Our customers are in a variety of different businesses; contracting, manufacturing, hospitality, healthcare, education, etc. But one thing they all have in common is the need for positive cash flows. While technically we’re not a bank, we do provide our customers collectively a substantial amount of “working capital credit”. For qualifying customers, we provide an open account credit amount for W.A. Roosevelt purchases to help build in time to collect from their customers. We’ve also worked together on special terms with our customers in certain situations that are out of our customer’s normal course of business. And for qualifying customers that really don’t need much “Bank of Roosevelt” support, we extend cash discounts as a reward for making life so easy for our credit department.
So that was the black and white of it, but the gray area, which we’re very experienced navigating through, is where we excel. At some point in our customers’ business lives, virtually all have run into unforeseen cash flow snags. Some big, some small, but it’s just the inevitable nature of the business. And when this happens, most companies in our industry put the clamps down hard and fast. While we also approach these situations from a smart business perspective, I believe our customers would tell you we, more than anyone else they work with, are genuinely far more willing to work through issues to help keep their businesses operating and viable through that tough stretch. Further, based on the wide experience base we have internally, we’ve also been able to provide financial and operational coaching that several of our customers would share has been extremely beneficial in helping them get out of the “cash flow woods”.
And finally, something else we’re way ahead of our competition on is getting your money back to you when it comes to returned materials. We regularly hear the horror stories of other wholesalers taking 30, 60, or even 90 days to complete return transactions. Why? Because they believe holding on to your cash is good for their business. We think completely otherwise. As a matter of fact, our average time to complete return transactions is 3-5 days. Why? Because it’s your money, not ours.
If you’re already doing business with us, thank you! If not, we’d sure like the opportunity to earn a place in your business.