Term Loan The First Step Is Showing Up
Author: Casey Marie Long
Date posted: 06.08.22

A camping equipment manufacturing firm located in New Mexico had a large tradeshow that they attended once a year in the summer. Over 25% of their sales for the year were the direct result of the show - whether the sales happened at the show or soon thereafter. That meant that each year, they needed to have significant inventory on hand prior to the show so they could have product available at the show and additional inventory that was ready to ship in the weeks right afterward.

Because of covid, the 2020 trade show was canceled and the company’s sales plummeted throughout the second half of 2020.  Though the sales were slower during 2020, the company was able to sell their remaining inventory during the holiday season. They kept all their staff on payroll during the year, but had very little cash available when it came time to start building up the inventory for the 2021 tradeshow.  Since the focus of 2020 had been surviving the pandemic and with the future of the company in question, they had not been investing in new inventory.  As the 2021 tradeshow approached, they realized that they needed a successful year to keep the company afloat, and they needed to find funds to purchase supplies and maintain payroll during the period of increased manufacturing.

 

The company turned to a bank term loan.  They had to find a loan with a so that they could start manufacturing their product and a reasonable payback period that would give them time to get cash flow back to normal.  The bank term loan met their needs perfectly.  They were able to secure a loan of $450,000 with a 5-year loan term that allowed them to have smaller monthly payments and gave them time to pay back the loan while getting back on their feet.  The owners of the company had low-700 credit scores and obtained a loan for 9%.  It was much more affordable than financing the purchases on their credit cards and the interest rate was fixed for the life of the loan.

With the funds in hand, they were able to order the supplies needed to start building their inventory just in time to have the product ready for the tradeshow.

 

Though the tradeshow attendance was lighter than in the previous year, there were also fewer vendors in attendance which meant that the company’s products received more attention from the attendees.  Sales were nearly at pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year.  While the company still had the loan to pay off, they ended the year on a high point and entered 2022 in good financial shape.

About The Author | Casey Marie Long

Casey has 12 years of technical writing experience. She is also a CPA and bookkeeper. Casey graduated from the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) with a B.A. in mathematics and currently resides in San Diego, CA.

What’s New

All Resources
All Resources