You can get rich as a cash flow broker. It’s not going to happen over night, but it doesn’t have to happen slowly either, requiring neither years of education, nor extensive on-the-job training. What it does require, however, is an adherence to intelligent and tested fundamentals of successful marketing and business development.

As more and more people are being pushed out of 9 to 5 jobs, a career as a cash flow specialists is proving to be an option perfectly suited to the current economic environment: you don’t need a lot of start up money, you don’t need any special equipment, you don’t need an academic degree or a special license, you don’t even have to be an expert in the cash flow industry or risk any of your own money.

Your marketplace of potential clients - individuals and business that need immediate cash - is practically unlimited and so, approached correctly, a Wall Street sized salary without the same grueling hours is indeed very possible.

Consider that as an accounts receivable broker it takes a portfolio of just $1.5 million in monthly revolving accounts at a blended rate of 4% (assuming a commission of 15%) to create a yearly gross income of $108,000.

By comparison, a financial planner, who generally makes a fee equal to 1% of assets under management, would have to build and manage a portfolio of at least $10 million in order to earn an equivalent income.

But the best tools in the world can be useless in the hands of someone who doesn’t understand the basic philosophy behind architecture and construction. So before diving into specifics, I think it makes sense to outline the 11 Fundamental Principles that I believe should inform everything that you do as a cash flow professional.

1. EFFECTIVE MARKETING IS YOUR PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY

All marketing is not created equal. It either gets your phone to ring, or it doesn’t. And the quicker you learn the difference, the quicker you will make money in this business. Therefore, your main job is to figure out how to best connect with, communicate to, educate, persuade and ultimately motivate your prospects to take action and become paying clients.

Quite frankly, as a broker, knowing how to get customers to call you is infinitely more important than any other industry knowledge that you could possibly need. After all, you can be the world’s foremost authority on all things cash flow, but if you don’t know how to market your knowledge then you are going to starve.
Remember: the money is NOT merely in the doing but in the SELLING of what you do.

2. YOUR MARKETING MUST BE DESIGNED TO INVOKE A DIRECT RESPONSE

When it comes to marketing, most business professionals simply emulate what they see the big companies doing. But this is a huge mistake. Large companies have large marketing budgets that allow them to create campaigns concerned with building a sense of “brand awareness” over time.

You, on the other hand, need to make sales now.

The only way to accomplish this is through advertising that not only captures your ideal prospect’s attention but also actually compels them to reach out and contact you – direct response advertising.

In order to do this, you must make sure that every single marketing piece that leaves your office makes an offer, such as a free white paper report or DVD on the benefits of selling a cash flow or a free consultation or whatever you think will get your phone ringing.

3. KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

Only that which is measured can be improved. Therefore, it’s imperative that you know your business’ basic operational metrics like cost per lead, cost per sale, gross margins, marketing ROI, prospect to client conversion rate and your average account size.

But it’s amazing how few brokers ever quantitatively analyze their business and marketing practices and instead put their faith, and their financial future, into arbitrary decisions based upon what they THINK should work.

Knowledge of your basics metrics is imperative to determine just how efficiently your business currently operates and exactly what needs to be done to bolster your results.

4. YOU MUST HAVE A MULTI-STEP MARKETING STRATEGY

It’s a pretty well known marketing fact that it takes multiple exposures to your message before most people even begin to pay attention.

Purchasing is a process not an event. After all, there is a mental and emotional progression between the time when a person discovers that they have a need and when they finally decide to do something about it. So your selling must be a process too. Therefore, the goal of your marketing efforts should not be to force a sale but to consistently keep in front of your prospects.

Your pipeline of ideal clients must be allowed to “mature and ripen” at their own pace and thanks to your continuous and systemic follow up, when they are in fact ready to be “picked” - they actually pick up the phone and call you.

5. EFFECTIVE SELLING EDUCATES YOUR PROSPECTS & SOLVES THEIR PROBLEMS

Life is about selling. Selling the benefits of one product or service over another. Selling others on your abilities. Selling is not a pejorative. Selling is not something that you should be scared of. Selling is not something that you should be embarrassed to do. Selling is something that you MUST do because your financial security as a freelance cash flow specialist is directly correlated to your ability to produce sales.

But, fear not, because effective selling is nothing more than educating your prospects to the benefits of your services by appealing to them through their own self-interest. It’s making sure that their major concerns are addressed and then solved by you.

6. DEFINE YOUR MARKETPLACE

With over 60 different cash flows can be bought and sold, it is understandable that the fledgling cash flow professional would feel compelled to try to cast as wide a net as possible in the search for any and all deals. But as old adage goes: If you say your market is “everybody” then it is “nobody” who will wind up buying from you.

Having a clearly delineated niche (accounts receivables, private mortgages, lottery) will help define your cash flow business to the marketplace and allow you to concentrate your efforts, time and resources to locate, and then market to, your ideal client. One of additional virtues of having a well-defined niche is that your knowledge and focus become so specialized that you will eventually elevate yourself to “expert” status.

7. PUT THE EMPHASIS ON YOUR CLIENT

Positioning yourself as the expert and tooting your own horn is NOT the same thing.

People don’t care about you – they care about themselves. Your ideal prospect thinks little about your clever little slogan or the promises of integrity and reliability that they have come to expect.

But they think a lot about the information that you are supplying. They think a lot about what you can do for them. And they wonder if you can do it better than the other guy who is vying for their business.

Stop trying to prove yourself with empty boasts about your business and instead prove that you can solve your ideal client’s biggest problems and watch your appointment calendar quickly fill up.

8. USE TECHNOLGY TO LEVERAGE YOUR EFFORTS

As a freelance funding professional you are probably limited in capital and manpower. But in today’s Business 2.0 environment, you may work from your kitchen table but you can still operate with the efficiency of a well-funded, multi-national corporation.

The Internet offers tools that can be implemented for immediate and substantial change in your business often requiring no investment on your part other than time.

For example, are you cold calling one number at time or using a predictive dialer that calls multiple prospects simultaneously? Are you using post-it notes to log client information or are you storing it all in a robust CRM with an automated follow up system? Make sure that you always reap the greatest results from your efforts.

9. CREATE SYSTEMS

A true business owner makes money in their sleep. That’s because a true business is built on a foundation of systems that continue to work with dependable results regardless if the owner does or not.

A self-employed person, on the other hand, has limited income potential because when they’re not working, no income is being generated.

The fundamentals of a cash flow brokerage operation are pretty simple: (1) you run lead generating advertising (2) you build a database of interested prospects (3) you convert prospects into clients (4) you assemble the required documents (5) you place the deal with a funding source and collect your commission.

Simple, but not necessarily easy. The difference between success and failure most likely depending on whether or not you have a systematized process for dealing with the mundane, but essential, daily operational tasks.

10. DELEGATE AS MUCH OF THE “WORK” AS POSSIBLE.

I’m not talking about having others do your work. I’m not talking about being lazy.

But as a responsible business owner you have to realize that if you try to do all of the prospecting, appointments, proposals, follow up calls, paperwork, meetings, reports etc. by yourself, it will only be a matter of time before your business comes crashing down on your head.

You must learn how delegate the low value work and limit the number of activities that you are involved with to only those that will have the greatest impact on your success.

11. WORK FOR REFERRALS

A referral is the most compelling sales advertising available for your business for pretty much zero cost. After all, the single greatest reason that a person will do business with you is because they know you personally or they’ve heard good things about you from a reliable source.

However, many cash flow professionals make the mistake of not looking beyond their own client list for referrals and fail to tap into the vast opportunities afford by joint ventures. Having an associate with a similar client base mail an endorsement letter about your services to THEIR house list is a very effective way to generate referrals for your business.