When to Fire Your Commercial Lender

Since the banking meltdown, most of us are now reluctantly admitting that banks and other commercial lenders are just not the same.

In a manner similar to many automobile manufacturers that are now a tarnished and shriveled version of what they once were, it seems like almost overnight most commercial banks and small business lenders have lost our confidence. In this shifting reality, business owners are now forced to adapt quickly to a changing environment for small business loans. Candidly speaking, even if a business lender is their best friend, small business owners are increasingly realizing that they must look out for their own best interests because it is unlikely that their commercial lender is up to the task anymore.

As if we needed to be reminded that business lending is on life support (lenders and politicians are not likely to ever admit this publicly), the largest small business lender in the country has recently sought bankruptcy as the solution to their own serious problems (CIT Group). Firing your commercial lender has become both a necessary and more acceptable solution when your business is not able to obtain adequate business financing from existing commercial lending sources.

We have published a report to help highlight some of the issues for this critical problem. Please see the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal for a link to this candid assessment about "Firing Your Banker" or other ineffective business lenders.