Going with the (Cash) Flow

Did you ever wonder how all those tropical fish swim their way to Petco? We have Sam Samarasinghe's CIS International Holdings Corporation to thank. CIS is a wholesale importer of all types of fresh and salt water fish for the home aquarium - more than 700,000 fish per month, in fact. In addition to importing from a variety of suppliers around the globe, the Company operates its own overseas fish farms.

Managing cash flow is more difficult than controlling the flow of water through the tanks! Says Samarasinghe, "We are constantly sourcing new suppliers; they're all over the world, and they all demand full payment up-front. That's just the way they do business. We need to have sufficient capital to pay for our inventory." The fish are all shipped by air, adding significantly to the upfront costs.

"We've also been upgrading the equipment at our overseas farms," continues Samarasinghe, "and we had invested all of our retained earnings back into our infrastructure; so we were short on working capital." Because the company already held an SBA loan, traditional lenders weren't willing to write a loan and take the second position. CIS needed a non-collateralized loan.

While researching through Equifax, Samarasinghe spotted a Biz2Credit advertisement. He sent off an email and was impressed by how quickly Biz2Credit case manager, Corey Falkin, responded. "He called the next day and got everything rolling really quickly," explains Samarasinghe.

The business owner had all of the necessary financial documents on his computer, so it was just a few clicks until Falkin had all he needed to process the application. Within just two weeks, Biz2Credit had arranged a $150,000 loan for CIS.

Samarasinghe was thrilled with the quick response time and the efficiency of the process. "Except for one or two questions the lender had, everything was handled through Biz2Credit; it was really very easy," he concluded.

If it feels like you're a little fish swimming upstream in a tough business environment, contact Biz2Credit to see how we can help your business go with the flow.