Why vendor finance boosts revenue, plus some humour

In today’s message:

• Why vendor finance boosts revenue
• Fancy financial footwork (for those who missed it last time)
• Some humour…
• Ask us for help!
• Helping you and your clients buy or sell equipment

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Why vendor finance boosts revenue 

We have been fortunate to sign up three new equipment vendors recently. One manufactures mining equipment, another is a heavy equipment dealer, and the last sells steel buildings. As we mentioned previously, we already help out other North American manufacturers and retailers.

Now these businesses can offer two prices to their customers: Besides the usual full, cash price, they can now offer an affordable monthly payment. Just like all the car manufacturers do in order to sell more cars.

We at Aquilian make it very, very easy to present the monthly payment option to customers and to get the financing in place quickly and without any work by the vendor.

It’s always easier to persuade a hesitant customer to accept small monthly payments instead of the much larger cash price, so more customers decide to buy. And there’s much less haggling over the final price. Plus, it’s much easier to up-sell additional items or features, because the monthly price difference becomes negligible.

Do you know any business that wants to increase its sales? Maybe we can help.

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 Fancy finance footwork (for those who missed it last time) 

The last couple of weeks have been busy here at Aquilian, what with bringing on several new clients who needed some customized financing. Here are a few of them:

A manufacturer of large format digital printers asked us to finance a purchase by a customer who couldn’t cover the $300,000+ price tag. The manufacturer made the sale by offering a choice of 3 different monthly payment plans, all of which are more manageable than the full price payable delivery. The manufacturer will get the full purchase price (no haggling, no discounts) as soon as the customer accepts delivery.

An accountant referred to us her client who had bought several pieces of equipment at an auction, at a total cost of $1.2 million. The client’s bank could not move quickly enough to finance this amount. We approved the lease within 24 hours and they picked up the equipment a few days later.

One fellow recently lost a relative who owned a trucking company and some other businesses. The survivor has been working hard to keep things going while also selling off everything gradually to raise cash for the other beneficiaries of the estate. He came to us looking for a way for him to buy some of the trucking company’s tractors. The problems here were: The units had high mileage, he needed to be able to show the other beneficiaries that he paid Fair Market Value, his own credit score was not the best, and he intended to run the tractors as a “new” owner-operator for another carrier. We arranged a third-party appraisal to determine the Fair Market Value and then approved him for financing. We expect to pay the estate a lot of cash next week, once all the paperwork comes in.

Another owner-operator wanted to buy a reefer (refrigerated) trailer from a carrier owned by his brother. It can be difficult to get financing for a sale between related parties, but we were able to determine that the price was fair, so this one will get paid next week, $32,000.

An engine in Alberta needed replacement. That, along with other repairs, came to a total bill of $22,000. We financed the repair bill over 12 months without any early-payment penalty.

We got called one week before a small fleet took delivery of a new tractor. They asked whether we could get a better price or cut their monthly payments. We did both: We bought an identical unit from another dealer at a lower “wholesale” price ($12,000 less), and then financed it at a full 2% less than the dealer. Please note that the dealer said their rate was the same 7% as ours, but we could prove that the rate they were actually charging was 9%.

A medium-sized carrier called us to raise some cash from their fleet of trailers. They are looking for $550,000. We will get the fleet appraised, then buy just enough of the trailers to raise that amount. The carrier will then have a 3-year term to pay off the loan/lease. At the end of the term, they’ll own the trailers outright once again.

Let us know if our fancy finance footwork can help you.

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 Some humour

 We are reaching way back into the early 20th century today, for some quick ones from Henny Youngman:
I’ve got all the money I’ll ever need. If I die by 4:00.

Getting on a plane, I told the ticket lady, “Send one of my bags to New York, send one to Los Angeles, and send one to Miami.” She said, “We can’t do that!” I told her, “You did it last week!”

The food on the plane was fit for a king. “Here, King!”

There was a girl knocking on my hotel room door all night! Finally, I let her out.

A man is at the bar, drunk. I pick him up off the floor, and offer to take him home. On the way to my car, he falls down three times. When I get to his house, I help him out of the car, and on the way to the front door, he falls down four more times. I ring the bell and say, “Here’s your husband!” The man’s wife says, “Where’s his wheelchair?”

A doctor gave a man six months to live. The man couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.

A bum asked me, “Give me $10 till payday.” I asked, “When’s payday?” He said, “I don’t know, you’re the one who is working!”

Then he said, “I haven’t eaten in two days!” I said, “You should force yourself!”

A doctor says to a man, “You want to improve your love life? You need to get some exercise. Run ten miles a day.” Two weeks later, the man called the doctor. The doctor says, “How is your love life since you have been running?” “I don’t know, I’m 140 miles away!”

The other day playing golf I broke 70. That’s a lot of clubs.

A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says “You’ve been brought here for drinking.” The drunk says “Okay, let’s get started.”

The patient says, “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.” “Then don’t do that!”

A man goes to a barbershop and asks, “How many ahead of me?” “Five.” The man leaves. He comes back the next day and asks, “How many ahead of me?” “Four.” The man leaves. He comes back the next day and asks, “How many ahead of me?” “Six.” The man leaves, and the barber says to another, “Follow that man!” The man comes back and says, “He goes to your house!”

Once I read about the evils of drinking, so I gave up reading. 

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Ask us for help! Need some free financial or non-financial advice? We’re happy to help!

Sometimes it helps to bounce ideas off another person who isn’t so close to your situation.

Call or write any time. It doesn’t matter that you aren’t going become a client. It’s a kind of service to our fellows that we really enjoy and value.

It could be a question of strategy, policies, marketing, professional practice, personal relationships, or how we manage to heat our home with wood from our forest. We like to help. Period.

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 Helping you and your clients buy or sell equipment

• Does a client have equipment they’d like to sell, but buyers don’t have enough cash?
• Does a client want to buy from a private seller who wants only cash?
• Do your client have an employee who could be an owner-operator, if only they could get financing? (Sell them older units and get newer ones!)
• Does an owner-operator want to replace aging equipment or get an additional unit?
• Does your bank or leasing company say, “No”?
• Want to find the lowest rate and best terms for equipment finance?

We can help, at no cost or obligation. 

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