Legal Question in Business Law in North Carolina

Re: If money is owed to a vendor (me) what can be done?

It depends. If you bring a small claims action and lose, there is no appeal. Also, you may or may not have a jurisditional predicate for a California action. It depends upon the nature of the transaction from which the debt arose.

If you reduce the debt to judgment, though, and record the judgment in any county in which the debtor's property can be found, you will perfect a security interest in any of th debtor's property found in that jurisdiction.

Unfortunately, the amount of the debt probably is not worth pursuing to an out of state debtor. You may want to assign the debt to a collection agency or collection attorney in the debtor's state for payment of a percentage of the debt.