On Monday, November 17^th, The Receivables Exchange will launch. This is the culmination of two years of hard work, millions of investment dollars and remarkable amounts of sacrifice by the 35+ team members who have worked tirelessly every day to make it happen.  Here at the Exchange, our mantra is that the national and global impact of the Exchange will help thousands of companies and millions of employees and their families achieve the American dream.

It will bring flexible and competitive working capital to Main Street at the moment when Main Street needs it most. The financial crisis has revealed to all of us the disparity between the finance options that small and medium business owners need to manage and grow their business and the options that they actually have. Perhaps the easiest way to look at it is this, only things that are old, rigid and inflexible break. I think it is fair to say that today, our credit markets are broken. In contrast, things that are flexible bend - they absorb shock and they return to equilibrium. The Receivables Exchange, as a product, is designed to be a flexible working capital solution for small and medium-sized businesses with as much transparency as possible.  Companies on the Exchange are evaluated based upon their specific performance and not penalized for shocks and disruptions in non-related industries. They use the Exchange only when they need it, without personal guarantees, without all-asset liens and without their capital provider interacting with their hard-earned customers.

Not to over-simplify these complex times, but in business, there seems to me to be two types of change, voluntary and involuntary. The advent of the Web and its ubiquitous penetration is one of the greatest examples of voluntary change that subsequently led to a decade of countless instances of involuntary change. We are probably all in agreement that the near collapse of our financial system was not something that any one of us wanted or that we would have asked for as a catalyst for change. Unfortunately, tomorrow, like yesterday, you will wake up and the credit crisis will still be here.

This time, however, as the owner or manager of a small or medium business, you will wake up with a new tool to make your company more competitive, to help you initiate a new drive toward progress and ultimately, to grow your business.

 Nic Perkin is co-founder and President of The Receivables Exchange. The Exchange is the world's first online marketplace for real-time trading of accounts receivable.