Ever worked on getting that big customer for months, chasing after then, long drives or flights to see them so you can win them over with your service and determination? Then have the worst thing that can happen in a situation like that you get the order and now you have to figure out how you can possibly fill it because the order larger than your total Operating Line of Credit.
That did happen to a Telecommunication Company in New York State, USA. In one order, their sales had increased to over 3 times the size of their entire Line of Credit at their bank. The owner went to the bank to get it increased so they could take on the order but the bank refused to increase their limit.
In this scenario the customer of my client required 30 day terms and the supplier of the goods required payment before they released the good, so you can see the problem. We have a gap of about 40 days including the shipping time. With no financing in place the company was struggling with the possibility of having to refuse the order after all that hard work of trying to get it in the first place.
That is an option, but the owner of the company kept looking for a solution. He ended up speaking with an Accounts Receivable Factoring Company, but they could not help because of the time span as well since they could only fund on open invoices on delivered goods. The goods could not be delivered without payment and he could not get payment at this point without delivering the goods. Quite a predicament.
The owner of the Company was then referred to a Commercial Finance Brokerage who immediately assembled a Purchase Order Finance and Accounts Receivable Factoring facility. Now the order was able to be processed and now the door is open for future orders from and large buyers.
