A manufacturing and retail city
Torrance was founded in 1912 and named for Jared Sidney Torrance. It had 147,067 residents in 2020 across about 24.6 square miles in southwestern Los Angeles County, bordering Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, Palos Verdes Estates, Lomita, Gardena and Lawndale. Wikipedia says it is home to the U.S. headquarters of Japanese automaker Honda and its luxury division Acura. Robinson Helicopters are designed and built in Torrance, as are Honeywell's Garrett turbochargers; Alcoa Fastening Systems, producing aerospace fasteners, is headquartered there; and Pacific Sales, Pelican Products, Virco and Rapiscan Systems are among other companies based in the city.
The Del Amo Fashion Center, at 2.5 million square feet, is one of the ten largest malls in the United States by gross leasable area.
Supply chains, shops and shoppers
Manufacturing headquarters create a layer of smaller businesses: precision machining, plating and finishing, packaging, freight and delivery, equipment repair, uniform and cleaning services, and IT. The mall and surrounding retail corridors sustain restaurants, boutiques, salons and service shops with another rhythm entirely.
Both groups share one problem: most of what they pay for arrives before they get paid.
Two cash cycles, side by side
| Group | Cash goes out | Cash comes in | Typical bridge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parts and precision shops | Material, tooling, labor, utilities | Customer payments, often 30 to 60 days after shipment | Working capital; equipment financing for machines |
| Mall-area retail and food | Inventory, rent, hourly pay | Daily card sales, heavier in holiday weeks | Working capital before season; line of credit for swings |
| Delivery and service firms | Fuel, repairs, wages | Invoices to commercial customers | Working capital; vehicle financing |
For illustration only: a plating shop that invests $75,000 in a new tank line to take on additional work from local manufacturers is betting that new orders cover the cost. If purchase orders are already in hand, the bet is smaller.
Shops that supply the shops
Torrance has a particular kind of small business: the supplier of a supplier. A machine shop that cuts parts for a company that sells to an automaker, a freight service that moves boxes between two plants, a cleaning contractor for an industrial park. These owners are one or two steps from the headline name, and usually one or two payment cycles behind it.
When a larger customer stretches its payment terms, the small supplier absorbs it. That is why many Torrance owners treat working capital as a standing tool for timing, not an emergency measure. The question to ask is not whether you can get by without it, but whether paying for the gap costs less than the work you would otherwise decline.
Requirements, simply
We fund Torrance businesses from $25,000 to $5,000,000, in as little as 24 hours after approval. FICO scores of 500 and above are considered. We request about three months of business bank statements and no tax returns, and the application takes about five minutes with a soft credit pull. Sole proprietors can apply.
The surrounding area is covered on our Los Angeles County page and Greater Los Angeles page. When ready, apply here.