Besides a few minor accounts, we had one big client and dedicated most of our resources to them. We had agreed to their “rock-bottom-pricing” request in exchange for an exclusivity agreement with high volume. Things were going well until they didn’t. Sales began shrinking. We heard a lot of excuses, explanations, and promises from our client, but we knew we needed to do something about it quickly.
As a “mom & pop” business, with only two employees, we needed a new approach to business and a more aggressive business development process. So we hired a business development manager. However, we needed money to pay him.
We contacted our banker – with whom we had banked for almost 12 years – and he was willing to give us a loan. However, we hit a wall when the bank realized that all of our accounts had 60-day payment terms, and that our cash flow was not always positive.
Upon our initial conversation with MFS, we immediately felt a sense of honest commitment and teamwork. After a short conversation, we completed an even shorter application, and MFS offered us an invoice factoring facility large enough to cover all our needs.
Now we could receive advances for all of our invoices two months prior to receiving payment from our customers. With our positive cash flow in place now, the bank also approved our loan, and MFS set-up a system to pay down the bank loan out of the proceeds of invoice factoring. The entire process was very easy and communication with MFS during the whole time has been great.
Looking back, we were apprehensive about working with a factoring company, but when talking with the owners of MFS, we were convinced that they would become true partners in our growth. MFS is outstanding and unique in providing both personalized and professional help.
We have long paid back the loan to the bank and have hired two additional employees.
We now make a lot more money than we ever did before, have more than a dozen clients (and counting) – and our cash flow is always positive.