NOW Corp Steps Up to Fill Gap in Wake of EX-IM Bank Shutdown
Atlanta, Georgia (PRWEB) July 21, 2015 -- With the shutdown of the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im Bank), small businesses across the country have been left with few options to fund growth, mitigate risk, and compete successfully around the world. Ninety percent of Ex-Im Bank customers are small businesses, representing significant job creation opportunities. To help fill the void, NOW Corp is making its NOWaccount® Revenue Accelerator Program available to small business exporters, allowing them to maintain and grow their international sales and continue to create jobs across the U.S.
To date, the NOWaccount program, which is complementary to the Ex-Im Bank offering, has enabled small businesses in Georgia alone to create or retain more than 1,500 jobs, as tracked by the state’s Department of Community Affairs.
“For small businesses, funding trade credit for their commercial and government customers can be challenging,” said Lara Hodgson, president and CEO of NOW Corp. “When those customers are an ocean away, that challenge is exacerbated. Payments often take longer, and many times the small supplier does not know the customer or their creditworthiness, resulting in increased payment risk.
“We developed NOWaccount to allow small suppliers to compete more effectively by offering extended payment terms to their commercial and government customers, both in the U.S. and abroad, without taking on added risk,” she said.
NOWaccount provides U.S. small businesses, regardless of size or number of years in business, with access to up to $1 million at any time, or up to $8 million annually through a simple and innovative new funding model that is not a loan or factoring. The NOWaccount program works like and costs the same or less than accepting a credit card for payment, allowing small suppliers to choose to get paid within days and offload the payment risk of their commercial and government customers. At the same time, their customers continue to receive the invoice with the extended payment terms they require, and pay according to their own schedules, with no late fees or penalties. NOWaccount is largely invisible to the customer who continues to send payments in the name of their supplier. They simply send the check or electronic payment to a new remittance address.
“When our Australian distributor’s orders grew to multiple pallets, so did their need for payment terms. But I was worried about the risk of not being paid," said Marc Perla, president of Sorbent Technologies, maker of chemical absorbents and green cleaning products. “With NOWaccount, I was able to eliminate that concern and offer them a choice of Net 60 or Net 90 terms – and even pass on the cost.”
The NOWaccount program was developed nearly five years ago, and has helped small businesses drive significant growth since 2012.
“We wanted to create a simple solution that would give small business owners the flexibility and control to determine how and when to fund sales, without negatively impacting their customer relationships,” continued Hodgson. “As a result, we created the NOWaccount program to allow them to choose which customers to put on their NOWaccount, with no long-term contract. It also has been designed to complement a growing small business’s other sources of capital, such as loans, lines of credit, and the Ex-Im Bank offering.”
Because the flat fee is based on the terms offered on the invoice, rather than when or if the customer pays, business owners can determine upfront when it makes sense to use their NOWaccount.
“Our goal for making the NOWaccount program available to Ex-Im Bank clients and prospects is to enable business continuity, facilitate growth for small exporters, and ensure continued jobs creation, regardless of what happens in Washington,” concluded Hodgson.
About NOW Corp
NOW Corp is a certified women-owned business founded in December 2010 to address the needs of small businesses seeking affordable and accessible means to fund growth, create jobs, and stimulate the U.S. economy. Recognizing a void in funding solutions in the $32 trillion trade credit sector, the founders leveraged their engineering and entrepreneurial backgrounds to optimize the best components of a variety of traditional capital sources to meet the needs of small businesses funding trade credit for their commercial and government customers. Since launching the revenue accelerator funding model, with its flagship offering NOWaccount®, NOW Corp has empowered small businesses across the nation to GROW FEARLESSLY!™, often resulting in double- and triple-digit revenue growth within the first year of enrollment. For more information, visit http://www.nowcorp.com.
About NOWaccount®
NOWaccount is a revenue accelerator and revolutionary new funding model designed to empower small businesses across the U.S. to GROW FEARLESSLY!™ – often resulting in double- or triple-digit revenue growth within the first year of enrollment. NOWaccount enables small businesses to Get Paid NOW® on invoices to the customers they choose in order to leverage capital from operations, rather than debt or equity, to confidently fund new and larger contracts with their commercial and government customers. With NOWaccount, small businesses get their actual revenue immediately, for the same or less than the cost of accepting a credit card, while offloading customer payment risk, and outsourcing the professional management of their accounts receivables. Similar to accepting a credit card for payment, except the small business supplier chooses when to use it, NOWaccount is largely invisible to the customers who continue to take advantage of the free and flexible trade credit they require through the traditional accounts payable system. For more information, visit grow.nowaccount.com.
Kim Humphreys, NOWaccount, http://www.nowcorp.com, +1 4046255140, [email protected]
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