Finding A Lender
Simply choosing the bank with the closest branch is short-sighted. You ought to begin thinking in terms of finding a lender that you can grow with, like, and trust even if you don’t intend to borrow money right away.
What Should You Look For In A Lender?
• aggressive in their lending policies;
• genuinely interested in your size business;
• flexible in their policies and procedures;
• interested in, and perhaps even familiar with, your type of business (or at the very least not turned off by it because of a bad experience in your industry);
• actively seeking new loans;
• creative in their approach to structuring loans;
• properly staffed and organized to approve and service loans like yours;
• capable of servicing larger financial needs as your business grows;
• able to service your non-credit needs (e.g. checking and savings accounts, payroll, international services, cash management, coin and currency services, trust services, personal banking services, etc.);
• financially stable and in good stead with the federal regulators; and
• not likely to be acquired any time soon.
So how do you find one that fits the spec? Is it the biggest lender? The smallest lender? And, not so incidentally, how do you know if they’re financial sound? Referrals.
By far, the best way to find a lender is to ask business owners in your area who they use. Accountants, attorneys and other advisors can also be a good source, they can help refer you to someone on the inside. A referral from a trusted professional always gets a little extra attention because the lender stands to receive additional business from them.
A referral from a senior executive from within the lending institution will guarantee you even more attention. This is no time to be shy about dropping names. If you met the president of a bank at a ball game, perhaps when a drink was spilled on you during a cheer, call them and ask who to talk to about a loan. You can be sure that a lender will spend a whole lot more time digging into the details before declining a loan from someone who’s referred by the president of the bank, than they will a loan that simply wandered in off the street.
But how do you know if a bank is in good shape? It isn’t necessarily their size, as recent bank failures demonstrate. You could ask to see their nuimbes, after all, the asked to yours. But how do you evaluate them? The Finding Money ebook will tell you how.
