Cash-Flow Heroes, IFG: Helping Businesses Achieve the American Dream. By Rochelle Miller

Cash-Flow Heroes

IFG: Helping Businesses Achieve the American Dream

Imagine you are the creator of an innovative product. Your dream has been to wow a major retailer, sign a lucrative deal, and see your product sold in its stores nationwide. You become rich and live happily ever after.

If only it were that simple. Major retailers typically don’t pay immediately, and the waiting period can starve many businesses. Business owners (clients) “spend their life trying to get the big order. They think they’ve died and gone to heaven,” says David Banfield, president of The Interface Financial Group (IFG), a company that provides growing businesses with immediate cash flow. “The company says, ‘I need cash now.’ They bring the invoice to us. The company gets the cash today.”

IFG is a leader in the invoice-discounting industry, which in essence pays the business a discounted amount of the invoice total. In exchange, the big-box company (the Customer) now owes the full amount of the invoice to IFG.

“We deal with solid, established credit-worthy companies,” Banfield says. The key to all successful transactions is due diligence. We have to look at history and we have to look at credit ratings. We check everything.” By “we,” Banfield is referring to the franchisor, not the franchisee.

The risk is relatively minimal because each deal is ultimately guaranteed by the client. “The client who sold the invoice to us sells it on recourse, which means if we don’t get paid, at the end of the day the client will buy it back,” Banfield says.

While the franchisee only contributes 16% of the funds, they, however, receive 50% of the fee income that the client paid.

Prospective franchisees aren’t required to have a degree or background in finance, sales or marketing. They will learn the necessary ropes during an intensive training program at the company’s American headquarters in Bethesda, MD, with follow-up field training by a senior trainer assigned to mentor each new franchisee. “He takes them out and introduces them to contacts in their local community who can refer business to them,” Banfield says. “Our marketing model is built on relationship marketing,” therefore franchisees need people skills to build solid business relationships.

Daily operations are flexible and can be home-based. “This is a one-person, franchisee-driven situation, but no one is working in isolation. Everything is done together. We work together in the invoice-discounting business – franchisee and franchisor.”

Start-up fees begin at $100,000, which includes the franchise fee; at least half of what remains is set aside for buying the first few invoices. Franchisees typically grow their investment to approximately $350,000 to $400,000, but Banfield points out that the more capital deployed, the greater the profit potential.

– Rochelle Miller

For more information about franchising opportunities with The Interface Financial Group, visit www.interfacefinancial.com/franchise/ or call 800-387-0860, Ext 2.