A studio town
Culver City had 40,779 residents at the 2020 census and covers about 5.14 square miles. It incorporated on September 20, 1917 and is named for Harry Culver. Wikipedia says that in the 1920s it became a center for film and later television production, and that it was best known as the home of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios from 1924 to 1986. From 1932 to 1986 it was the headquarters of Hughes Aircraft Company, and National Public Radio West and Sony Pictures Entertainment have headquarters in the city.
Selling to a production company
Businesses that supply studios and productions, such as catering, equipment rental, set building, transportation, post-production services and design, often work on a project basis. A project has a start and an end. The supplier is paid on invoice, sometimes in stages and sometimes at the end, and the buyer's accounts payable office sets the pace.
- The vendor commits to a job and buys materials or hires crew.
- The job runs for days or weeks.
- The vendor invoices.
- Payment arrives on the production's schedule.
The gap between steps 1 and 4 is when the vendor is financing the production.
Project work and payroll
A small crew or a freelancer-heavy company pays weekly. A set builder who hires six crew members for a month commits to payroll long before the final invoice clears. If the next project is waiting, the vendor must start before the previous one pays.
For illustration only: a prop or set shop completes a $40,000 job, spends $14,000 on materials and $16,000 on labor, and invoices on net-45 terms. The shop has $30,000 out and waits more than a month and a half, while the next job needs $12,000 of materials to start. These round numbers are not our terms.
Beyond the studios
The city is also described as a peaceful, semi-suburban community known for parks, studio lots and breakfast burritos. Neighborhood restaurants, cafes, salons and shops fill out the local market. Their cash patterns are daily and weekly, not project-based, but they share a landlord market with the studio vendors and a customer base that includes people who work in entertainment.
One habit helps every vendor here: when a job is accepted, write down the cash that has to go out before the first payment. That number, not the job's total price, is what working capital has to cover. Owners who do this tend to ask for the right amount, and to turn down jobs whose payment terms they cannot afford to carry.
Related pages
See Los Angeles County business funding and LA metro business funding for the wider market.
What we offer
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