The awkward truth of importing is that you pay months before you sell: a deposit at order, the balance at shipment, and then weeks of ocean before a single retail sale. Financing that gap is a solvable problem at every scale — but only if you size it honestly first.
Size the Gap Before You Fund It
Model the full cycle in a simple spreadsheet: deposit month, balance month, arrival month, then realistic sell-through months. The working capital you need is the deepest point of that curve — stock cost plus duty, freight and your operating expenses until revenue covers them. Most first-time importers underestimate it by forgetting the second order, which must be funded while the first is still selling.
The Funding Ladder, Bottom Up
- Own capital, sized to the pilot: the cleanest start — one reason pilot orders should be modest.
- Supplier terms: the structure of deposit-and-balance is itself credit; as trust builds, deposits shrink and timelines soften. Earned, not requested, on order one.
- Bank facilities: an overdraft or small business loan against a real plan with real quotations — this is what your landed-cost spreadsheet is for.
- Trade finance and invoice finance: lenders who fund the goods themselves or advance against your receivables — worth exploring once orders reach serious size, overbuilt before that.
- Pre-selling: designers' custom orders and wholesale pre-orders paid partly up front make the customer fund the import. The most underrated instrument on the list.
What the Supplier Contributes
Honest quotations your lender can trust, deposit structures that match production reality, and — for proven buyers — the flexibility that only a factory owner can grant. We have financed trust both ways since 1979. Talk to us about payment structure as part of your first-order plan.