When Marin Concrete contacted CSBA in 2017, they were in their second year of business and using a surety agent out of the area for their performance bonds. They had never met in person, and the agent hadn’t taken much time to get to know Ivan Marin’s background or his goals for the company. “Dan at CSBA and I had a couple calls, and we probably talked more in those two conversations about where I worked, my experience, and my goals than I had with my prior agent.” said Ivan. “I was limited with to performance bonds up to $1 million, and knew I wasn’t going to be able to grow my company unless I could increase my bonding.”
Dan shared, “I remember getting Ivan’s financial information after we spoke and thinking, ‘This guy has done really well in a short amount of time, and we can definitely increase his bonding above $1 million.’”
CSBA was able to increase Marin’s performance bond limits right away to $2 million per project. To help Marin secure performance bonds beyond that, CSBA worked on a plan with Marin to improve their internal accounting by having CSBA’s construction accounting specialist helping Marin implement a new accounting software and train Marin’s staff on how to produce the internal financial reports the surety company would need.
The effort paid off as Ivan puts it, because “A little over a year later CSBA was able to get me approved for a $6.5 million job for a contractor that we worked with all the time.” Dan explained, “I’m really not sure we could have pulled off the approval for the $6.5 million bond without the improved financial reports. The combination of our accounting resources and proactive planning, and Marin’s willingness and interest in taking our advice and bettering their company was the exact recipe needed to get the bond approved.”
Ivan goes on to say, “It’s opened so many doors to be able to show general contractors how my bonding capacity has expanded. I’m so grateful for all the time and effort CSBA has put into guiding me.”
Today Marin Concrete’s bonding capacity exceeds $25 million.
