Jim Newton: Yes, that’s true. Bahij Jada: Especially when you’re exporting to a different country and it’s hard to, you know, go after who doesn’t pay you. But we’ve always been exporting from day one. Our approach to this was basically to get as much as possible of an advance from the buyer before we even ship. So our terms were basically we were taking the risk at the time initially basically. We would require a 20 to 30% advance payment on the value of the shipment. And when we basically provide them with shipping documents and photos of what we shipped and all that stuff and it’s loaded onboard of the ship, provide a copy of the bill of lading, we asked for the balance to be paid before we even released the goods to the buyer. So we used to get paid up front basically before we even released the material. Now as our business grew, you know, we needed to start giving terms and especially when you’re dealing with larger corporations or bigger companies that they want terms, and that’s when the SBA you know, line of credit got - we, you know, started with the SBA. Jim Newton: Right. No, I just the working capital line that Umpqua provided and SBA guaranteed helped to provide you with the working capital to allow you to carry some of those receivables on not extended terms but even during the collection period on the presentation of documents and then payment at time of delivery you still got some carry built into your overall export sales. So the working capital was used them both for pre-shipment working capital to acquire materials and process and then carry if forward to collection. Bahij Jada: Right. So, you know, in this industry we’re in you have to basically buy the supplier - I mean pay the supplier right up front before you even get to load
Jim Newton: Yes, that’s true. Bahij Jada: Especially when you’re exporting to a different country and it’s hard to, you know, go after who doesn’t pay you. But we’ve always been exporting from day one. Our approach to this was basically to get as much as possible of an advance from the buyer before we even ship. So our terms were basically we were taking the risk at the time initially basically. We would require a 20 to 30% advance payment on the value of the shipment. And when we basically provide them with shipping documents and photos of what we shipped and all that stuff and it’s loaded onboard of the ship, provide a copy of the bill of lading, we asked for the balance to be paid before we even released the goods to the buyer. So we used to get paid up front basically before we even released the material. Now as our business grew, you know, we needed to start giving terms and especially when you’re dealing with larger corporations or bigger companies that they want terms, and that’s when the SBA you know, line of credit got - we, you know, started with the SBA. Jim Newton: Right. No, I just the working capital line that Umpqua provided and SBA guaranteed helped to provide you with the working capital to allow you to carry some of those receivables on not extended terms but even during the collection period on the presentation of documents and then payment at time of delivery you still got some carry built into your overall export sales. So the working capital was used them both for pre-shipment working capital to acquire materials and process and then carry if forward to collection. Bahij Jada: Right. So, you know, in this industry we’re in you have to basically buy the supplier - I mean pay the supplier right up front before you even get to load
WTM-Webinar-Get-Paid-Transcript.docx