For founders placing production orders on deposit terms
The order you can't afford looks exactly like the one you can.
It's the most expensive question in your business, and you're answering it from a bank balance that doesn't know about the balance payment landing in three weeks, the duty on your last shipment, or the stock that isn't selling. Landed answers it properly, before you commit.
The working capital cycle you are actually running
Cash out, then nothing, for six months.
A typical overseas production cycle for a brand of this size. Four payments go out before you hold sellable stock. Revenue returns gradually over the sell-through that follows.
Cash out for 24 weeks
- Wk 0−$24,000Deposit, 30%
- Wk 12−$56,000Balance, 70%
- Wk 15−$4,300Freight
- Wk 16−$9,600Duty and clearance
- Wk 20+$11,000First sales land
- Wk 28+$46,000Sell-through builds
- Wk 40+$78,000Cycle recovered
Most brands find out they're short in the week it happens.
By then the deposit is paid and the container is on the water. The forecast that would have caught it three months earlier is the one thing a business this size almost never has.
Illustrative cycle for an $80,000 production run.
Free tool · two minutes
The Cash Gap Scorecard.
A short set of questions about how your money and stock actually move. You'll get a rough read on your cash gap, the capital it ties up, and what a review could recover, all before you spend anything.
Last 12 months' revenue
What a review usually finds
The margin on your spreadsheet isn't the margin in your bank.
Most brands calculate gross margin from the ex-works unit price and stop there. Everything between the factory door and the customer's door quietly comes out of the same number.
| Retail price, one unit | $120.00 |
|---|---|
| Ex-works cost | −$45.60 |
| Margin as reported | 62% |
| Freight, allocated per unit | −$4.10 |
| Duty at 12% | −$5.47 |
| 3PL inbound, pick and pack | −$3.85 |
| Storage on unsold sizes | −$2.20 |
| Returns at 22%, incl. handling | −$9.90 |
| Margin, landed and net | 41% |
Illustrative. Figures are typical of a brand in this revenue band, not a specific client.
Your version of this table takes four minutes.
of margin, invisible in the reporting the founder makes decisions with.
On a $900k business that is roughly $190,000 a year sitting in freight invoices, duty codes, 3PL rate cards and return handling.
The consequence isn't a smaller profit. It's that two of six styles lose money on every unit, and the brand keeps reordering both, because nothing in the reporting says otherwise.
The fix is arithmetic first, then negotiation: the true number by SKU, then the discontinuations, the repricing, the duty check, and the supplier conversations nobody has had in three years.
Fit
Built for one specific situation.
If a brand falls outside it, you'll hear that on the first call rather than be sold a review.
Right fit
- $300k–$2m revenue, founder-led
- Manufacturing overseas on deposit terms
- Three months or more between paying and selling
- Physical stock held with a 3PL or in-house
- No finance hire, and not ready for one
Wrong fit
- Dropship, print-on-demand or pure digital
- Pre-revenue, or under $300k
- Looking for bookkeeping, sales tax or financial statements
- Wanting a fundraise deck rather than an operating grip
- Denim and womenswear, declined for conflict reasons
Book
Book your Cash Gap Call.
A 20-minute call. I read back your scorecard, tell you the two things most likely leaking cash in your business, and if it is a fit, how a full review would work. No charge, no obligation.