funds up front for open receivables. You get the money now, and the factor waits for the check. This can be helpful for small and new businesses with limited opearting funds available.

• Speed is the number one advantage — and factoring firms can help small businesses grow. Many times, they can’t get ahead of the game but accelerated cash flow speeds business growth.

• Invoices are assets — that you can leverage and use. The work you have done has value and you can get liquidity out of it now. Your credit does not come into play and money received is not considered a loan.

Many small or home based business owners are so busy running their businesses that they do not have the infrastructure or resources to handle their receivables - an extremely important part of your business. A factoring firm can act like a receivables department for your small business. And when money flows - business grows.

So, can factoring help your small business grow? You can learn more and answer that question by clicking the red and yellow player below and listening to Tom’s full interview.

Listen Now:

 Get Paid Sooner By Cashing In Your Receivables [24:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted by Staci Wood | Comments (4) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the SalesRepRadio Podcast.

Description: SalesRepRadio brings you sales tips, advice and best practices from some of some of North America’s top sales consultants. Segments are hosted by broadcast veterans and sales pro’s Dan Walker and Susan Anderson.

Comments: All sales all the time this Podcast has some very good content that is valuable to the small business sales professional. Most shows are interviews with authors or consultants.

The audio quality is good with minimal distractions of music or commercials, each Podcast is about 15 minutes in length and new shows appear just about every week. Here is a sampling of some recent show topics:

- Think Like Your Customer
- Leadership For The Self
- Winning The Pricing Game
- Controlling The Decision

Nice show notes about each show are available to help you go to just the show content you are looking for.

Pluses: Instant play, good content, show notes, neat intro bumper, professionally made. Shows as facr back as 2006.

Minuses: No RSS Feed buttons, no content categories.

Recommendation: Nothing happens in business until someone sells something, sharpen your sales skills and knowledge with SalesRepRadio.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (1) | Permalink

Small businesses are learning that accepting credit and debit cards as forms of payment is no longer an option – it’s fast becoming a necessity. But how do you choose which one to use? And what about risk and contracts? Why am I charged more for some card types than others?

Our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio is Kevin Scott Rizer, Founder of Trade Days Processing, a company that specializes in electronic payment processing services for mobile businesses and companies in the health care field.

Topics include:

• How many are there and how do you choose? — Over 3,000 credit card processing companies exist. Look for a company that has the time and patience to explain their services in detail and educate you in the process.

• What does all this terminology mean? — Qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified are terms you will hear. Qualified means a swiped transaction in a physical location, which is usually the lowest rate. Mid-qualified means a reward or mileage card that earns perks and non-qualified is usually a telephone transaction where the card is not present.

• What don’t they want you to know? — You may be surprised to hear the number of things that may not be expressed. Kevin explains each of them in detail in the full interview and you have to hear this.

Kevin demystifies the terminology and the industry in a way that’s easy to understand for the average business owner. He covers topics such as rates, fees, equipment leasing and some very important questions that you should be prepared to ask the processor.

Are you ready to learn more and remove some of the mystery regarding credit card processing and services? Click the red and yellow player below to hear all of the information that Kevin has for you during the full interview.

Listen Now:

 10 Things Your Credit Card Processor Doesn't Want You To Know [29:52m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted by Staci Wood | Comments (5) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the China Business Podcast.

Description: Is China a threat or an opportunity for your company? Are there real growth opportunities for you in the world’s fastest growing market? Expertise and insight from Technomic Asia China, a market strategy consulting firm with more than 20 years in China.

Comments: This Podcast has very credible content on all things relative to business in and with China. Professionally produced, great use of audio to set the stage, clear diction and static free audio make this an easy Podcast to listen to.

Mixing personal humor with relevant stories this show is valuable if you think China and all of its intended and unintended impacts is important to understand. Here is a sample of some recent content:

- Competitiveness in China
- M&A opportunities and challenges in China
- China’s railways and the WTO ruling on auto parts
- Talking economics: China markets and costs

As I said, all things China and business, there are over 20 Podcasts for your listening pleasure available.

Pluses: Great content, instant play, extensive show notes, subscribe buttons, categories, search, very clean site design.

Minuses: I wish there was more frequent audio content.

Recommendation: If China and business is important to you then you need to listen to the China Business Podcast.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (3) | Permalink

By now you may be asking yourself, “What is Unified Communications?” For starters, it’s a technology that brings together your phone, conferencing and messaging capabilities in a way that allows you control of them from any device, anywhere.

Our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio is Geoffrey Baird, Vice President and General Manager of Avaya. Unified Communications means business - and Geoffrey explains why. This technology can save you money, prevent lost productivity and give you a leg up on your competitors.

Topics include:

• What can Unified Communications do? — Examples of the convenience it provides would include turning your cell phone into your office phone, checking your email from your cell phone, using your laptop to initiate a conference call or responding to an instant message via video.

• What size business will this work for? — Every business can benefit, even companies with as few as ten employees. And for small business in particular, there are different capabilities for your specific needs and they are ever evolving for additional future conveniences.

But that’s just a small portion of what Unified Communications has to offer to small business and in this interview, Geoffrey explains them all. He also explains how these services can assist those in a work from home environment as well.

Would you like to learn more? To hear about all of the many different functions, services and pricing click the red and yellow player below to listen to Geoffrey’s full interview.

Listen Now:

 Unified Communications: What's In It For Small Business? [30:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted by Staci Wood | Comments (4) | Permalink

This week’s Podcast Review is about the InfoWorld Podcast.

Description: This Podcast is really an 8-topic series of Podcasts. InfoWorld is all things information technology, large company to small, software to phones.

Comments: The Podcasts are well produced and vary in style from monologue to interviews, most have brief commercials or sponsor messages contained within.

All of the best Podcast features are available, instant play, subscriptions, show notes and archives are easily accessible in each of the 8 different segments. Here is a sampling of some recent shows:

- The Virtualization Report
- Storage Sprawl
- THE SOA REPORT
- Beef up your small business

Pluses: The great wealth of content that InfoWorld produces delivered via Podcast. Simple to use site with clean layout for ease of use.

Minuses: Different segments have a differing frequency of new available content.

Recommendation: If Information Technology is important to you then you should check out the InfoWorld Podcast.

Posted by Steve Rucinski | Comments (3) | Permalink

If you’re a contractor or skilled tradesman, chances are that an employee, or yourself, has left a job site and left expensive tools behind. Or maybe you’ve left for the job site and have left behind tools needed that day.

Well, Ford Motor Company and DeWALT have some good news for you. They are bringing new meaning to the term “remote office” by recently announcing a set of high-tech features for 2009 Ford F series trucks and E series vans called Ford Work Solutions, including an onboard computer and tool tracking.

Our featured guest in this Episode of The Small Business Trends Radio is Bill Frykman, Product Manager at Ford Work Solutions and Chris Allen, Vice President of Security Products Group at DeWALT. And they are here to discuss the many features that they’ve developed to assist small business owners.

Topics include:

• Who can make use of this technology? — Skilled tradesman such as contractors, painters, landscapers, plumbers, lawn care providers and many more running similar small businesses.

• How does it work? — Safety first. For starters, once you hit the road moving, the in-dash computer functions are disabled so that drivers cannot be distracted while driving. In order to use the technology, the vehicle must be at a stand still. Features include hands free phone functionality, Internet access, GPS technology, remote fleet/vehicle monitoring and performance monitoring just to name a few.

• How do the tools work? — Track tools included in your truck hrough radio frequency identification (RFID) tags. You can buy any number of RFID tags you like. Place them on your tools, register them and then associate the necessary tools to your logged jobs. The system will scan the vehicle upon start up and let you know which ones are missing and which ones are present. These tags also have personal uses. Register and tag camping items, fishing items and the like!

Click the red and yellow player below to listen to the full interview.

Listen Now:

 Ford & Dewalt Contractor Control Centers: Smart Trucks [28:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Posted by Staci Wood | Comments (4) | Permalink