How Factoring Invoices Helped MIM Hydraulics Kickstart Business and Generate Cash Flow
Who Is MIM Hydraulics?
Based in Charleston, South Carolina, MIM Hydraulics provides mobile, industrial, and marine equipment repair and installation services to its clients. Founder and CEO Jeff Kenney has more than 30 years of experience in the fluid power industry, including running MIM Hydraulics for the past three years after starting his business from scratch at his kitchen table.
The Problem
When Kenney sat down to create the blueprint of MIM Hydraulics, he had zero business credit nor any semblance of cash flow. It was a display of true entrepreneurship.
Kenney was aware that he’d have to get creative to keep his business afloat in its early stages. Being a new business with a lack of credit, qualifying for a traditional bank loan was out of the question. He also didn’t want to simply purchase a business credit card to fund all of his expenses because of the “phenomenal” interest rates.
For a hopeful business owner in an industry that deals with expensive projects, an alternative funding route was needed for Kenney to achieve his business goals and more specifically, for him to afford bringing on new clients.
“Mildred, my account manager, always keeps my customers happy and is always available to provide updates when I need them – she does a fabulous job. When my customers see an email from Mildred, they know she’s just an extension of our business.”
– Jeff Kenney, CEO of MIM Hydraulics
The Solution
Given his experience, Kenney was already aware of how expensive this undertaking would be, and he knew that funding invoices was one way to kickstart cash flow. That’s when he looked into invoice factoring, eventually landing on altLINE’s services.
“We started out on my kitchen table, so we didn’t have [business] credit, we didn’t have cash flow,” Kenney said. “Now, the cash flow that we get from altLINE is everything for us. It’s been a fair, equitable partnership between both companies. We do the business, we get paid by altLINE, our customers pay altLINE, we get funded back, and everybody is happy. It helps us a lot.”
Kenney advised new business owners who are put off by how factoring might affect the relationship with their customers to take time to really understand how factoring works and how it can help and explain those points to their customers.
“It might seem strange at first – the factoring process,” he said. “But once you explain to your customers what will be going on, for me, it clears everything up. For example, a customer might get confused about altLINE reaching out to them to confirm details about an invoice or PO, but if you’ve explained to them why they’re doing that – to prevent fraud – they’ll understand.”
One particular aspect about working with altLINE that Kenney has thoroughly enjoyed is the customer service. He also highlighted the importance of communicating with your customers regarding who they’ll be working with at altLINE and why altLINE representatives do what they do.
“Mildred, my account manager, always keeps my customers happy and is always available to provide updates when I need them – she does a fabulous job,” Kenney said. “I’d recommend to other businesses using factoring to introduce who they’ll be working with at altLINE as part of your team, so they aren’t sitting there thinking, ‘Who is this I’m talking to?’ When my customers see an email from Mildred, they know she’s just an extension of our business.”
