KASHIF KHAN

Founder, Kmaster Electronics

First off, I am not sure how much cash Vadim Pasternak, the of Caspian Offshore Equipment, needs to pay his bills. He says there is a million-dollar working capital shortfall, but is this temporary or will it last months? Can he stretch some of his payables out a few more weeks? He has tapped out all of his sources of funding, he says, but I don’t see anything about cutting back employee salaries temporarily, pushing out payables or delaying other regular payments to cut down the shortfall. Perhaps he can provide an incentive to employees and his suppliers to accept credit terms on at least someof the cash?

I offer this suggestion because I think he would be unwise to sell a piece of his firm to raise cash. He has spent too long building it just to give it away at a low valuation.

He should look for cost-cutting measures and then ask his customer, Helios Oil Co., to move its orders forward. Don’t be too concerned about the optics. The buyer will instantly know why you are asking to move the orders forward. But you should have a good enough relationship to remind the buyer that it was the one that suggested a large surge of orders in in the first place. Pasternak should ask the buyer to meet him part way on this.

Yes, Helios did not follow through on their initial optimistic orders or even on the restart in But it is the customer’s right to change things as it sees fit. What’s Pasternak going to do about it? Take Helios to court? He wouldn’t do that.

Someone once said — and I am paraphrasing —“If you want to know me better, then give mepower.” This is the time to test if the working relationship is sound. If Helios can’t do this, then the relationship’s future does not look rosy.