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.

Commercial Financing Help

The rapidly-changing environment for business finance funding is likely to produce a series of new problems for business owners. To help address these evolving challenges, AEX Commercial Financing Group plans to play a prominent role in analyzing what is happening and what to do about it. There has already been an ample supply of disappointing responses by business lenders to recent economic circumstances — we encourage commercial borrowers to contact us to obtain more information and to describe their own problem-lender stories so that we can share their experiences with as broad an audience as possible.

Publicizing actions being taken by business lenders throughout the United States will contribute to at least two worthy goals: (1) To highlight controversial bank-lender practices with a view toward eliminating or reducing questionable lending tactics. (2) Help business owners prepare for commercial finance funding changes. We will periodically update a summary of our findings which can be viewed by clicking on the “Business Loan Help” link in the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal.

Business Finance Funding

As we have noted repeatedly, one of the most effective commercial finance funding strategies has been credit card financing programs (which provide cash based on projected future credit card processing activity) during the recent financial chaos. We have published a practical overview of this successful working capital financing approach which can be accessed by clicking on the link entitled “Summary: Business Cash Advances” in the right-hand column of The Working Capital Journal. Included in the summary are 10 problems which should be avoided with credit card factoring (An important note: AEX Commercial Financing Group has eliminated all 10 of these problems from their Business Cash Advance Program.)

Commercial Finance Funding

Business finance funding has changed significantly during the past few weeks. An important change issue for commercial lending: there are both apparent changes and real changes because there have been so many inaccuracies about the availability of commercial finance funding. Commercial borrowers are left with little choice but to adapt to the changing environment for commercial mortgages and commercial loans. Another key change issue for commercial mortgage loans and commercial financing is simply the likelihood that more changes will be forthcoming in the near future. Small business owners should consult with a working capital loans expert to adequately prepare for both current changes and future changes that might occur. An effective strategy for coping with the primary changes involving fewer lenders, increased collateral requirements and fewer unsecured credit lines is the use of business cash advances based on future credit card processing.

Commercial Construction Financing

Recent commercial loan uncertainties have resulted in an apparent shortage of business financing for construction of new commercial property. The current financial circumstances coupled with a shrinkage of capital for commercial real estate loans in general and commercial construction funding in particular mean that commercial borrowers should look beyond their local market area for commercial financing help.

In today’s challenging business borrowing climate, it is important for small business owners needing commercial construction loans to seek out a commercial finance expert who can discuss the feasibility of obtaining funding help. AEX Commercial Financing Group can arrange construction financing for financially-sound commercial projects in most areas of the country.

Business Opportunity Investing - How Bad News Can be Good News

In the world of commercial financing for small business owners, these are certainly not the best of times for most businesses. However, it is precisely the less-than-ideal financial conditions that are likely to result in an attractive price when purchasing either a business opportunity or supplies. For those unfamiliar with “contrarian investing”, the best buying opportunities often occur during times dominated by excessive pessimism. This is due in large part to sellers feeling that times will get much worse before they get better, which results in a willingness to accept a lower selling price than they would otherwise. In these challenging times, AEX Commercial Financing Group has several working capital financing strategies to assist commercial borrowers obtain funding for circumstances such as the two following scenarios.

First, for inventory acquisition, many suppliers are offering unusual discounts when they are paid in cash. In most cases they are primarily influenced by (1) the possibility that they will not be paid in a timely manner and (2) their own cash shortfall for funding payroll and other basic expenses.

Second, poor business conditions have similarly produced some difficulty for business owners currently trying to sell their business. In most of these situations, the selling price has been reduced and/or the seller is willing to include financial help in the form of seller financing for a portion of the selling price.

Commercial Finance - Fake Articles

Fake or fictitious articles about commercial finance issues should be a serious concern for business owners. At a minimum, a fake article about commercial loan topics such as business cash advances and commercial mortgages can result in unnecessary confusion for commercial borrowers. A much bigger risk is that improper commercial financing decisions could be based on inaccurate articles. Because of the serious complications which fake articles can produce, I have written several reports describing trouble signs to be alert for and practical strategies for avoiding the publishers of fake articles about small business financing.

The use of reputable publication sites is one of the most effective ways to avoid fake business loan articles. The best of these responsible sites will require review of articles by an editor prior to publication, and most of these websites will provide detailed contact information for the author. Many of these sites have an author summary for a concise overview of work published by a specific author. The summary will quickly demonstrate if an author has published multiple articles about relevant topics. A commercial financing expert is likely to have published articles about a variety of complex subjects such as working capital funding, credit card financing and SBA loans.