But one of the amazing economic effects that happen in any sort of boom is the network of support industries that sprout up with it.

Oil companies and natural gas production companies can’t do it alone. A massive support infrastructure – from oil and gas service companies to overlooked industries such as food services or home construction – is needed to sustain it.

The boom needs companies to provide pumps, blenders, valves and other types of oilfield equipment. It needs companies to provide rig engineering and construction services, plus companies to provide drilling technology and acquire seismic data. Trucking companies are needed to haul supplies and materials. Industrial clutch and transmission companies are needed to make it all go. You see the spectrum.

Demand is also spiking in industries beyond those directly related to oil and natural gas. Drillers and rig workers need somewhere to eat, sleep and shop. For example, in North Dakota, where oil and gas production in the Bakken Shale is soaring, rents and cost of living are soaring as well:

According to Bloomberg:

The move put pressure on an already tight housing market, where rents for a two-bedroom without utilities skyrocketed from $350 a month to $2,000. Some workers report paying $4,000 a month for a three-bedroom apartment in Williston, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) south of the Canadian border.

Five hotels are being built in Williston — home to 14,500 people in 2010 and about 20,000 today — and officials expect 1,200 apartments and single-family homes to be completed by summer. With 4,000 job openings, even that won’t be enough.

In other words, opportunities abound for all sorts of companies from a diverse range of industries and backgrounds – if, that is, they can secure financing in time to join the party.

Here at Vertex Financial, our invoice factoring services can help companies playing just about any role in this energy boom. Our oil and gas factoring services are ideal for service companies directly involved in the oil and gas industry. Our construction factoring services can help developers contribute to the human services side of the boom. And our startup factoring and temporary staffing factoring services can help just about anyone with a great idea and the entrepreneurial wherewithal to make it happen.

The United States is going through a historic, unprecedented, eye-popping energy boom.

No exaggeration. Did you know that the United States is projected to become a net energy exporter by the end of this year? It’s true – despite the fact that the U.S. also consumes vastly more energy than any other country on the planet. In fact, the U.S. already exported more gasoline, diesel and other fuels than it imported in 2011 – a feat last achieved in 1949.

According to Bloomberg:

Shipments abroad of petroleum products exceeded imports by 439,000 barrels a day, the department said today in the Petroleum Supply Monthly report. In 2010, daily net imports averaged 269,000 barrels. U.S. refiners exported record amounts of gasoline, heating oil and diesel to meet higher global fuel demand while U.S. fuel consumption sank.

So times are exciting in the oil and gas industry, and the industry is going to need some intrepid companies to step up and meet this massive demand for production. Unfortunately, the oil and gas industry is nothing if not fickle, and even a huge boom does not guarantee that the next few years will be smooth or consistent.

Oil and gas prices and demand can be affected by simply too many variables stemming from too many places across the globe. War in Iran or unrest in Saudi Arabia could send demand soaring. An economic crash in Europe could make demand plummet.

One month could be up. The next could be down.

Here at Vertex Financial, both our oil and gas factoring services and our startup factoring services can give your company a critical cash lifeline during turbulent times and give you access to the reserves you need to invest in equipment, hire workers and scale up your operations to ride this wave before it crests. Contact our invoice factoring specialists for more information.

Now, following several months of positive economic activity, a sustained recovery might be more likely. For example, housing starts in February 2012 were the highest in three and a half years. But it’s unlikely to be neither smooth nor consistent, and it’s reasonable to think that additional turbulent times are ahead. Notably, those promising February 2012 numbers were also 1.6 percent less than just a month before – the second consecutive monthly drop — showing how uneven and erratic the industry can be.

In other words, one month might boom. The next might bust.

In this jumpy environment, it’s not easy for construction companies to plan out what future receivables will look like, making it extraordinarily difficult for them to make the labor and equipment investments they need to thrive. This is especially true on the heels of a deep bust cycle, in which many companies had to lay off the bulk of their employees and either sell off much of that equipment or, at least, delay decisions to invest in new equipment.

Here at Vertex Financial, we’re proud to provide a wide range of construction companies — the people building America and keeping her strong – with cashflow access that can keep them stable and afloat during turbulent times.

Our construction factoring services give companies the peace of mind to, say, hire workers while knowing that they will be able to make payroll at the end of each month. With invoice factoring, you can tap into deep reserves to pursue big clients, purchase top-quality materials, and negotiate contracts without desperation (and with the leverage provided by access to deep reserves).

But, simply put, the most important key to a fruitful relationship with an asset-based lending firm is neither location or prices.

It’s all about the people.

Which accounts-receivable company can relate the best with your customers? Which company can connect best with your team? Who can understand the unique challenges facing your company and anticipate your company’s unique needs?

The beauty of cashflow factoring is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. In fact, considering the highly diverse range of companies we serve — including companies needing construction factoring, temporary staffing firm factoring and service company factoring — lazy, overly simplistic factoring solutions wouldn’t stand a chance.

Unfortunately, if you aren t careful you will be working with companies that aren t adequately funded and have minimal experience in the industry s that they are attempting to serve.

The better alternative is a factoring company whose team members are deeply experienced, innovative, creative, and committed to understand your company’s challenges inside and out before crafting a solution.

Here at Vertex Financial, we’ve got that deep well of experience. We’ve staffed our team with the best and the brightest in the business. And our methodology ensures that we understand what you need.

So first things first: head over and meet our team of factoring professionals here.  Then give us a call to set up a free factoring consultation. We’d simply love to meet you — and, hopefully, we’ll get the privilege of helping your company become the thriving business it’s ripe to be.

But spend even a day in the Queen City, and it’ll become obvious why we’re so thrilled to be setting up shop specifically there:

• The city is home to a slew of Fortune 500 companies.
• Its booming energy industry has earned it the nickname of “The New Energy Capital.”
• Charlotte is America’s second largest banking city, behind only New York City.
• The city is home to Bank of America, and was home of Wachovia until the bank was purchased by Wells Fargo.

This finance landscape is impressive, and it speaks to the vibrant, business-friendly environment that exists in Charlotte. But traditional banking isn’t right for every company facing a cashflow shortage. This is where accounts receivable factoring can make a difference – and we’ve got a full line of factoring services, including:

• Startup factoring
• Manufacturing factoring
• Oil & Gas factoring
• Temporary staffing factoring
• Factoring for service companies
• And more…

Each of our offices will help businesses across their respective regions turn receivables into results.

If you’re in the Charlotte region and unfamiliar with how invoice factoring services work – or the cashflow benefits they provide – contact us for a free factoring consultation. We’d love to help your company find the stable source of capital it needs to keep thriving.

Most banks prefer not to offer loans against the accounts receivable of companies (also known as “asset-based lending”). This is understandable for the banks, but asset-based lending is sometimes the best option for certain types of companies – especially those with high investment needs or urgent payroll demands but cash flows that are too irregular to meet them.

To support these clients in a way that benefits banks as well, we’ve proudly developed robust bank referral relationships with a multitude of banks across the nation. The relationship usually works like this:

Rather than simply turning a poorly matched client away, the bank can instead refer them to alternative working capital financing options from an asset-based lending financial company like ours. In exchange, we provide highly lucrative referral fees to the banks. This is good for banks by boosting their efficiency ratios, fee income, and return on the their assets.

We don’t even require an exclusive referral relationship from the banks we work with. Instead, we rely on the fact that the benefits reaped by banks themselves will prove us worthy of a preferred partner status.

The overall result? More capital availability. More profitable businesses. A better, more thriving American economy. In other words, our factoring services complement both the banking system and the broader economy.

So contact our factoring specialists to learn about how we can work together and begin exploring these sorts of mutually beneficial solutions — or just go ahead and send any clients who are in need of something beyond your standard lending options our way.

The result can be something like a domino effect: One company files for bankruptcy, which puts one of its contractors or suppliers into a cash crunch. To compensate for the unexpected loss of business, that company decides to wait as long as possible to pay the invoice it just received for services rendered by a third company. That company now faces a cashflow problem, which forces it to… you get the point.

It’s understandable. If you’ve got to choose between paying your employees and paying the government with no consequences, the choice is obvious. But using your payroll taxes to meet payroll, purchase supplies, pay bills or invest in the future of your company does have consequences, including:

– Steep IRS penalties (in 2011, we saw companies with tax liens of more than $100,000, plus one that owed more than $1 million)

– Soaring annualized interest debts

– Loan-repelling stains on credit reports

– Loss of investment ability

– Loss of client and customer trust

This jeopardizes your company, your shareholders, your employees and your employees’ families. And, of course, it’s legally dubious at best. Plus, there’s a cheaper, easier, safer, and thoroughly better way to get the financing you need when times are tight — factoring.

Here at Vertex Financial, our variety of factoring services — from manufacturing factoring to start-up factoring to construction factoring — can help keep your company’s operations humming along when times are tight, plus give you a welcome dose of peace of mind knowing that a reliable fountain of cash flow is nearby when you need it most. It’s easy. It’s smart. It’s affordable.

In other words: Our people.

The most important quality of our team is their experience. For example, our founder, Craig Canon, started Vertex in 1989 after decades of experience both managing investment portfolios and running small businesses. Check out the experienced team he’s assembled over the years, featuring an extraordinary level of experience in just about every type and side of business imaginable:

Debra Wilson, President — 24 years of commercial finance experience for four different companies, gaining invaluable experience in commercial credit and collections, auditing, management, marketing and customer service.

Robert F. Gross, Chief Financial Officer — 25 years of senior level experience in entrepreneurial environments such as three different technology start-up companies.

Janette Bankston, Executive Vice President — 26 years of high-level experience in sales, marketing and business development, including more than 13 years working in every aspect of factoring. Her breadth of knowledge covers all aspects of factoring transactions, including marketing and business development.

Sylvia Stock, Business Development Officer — 15 years of experience in both the U.S. and Canada, plus roots in business development as her family has owned sawmills for three-generations.

Here’s how our factoring services can help:

The problem with attracting and retaining top talent for any business, of course, is the heavier payrolls they face. This is especially difficult for startups and businesses with uneven revenue flows like oil and gas companies or construction firms.

Start-ups factoring, oil and gas factoring and construction factoring can make it easy to keep rolling through rough patches or while waiting for invoices to be paid. You can build an experienced, expertise-laden team with confidence and without worries about being able to pay them.

By age 25, Tina was already editor of Tatler Mag. Editorships at Vanity Fair and The New Yorker soon followed. She created Talk Magazine, and wrote a widely acclaimed biography of Princess Diana.

In other words, she’s reigned over some of the oldest, most successful and most respected media empires in the world. In fact, in 2007, Tina was elected into the Magazine Editors Hall of Fame. But her adventures in digital media that helped pioneer a path into the murky future for journalism can really teach us a few lessons:

The Daily Beast news site launched in 2008, smack dab in the middle of the time period newspapers were beginning to crash and burn in cities worldwide. In that environment of market uncertainty and turmoil, launching an innovative, mold-breaking new print media organization wasn’t the kind of idea that would have investors lining up at the door.

But it took off immediately. Tina lined up an all-star cast of writers and reporters, and explored a smart mix of both proprietary and external content. And just two years later, the Daily Beast merged with Newsweek — the iconic weekly magazine that has graced American newsstands since 1933 and that still boasts more than 1.5 million subscribers. Did you catch that? Tina’s big digital idea was basically asked to come save an American media icon. This would not have happened had Tina not shrewdly gained backing from investors who were inspired by her bold vision, trusted her to turn it into reality and stood by her throughout the process.

Here’s our hope:

Startup factoring can be a sustaining force for small businesses with big ideas and big plans but small amounts of capital to work with. It can let you hire the best people, invest in the best equipment, and take the sort of bold risks needed to truly reshape your industry. And it can keep you rolling through those uneven times at the beginning of your business adventure before all the kinks get worked out in your machine.

In other words, our hope is that our startup services will empower the dreamers, innovators, mold breakers, and outside-the-box thinkers to turn their dreams into reality.

What are your options? You can’t reduce care, nor can you over-burden your nursing staff. Your community relies on you to respond to these situations.

This isn’t a doomsday scenario. Rather, it’s a common, seasonal occurrence for many hospitals around the country. And more and more hospitals, clinics and retirement homes are addressing exactly these types of problems by increasing the use of temporary nurses.

Like any contract work program, employing temporary nurses is an excellent way to ramp up a medical provider’s capabilities during times of peak demand and continue providing top-notch care. But, also like any contract employment program, companies who use such staffing methods face cash flow situations.

In these situations, Vertex Financial’s medical staffing factoring services can be big help.

Since 1989, we’ve been helping medical staffing companies continue to provide communities with top-notch care. The factoring process is simple: The staffing company invoices hospital or care facilities and Vertex provides 80 to 90 percent of the invoice totals, and then do the nitty gritty follow-up work of collecting payments, allowing the temporary staffing providers to continue doing what they do best. When payment is received, reserves are released.

In other words, we can give medical staffing companies the flexibility needed to provide the care needed by the communities they serve. Contact us to learn more.