NS Hospitality Drives Business Growth with LSQ

Carlos Rivera has been running staffing companies serving the hospitality industry for nearly 20 years. However, a split from his former business partner led him to start a new company, NS Hospitality, in 2017. When getting his new venture off the ground, Rivera knew he needed help.

“Our business is like any business out there: you need support from a financial institution to grow and be successful,” said Rivera.

That’s where the nature of his business – and the fact that he was starting over – led to problems. Even though Miami-based NS Hospitality was providing for myriad staffing needs for four- and five-star hotels and country clubs in five states, obtaining financing was a problem.

“I wasn’t able to go to our bank and get a loan or credit…because I have no inventory,” Rivera said. “All I do is service and staffing. So I don’t have the collateral or the longevity that banks want.”

Despite the barrier, a relationship that Rivera had built with Bank of America led him down a path to meet his working capital needs.

“Bank of America was the first one that said, ‘Look, you need to contact LSQ and they will help you,’” said Rivera. “And that’s exactly what happened. I contacted LSQ and have been with them for nearly three years.”

The Solution

NS Hospitality has had an accounts receivable (AR) financing relationship with LSQ since 2018. Through LSQ, Rivera can get paid on his invoices in as little as 24 hours, unlocking working capital to meet his payroll obligations and operational demands and grow his business. To date, LSQ has funded $29M in early-paid invoices for NS Hospitality.

LSQ also handles AR collections for NS Hospitality – a service that Rivera finds very useful and transparent.

“With LSQ, it feels like that (collections) is part of the team effort,” he said. “Any time they reach out to a client, we see that we know exactly what is going on. It keeps us from duplicating effort.”

NS Hospitality also takes advantage of credit risk assessment and monitoring through LSQ FastTrack®, the online platform for LSQ’s accounts payable (AP) and AR financing solutions. According to Rivera, it is valuable when onboarding new customers to understand their creditworthiness.

“I think I’ve been lucky that many of our clients are in good shape,” said Rivera.

What’s Next for NS Hospitality?

Like many in the hospitality industry, 2020 was a rough year for Rivera. He saw revenues dip after exceeding $10 million in 2019. But he used the time to re-evaluate his business and create a plan to bounce back in 2021.

“COVID was difficult,” Rivera said. “But at the same time, it made me think of ways to make the company more efficient. Rather than have a lot of payroll outstanding, we looked at cutting a lot of the expenses to be more profitable with less overhead.”

But growth is never too far from Rivera’s thoughts.

“We got rid of a lot of the risky hotels that we had before,” he elaborated. “So I think that our future is expanding into different markets and looking at the pharmaceutical and general office markets.”

For Rivera, LSQ is a key part of that expansion strategy.

“If I didn’t have the support from you guys, I wouldn’t be here. LSQ has been one of the ingredients for me to reorganize and restructure the entire operation to be where I am today. Without LSQ, I wouldn’t be able to grow…”

LSQ has experience solving the working capital needs of buyers and sellers of all sizes. Contact us today to learn more.