Apple signs White House pledge to speed up payment to small businesses

By

pile-of-money-5

While Apple is making money hand over fist today, it’s not that long ago (OK, 37 years) that it was a new business with the same cash-flow problems faced by all small companies.

To help speed up its business transactions, Apple today will officially sign up to a new White House initiative called SupplierPay, a voluntary program in which companies commit to pay small suppliers faster, or else aid them in getting access to lower-cost capital.

SupplierPay is the private sector counterpart to the federal QuickPay program — which means the government will pay large contractors faster in exchange for them paying their small business subcontractors quicker.

According to the White House, SupplierPay will “strengthen small businesses by increasing their working capital, so they can grow their businesses and hire more workers.” It stipulates that companies like Apple (Coca-Cola, IBM, FedEx and others have also announced they are joining the program) should set a goal of paying small-business contractors within 15 days.

Although Apple demands a high standard from its suppliers in terms of both quality and conduct, this at least means that those companies will get paid very quickly for their services.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.