Believe Solutions
Walking the talk
Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of being overcharged for products or services. Unlike most everyone, however, Joseph Rogers decided to take a stand. Here’s the story: After his home’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system went on the fritz, Rogers called a technician to get things fixed. As it turned out, the system was fine—the technician just needed to flip a switch to get it running again. The issue? He charged Rogers a few hundred bucks for the privilege.
As a man driven by ethical behavior, Rogers determined to save others from a similar experience. So he started up Believe Solutions LLC, a general contracting company in New Jersey that provides residential and commercial customers with construction, remodeling and—of course—HVAC installation and repair services.
Leveraging his business experience, Rogers was able to quickly attract a solid base of loyal customers. Oddly enough, however, this very success started hampering his ability to grow. Fairly early on, Believe Solutions encountered two key challenges.
First, as a young company, it could not attract the funding it needed to scale. Although it qualified for $75,000 of bank financing, it was spending that much in material costs alone every two weeks, leaving no surplus to expand. Second, as the volume of its commercial business increased, the company simply couldn’t float its material and labor costs.
“Aside from the labor we needed to complete our commercial jobs, our vendors expected payment on delivery. On the flip side, we had to wait at least 30 days, and sometimes longer, before collecting our commercial receivables. Although I began by personally covering the difference, that stopped being feasible pretty quickly.”
~ Joseph Rogers, CEO, Believe Solutions LLC
Recognizing it needed a solution more flexible than bank financing, Believe Solutions turned to factoring.
Finding the right fit
During his previous work experience, Rogers had seen other companies using factoring, so he understood its benefits and opportunities. Despite this, the company still struggled to find the right fit.
Initially, Believe Solutions decided to work with a factoring company in another state, but when Rogers received that company’s terms, he became concerned. “The company we were negotiating with required minimum factoring amounts and wanted to lock us into a contract,” Rogers recalls. “That left me feeling like they had no confidence in us. It was like they wanted to protect their ability to make money, but didn’t really care if we would succeed as well.”
In search of other partnerships, a colleague introduced Rogers to Liquid Capital—and he noticed the contrast in working styles immediately. Aside from the flexibility of Liquid Capital’s terms, the company was impressed by Liquid Capital’s commitment to help Believe Solutions improve its internal processes so it could accelerate the collection of its receivables and avoid entering contracts with customers who might not be able to pay.
“With Liquid Capital, I feel like we’re in business together, like they have a genuine interest in helping us adopt the protections and measures we need to grow. Even though we love making money, we don’t love risk, so having a partner committed to protecting us is really helpful.”
~ Joseph Rogers, CEO, Believe Solutions LLC
From frail to scale
By the time Believe Solutions began working with Liquid Capital, it was already experiencing a cash flow crunch. Every spare dollar it had was going to pay for materials and labor, it was depleting cash from another division just to keep operating and its collections were lagging—with one customer alone owing the company $40,000. Rogers recalls that, had three more commercial HVAC units failed, Believe Solutions couldn’t have afforded to buy replacements, let alone make payroll.
That all changed once the company began factoring its invoices. After obtaining funding for over $150,000 in receivables, Believe Solutions began to grow aggressively. Within 90 days alone, it had scaled up by 60%—growing revenues to more than $1.5 million and obtaining funding for over $250,000 in the process. At the same time, the company has been innovating to ensure it can maintain its pace of growth during off-peak months after the busy summer season ends.
“Without Liquid Capital, we would not be in business today,” Rogers admits. “Our ability to access the cash we need, as often as we need it, has given us a solid platform for expansion.”
“If I had a magic ball, I probably would have begun factoring with Liquid Capital before ever going to the bank. Although we obtained a bank line of credit, it’s not nearly as efficient as getting Liquid Capital involved.”
~ Joseph Rogers, CEO, Believe Solutions LLC
Faith in the future
Looking forward, Believe Solutions plans to continue working with Liquid Capital as it sets its sights on reaching its next $1.5 million to $2 million in revenue. “I’ve dealt with at least 10 other factoring companies in my career in other industries, and Liquid Capital is truly the anomaly,” Rogers says. Our Liquid Capital Principal has streamlined our accounting systems just to bring them up to his standards. He’s been instrumental in strengthening our customers’ processes as well by helping us implement a new tracking system that prevents us from missing entries. We’re truly looking forward to standing our future together as we grow.”
