Big Brown wants to lend you a big hand — if you’re a small business that imports goods from beyond our borders.

The novel twist: UPS will provide financing for the deals, instead of traditional financial institutions.

How the UPS Capital “Cargo Finance” program works:

• A small business ($50 million or less in annual revenue) makes a deal with a foreign supplier
• UPS pays the supplier and receives the bill of lading, and
• The small business pays UPS half of the cost up front, then has 60 days to pay the balance.

Why is this a benefit?

Small businesses usually must rely on bank financing, letters of credit or even pay cash in advance to foreign suppliers.

Traditional finance sources balk at many of these deals, because they’re not capable of successfully monitoring shipments in transit.

That’s where UPS Capital has the edge. The collateral for UPS Capital is the shipment itself. With real-time tracking ability, UPS Capital sidesteps that problem.

Tags: financing, import, small business, supplier