Proposed vs Passed Legislation

We’re often very blunt about things, especially Trevor as he is Scottish.  “Right between the eyes” is a favorite expression of his.  We don’t like to dance around the truth and we certainly despise getting someone’s hopes up about something that’s not reality.

These principles served both Linda Rey and Trevor very well during their respective careers in Insurance and Banking.

At Aurora Consulting, we embrace and continue to follow those principles to assist our business financing clients.

We’re going to give it to you now right between the eyes: We refuse to discuss proposed legislation about COVID-related stimulus and disaster financing until and at such time as, that legislation has passed the House of Representatives, the US Senate, and has been signed into law by the President. Period.

Passed gets our attention; proposed stays on our “pay no mind” list.

We relied on this attitude in the early days of the pandemic lockdowns when so much was complete chaos, speculation, despair and distress.  We fielded calls, texts, and emails from our friends, colleagues and clients, each of them despairing for any kind of positive news about Government assistance to help them survive the pandemic lockdown, whether about the EIDL program or the proposed CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program.

In every instance, we patiently listened to and carefully counselled folks.  We emphasized the word “patience” time and again and coined our phrase for the pandemic, “Ever-Evolving.”

Based on our guiding principles, we waited for concrete information.  The SBA website provided skimpy information at best for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program.  We charged forward and submitted applications, spoke to several trusted and experienced colleagues, and submitted our clients’ applications, utilizing our decades’ of experience completing successful applications for loans and insurance.

We pivoted with each new challenge that came up, apprised our clients of the situation, and continued hammering at the wall until we achieved positive results.

We used the same methods for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). We opted to wait to submit applications until there was more cogent guidance from Lenders and SBA on the functionality of the program.  When we finally submitted our clients’ applications we achieved positive results again.

There’s a lot of talk on the internet, especially on YouTube with glamourous videos, purporting to provide definitive knowledge of what’s in store for extended stimulus and disaster financing legislation.  We call that “static.” PLEASE subscribe to our channel for updates especially for our WTF Wednesday videos.

At Aurora Consulting, we seek results based on reality.  We don’t search for self-inflation of our professional egos by providing incomplete or inaccurate information to the general public at large or our clients in particular.

We know you’re impatient and desperate to hear there is more assistance on the way.  We know that we will wait until that proposed legislation becomes passed legislation.  Only then will we dive into the details to find results-based financing solutions for our clients.

Tough Questions from Lenders

The good news is that Banks and Lenders are opening up their coffers to provide business credit financing. The other news, that’s more anticipated than “bad,” is these Banks want business owners to answer some tough questions about preparedness for further pandemic-related challenges.

If you are applying for business financing—a loan or line of credit—that’s not Disaster Relief-related, here’s a sample from one of our Bankers on what to expect:

  • How has your business been impacted throughout the crisis?
  • How have you and your employees been affected? Your suppliers? Your customers?
  • What are your key priorities over the next 30/60/90 days?
  • How do you anticipate accomplishing these goals? What hurdles do you anticipate?

To achieve a successful response to your application, you should answer these questions with all appropriate gravitas and extreme detail.

  • The Bank wants to know that, should the pandemic-related lockdowns get tighter:
  • How have you planned to get through that?
  • Do you have cash reserves?
  • An employee-furlough action plan?
  • Do you have the ability to provide your services or products with a serious downturn in customer traffic (think early days of lockdown)?

Banks make loan decisions by assessing the risk on the credit profile of the Borrower. As with any aspect of a loan application, the COVID-19 pandemic has created another layer of risk for Banks. Your successful loan application will take that risk assessment into account as you prepare your application for submission by anticipating how to make a Bank/Lender get into a “comfort zone” about your ability to make payments on the loan as other challenges from the pandemic arise.

Download our documents checklist so you’re properly prepared. You have to be better than the lender because they’re trained to say “NO THANK YOU”.

Subscribe to our Financing Fodder playlist on Youtube.

Download “Homework”! You’ll thank us later!

Business Financing Documents Checklist

Stop worrying about what's required when pursuing a business loan for your small business. This list will indicate what a lender, bank, SBA, etc. will want to know about you and your small business if you're looking for a business loan. These are prudent documents that help tell your small business story. Without them, it's difficult for lenders to assess you as a risk when it comes to lending your small business money. This is NOT SPECIFIC to the SBA EIDL loan.

How To Shop Financial Services Products While Black

We have worked in Insurance and Banking for three decades.  We have seen how our White colleagues behave when discussing internally, or when working directly with persons of color.

This video is difficult to present because we don’t dare presume that we know what life is like to be Black in America. We can only empathize and attempt to put ourselves in your shoes.

We share some advice on how you should expect a financial services professional to behave if they are treating you with the equal respect they provide to their white clients.  We created this advice based on how we have behaved with clients, knowing that we have standards that are severely Anti-Racist, and how we have observed other professionals with less savory standards behave.

  • Language.  An Anti-Racist uses language that is respectful at all times, not only the words used, but the tone of voice used.
  • Education.  The quality professional, treating all customers equally, seeks to educate clients. They bring to the presentation deep reserves of patience and empathy.  They never behave in a way that disrespects the client’s lack of knowledge about the service or product.
  • On-Time. Your Professional should be on time and prepared for the meeting/call.  This demonstrates their ability to take you seriously.
  • Respect. The Anti-Racist professional never speaks down to a client.  The Anti-Racist professional asks questions with a patient demeanor or explains things in plain English with a respectful tone.  For example, “I’m asking for your Identification because I’m required to do so for every client when we will run their credit report.”  That’s respectful and seeks to demonstrate a patient educational tone.  The opposite is, “I need to see your ID.”
  • Polite. Language and words truly demonstrate how a person thinks.  When a person is polite to a customer, they use the appropriate words such as “Please” “Excuse me” and “Thank You.”

We recommend that you, as a Black American, or a person of ethnicity or different gender, absorb these key points of behavior and, most importantly, act on the points with the best action you as a consumer of financial service products can take: Walk away.

Too often, we’ve seen an African American customer being treated badly by a white professional but that customer stays in the meeting.  Walk away.

The best way to demonstrate your requirement that you be treated equally is to walk away from, or hang up the phone on, any financial services professional who you feel is not sufficiently Anti-Racist. There are plenty of us out here in the world who know how to treat our fellow human being equally and with respect.

Walk away from the racists and find those of us who are Anti-Racist.

We’re here and we’re waiting for you.

3 Things to Expect From Your Insurance Broker

I’m going to hit you between the eyes, and you may like it, but not at first. I’d like to think I know a couple of things about insurance.

I’ve worked in the Insurance Industry for over 30 years.  My ultimate accomplishment was owning an Independent Insurance Agency. Additionally, one of my favorite clients trains insurance agencies so I see what thousands of agencies do wrong, every year, all across the country.

Here it comes, the part where I hit you between the eyes:  Your Insurance Broker may not be servicing you properly, and it could be costing you money, and maybe a lot of money.

I know, I know, insurance isn’t something you think about all that often, maybe once a year, when it’s renewal time. And, that’s when you discover how your Insurance Agent is managing your account.

Maybe your premium went up. A lot. And no one from your Insurance Agent’s office contacted you to let you know that they are aware of the situation. So, you go through the strife and stress of dealing with that situation, whether you go through the motions of switching to another company, or you complain and ultimately pay the higher premium.

You get through the moment. Then, return to your normal life. Until the same thing happens next year when you’re stressed out again.

My Insurance License in Connecticut is still active. I kept it as a matter of convenience for the occasional client. During the pandemic and the assistance we provided to thousands of business owners seeking disaster relief funding, we were exposed to many other elements of their operations, including their insurance, as part of the financing process.

When I see how business owners are being serviced by their insurance professionals I am, quite frankly, surprised and confused. What I see most often is these businesses have insurance policies where their business is under-insured, over-priced, and minimally serviced.

I didn’t run my Independent Agency that way nor for the clients we assisted during the pandemic. Your insurance agent or broker is a licensed professional and as such, they should be doing these three things.  If they’re not doing these to honor your business relationship, then you may want to consider who is managing your insurance.

  1. Annual Review. Your Agent should contact you 60-90 days prior to the policy renewal to review your current policies. The review should include questions about the status of your business and plans for the future. They should be reviewing current coverage and premium as well as other life changes so that could affect the policy and any potential claims.

  2. Updates on Coverage. Insurance Carriers can change their underwriting standards from time to time. It’s up to your Agent to be aware of those changes and to update you when those changes can affect your insurance, negatively and positively.  Your Agent is the one with their finger on the pulse of the industry, and as a licensed representative, while you’re busy running your business.  Your Agent should notify you when a change will affect your business.

  3. Servicing the Heck Out of You. Practically every business owner I’ve come into contact with in my financing business states that they never hear from their Agent. When we needed an insurance document for their financing, the process of obtaining that document takes longer than necessary because of the lack of communication. The Insurance business is a SERVICE business.

For more simple but boring basics of running a business, check out our Biz Glitch 366 Program

LEAP YEAR glitch special-1

The Dreadful Disorganized Document Disaster

Our resident Chief Financing Rock Star, Trevor Curran, was a Mortgage Banker for 30 years. His specialty was helping first time homebuyers with low down payments to achieve the American Dream of Home Ownership. From the early days, with no computers, no internet, no email nor a beeper on his belt—until the day of his retirement in 2018, a mortgage loan application was all about the paper. Documents to support the application needed to be submitted, reviewed, dissected, parsed, and collated. Trevor’s clients submitted their documents in many and varied ways, including coffee-stained tax returns, crumpled paystubs pulled out of an old wallet, and badly-scanned PDFs. Considerable time was spent by Trevor and his loan processing team to put these documents into a manner acceptable for review by an Underwriter. And of course there was the pushback from clients. “Why do you need that (document)?” “I can’t find my tax return.” “The dog ate my homework.” Oh, wait, wrong story. Trevor’s response, time and time again, including in the early days when he would literally drive to the clients’ home, workplace, a McDonald’s parking lot, or the real estate office, to pickup their required documents, was, “We need these documents because the bank requires it since you’re asking the bank to lend you several hundred thousand dollars.” This obvious message was delivered in a kind and patient but firm manner. Still, it always seemed incredible, time and time again, how people could be so cavalier about their loan application requirements. “Don’t they want the house?” he would often ponder in the moments of extreme frustration. Now, as the primary processor for Aurora Consulting, Trevor’s manages the document flow and the loan applications for our business clients. When we launched this business we remember discussing how this document issue is going to be so much better because we’re dealing with serious business people. Unfortunately, we were mistaken. Especially over the past eight weeks as we have assisted over 30 businesses to apply for and receive Government Disaster Relief financing, the poor quality of document management is mind-blowing. Especially at a time like this, when the desperation of keeping a business alive requires this emergency infusion of cash. You’d think business owners and their representatives (CPA’s, mostly) would be sharper than ever to get documents submitted in an organized and prompt fashion. Again, mistaken. Moral of the story for anyone thinking they want to ask a Bank or Lender for money—whether you’re buying a house or financing a business—it’s all about the paper. Organize your documents, submit them in a clean, efficient manner, and submit them promptly. Rant over. Send us a message with how you’ve successfully managed your team to understand your high level of standard when it comes to managing your documents.

Download our Documents checklist

4 Myths and Mistakes in Marketing During a Crisis

First, we wish everyone health and safety during through this COVID crisis. I will outline 4 myths and mistakes in marketing during a crisis. And stick around until the end, I’ll share 3 takeaways you could implement right away. Given our new paradigm, I’ll put a positive spin on the 4 myths and mistakes in marketing that i’ve seen.  Not all businesses are suffering financially, but all businesses have changed in some way whether it’s a process or protocol of doing business to ensure safety. People are looking for new ways to connect including efficient ways to do conduct their business. It’s more important than ever to stay in touch with people whether it’s email, a text or direct messenger in a social media platform. The number one priority is reaching out to all of your clients to see how they are doing and a polite nudge to remind them that you’re available if they have any questions about anything during this overwhelming time. We can call it marketing or we can call it staying connected in a meaningful, purposeful way.  If you are looking to do more than just survive in your business, it’s more important now than ever to either level up your marketing or at the very least, START marketing if you’ve been putting it off or getting by with minimal efforts.  If people don’t hear from you now when they need you the most, they will find another resource they feel can rely on. I’ve heard more than a few times, “I don’t hear from you all year and now you show up. It’s too late.” The best part is that because we’re in the digital age, the currency is time. You don’t need to invest in big advertising budgets like the Mad Men days. No magazines print ads, no billboards, no Super Bowl ads.  Here are four myths and mistakes people make when it comes to marketing. Myth #1 – I don’t know what to say. There’s more to what you do every day than you realize that people would be interested to know. You know a lot more than someone who isn’t in your business but doesn’t business with you. Delivering value of what you can offer someone will help to show that you’re present in your business and available when they need you. For people to know, like & trust you, it’s ok to show your personal side. I like to work in my yard so i’ll post projects in and around the house. It helps to show that you’re human. It will also help to show how people can relate to you. YOU are a brand whether you own a business or work for a business. You do not need to sell your product or service every time you’re marketing.  Myth #2 – I don’t have time. Some people may not think they have the time because they may not have seen results worthy of scheduling the time for this task. If you carved out 10-30 minutes every day or every other day dedicated to intentional and meaningful engagement, you would see results in how people pay attention to you.  The more you spend engaging on a platform, the more you get noticed even if you don’t think the metrics are displaying a lot views.  Business is about relationships. People have to know how to relate to you but if you don’t exist online, then they won’t know how to find you or know how you can help them. Myth #3 – I don’t have an audience. If you didn’t have an audience you wouldn’t be in business. You have people all around you, but perhaps you didn’t think of them as an audience. With the INFLUENCER movement, if you don’t have a million followers or get a million views on a post, people think they’re doing it wrong or that it’s a waste of time because they’re not getting those results. The flaw in this mentality is that we have to appreciate that for any number of views we get online is less time we have to be in our car driving to a meeting with just one person. Don’t look at the views or the metrics if you’re just starting out. Focus on the practice of developing a new habit of scheduling time to devote to marketing. If you aren’t creating content, then curate quality content that you trust and that you find relevant to your business. Myth #4 –There are too many platforms. Who doesn’t like having choices? To be able to pick from Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Pinterest, YouTube or any other platform you are familiar with means you get to enjoy however you feel most comfortable when delivering your content.
  • Maybe you want to practice with video so you may utilize Facebook Live because you’ve been on that platform longer or you save your videos to your Youtube playlist.
  • Maybe you want to be more business-like while extolling the virtues of your products and services, so you go to Linkedin. 
  • Maybe you like snapping photos and want to include a meaningful, inspiring message, so you go to Instagram or Pinterest.
  • Or the newest darling, maybe you want to bust a move or deliver a message with curated music in the background, you go to TikTok.
There are so many tools these days to help develop content. It’s a matter of EXECUTING. And that is where people fail. Even if it means that you are going to pick one goal, but you’re not sure how to go about it, the RESEARCH is a form of execution.  Research is learning and learning gives us more confidence with something new. I think a formula for success can be described as follows: Schedule + Research = (a higher probability of) Execution. Here are 3 takeaways to ponder: 1. Cultivate your email list. it’s the only digital asset you own. The platforms own your content once you publish it on their site. 2. Do video. If you’re shy or you hate how you look on video, I will tell you from experience, no one is analyzing you the way you think they are. Video is so valuable and helps to deliver your message in such a powerful way. The statistics of how people connect with you is undeniable. Practice with one minute videos. It’s a great, safe start. 3. Repurpose your content. What do I mean by that? If you write a blog, do a one minute video on the topic of the blog you recently published. If you did a video about something important about your business, write a blog even if it’s only 200 words. Then, put the video on your website with the blog. Then grab a section of the blog and draft a post to Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, etc. about your blog and video. Check out our Be GRAM-Tastic Instagram course. If you want to find out more about it, Schedule a call with us by clicking on our online calendar here.

Quick Access to Working Capital

If you are aware of factor financing, you may know that you can leverage your Accounts Receivables with a Factoring Lender to get quick access to working capital. However, you may be concerned what your Customers will think when they have to send their payments to a different address.

  • Lending aspect aside, it is not unusual for Businesses to create a different location to receive payments on Invoices, whether a physical location or an electronic ACH location.
  • The Factoring Lender works hand in hand with you to ease the transition for payment destination on your Invoices.
  • Many of your Customers are already sending their Invoice payments for other B2B purchases to Factor Lenders whether they know it or not.
  • Factor Lending, while a niche financing solution, has been utilized by businesses in need of quick capital for 30 years.
  • Businesses frequently leverage Assets, Property, Income and other collateral to obtain working capital whether it’s a traditional Bank loan or other financing solution; leveraging your Invoices is no different.
  • The fact your business is borrowing money demonstrates strength, not weakness.  You’re demonstrating your faith in your business by borrowing money to continue to grow your business.

Factor Financing is an affordable, fast, financing solution to help you leverage important aspects of your business–in this case your Accounts Receivable–to obtain the working capital you need.  It’s easier to qualify for Factor Financing than traditional Bank Loans, especially during the pandemic paradigm when Banks are making loans difficult to obtain.

Factor Financing Qualifying Criteria:

  • You must sell your Product/Service B2B
  • Your Customers must pass muster for basic creditworthiness on their ability to pay Invoices
  • Non-Progressive Billing
  • Startups Acceptable
  • Consistent Accounts Receivable practice

Let us ease your worry about what your customers will think. Learn more to see how this could be a solution to keep your business going during this pandemic. Email us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz.

Optimize Cashflow During This Pandemic

In this difficult time, normal Bank lending criteria has tightened up.  Banks, always risk-averse, have become even more so during the pandemic. If a Bank is lending at all to businesses, they are only doing so to their existing business customers, and those customers must have demonstrated ridiculously healthy financials before the pandemic and more so now.

In other words: for businesses that are booming during the pandemic paradigm, in need of working capital to keep up with demand, the purse-strings at traditional Banks are pulled super tight.

Let’s discuss the fortunate scenario that your products are flying out the door or your services are in high demand right now due to the new pandemic paradigm. However, you find yourself in need of working capital, here’s a unique solution for your business:

Convert your Accounts Receivables to instant cash.

If your Customers have a good history of on-time payments within 40-60 days of Invoice issuance, and you’re selling B2B products or services, then you’re positioned to take advantage of this quick, affordable, working capital solution.  Lean into your Receivables and get the cash you need today to better service the orders for your Products and Services with Accounts Receivables Factor Financing.

Criteria:

  • You must sell your Product/Service B2B
  • Your Customers must pass muster for basic creditworthiness on their ability to pay Invoices
  • Non-Progressive Billing
  • Startups Acceptable
  • Consistent Accounts Receivable practice

Contact us to learn more about how Factor Financing could be an incredibly efficient and cost-effective way for you to have capital flowing to your business. Email us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz.

Short-Term Solutions for Long-Term Goals

There are two scenarios that some business owners take when starting and maintaining their business.

First, no debt.  These businesses were started with savings and/or investments from the business owners.  These businesses fund daily and annual operations costs with money generated from the profits of the business.  These business owners most often do not like the concept of credit debt, or, worse, have a severe anxiety about the idea of borrowing money to run their business.

Second, belief in debt.  Using debt in the form of credit financing is a reliable source of capital for starting and running a business when the concept is applied with smart planning. These business owners understand that obtaining capital to start or grow a business from a bank loan or other financing source can be a great way to preserve existing profits and working capital, and also a viable option to find the money needed on a larger scale.

Pandemic Panic financing such as disaster relief loans, SBA economic injury disaster loans (EIDL) and paycheck protection program (PPP) loans due to the COVID-19 crisis is a type of credit financing that, in most all cases, could be a band-aid on a gaping wound.

Longer term financial considerations, as your business strives to come through the crisis and survive on the other side, it’s important to consider other types of credit financing to help you obtain the working capital you need.  We’re exploring many different options for our clients.  One of those options is Asset-Based Lending, specifically, .

This is an excellent option for a business with valuable and well-performing Accounts Receivable to obtain quick sources of working capital to assist through this crisis.  The Factor Financing Lender works hand in hand with you and your business team to create a system where your customers invoices are assigned to the Lender.

For a very reasonable cost, you can obtain immediate access to the cash value of that invoice practically as soon as you send it out to your customer.  This quick access to capital dramatically improves your Cash Flow situation, helping to make you stronger on a daily basis to survive and thrive through this crisis.

Factor Financing Lenders vary in their criteria for the types of businesses and types of receivables they prefer.  We’ve assembled a healthy matrix of different types of Factor Financing Lenders to provide you with an array of financing options for your business to help you through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Curious? We are here to answer your questions about this type of financing. Email us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz.

Plan Prepare Prosper with a Business Plan

There are business owners that are still focused on how they can conduct business today based on the old normal. We’re here to say that you might as well flush that notion down the toilet. It’s a sad reality indeed. We’re not saying that a business cannot be prosperous in today’s climate. No! We are merely saying that there are conditions that must be considered on how you can market your business. We need to reconcile in our minds that this is a “new normal” paradigm.

It’s an apocalypse of sorts. The old normal isn’t coming back anytime soon, if at all.

In our experience as financing brokers we discovered that with the more than two dozen businesses we spoke to ranging in revenue from $60,000 a year to $6,000,000 a year, not one of them had a written business plan. And that was during normal times! It’s a bit crazy that people run their business without a written business plan. It is an essential document for your business. It’s a working, living, breathing document of your business.

And here we are now during the pandemic paradigm.

Now more than ever you need a business plan if you plan to go back to business or keep your business alive. A business plan is a written guide book, that not only helps you to survive this crisis, but also prepares you for new, unexpected challenges as they arise. Those challenges are coming! And those challenges are unknown! The consequences of those challenges are uncertain.

Too many business owners have seen how, in this pandemic environment, a sudden challenge can arise in an hour, a day, a week, a month. And they’re not prepared to deal with that challenge. Even if they had a business plan that they created during normal times, that business plan is mostly useless if not completely useless under this new paradigm, under this new normal.

We are promoting the idea that you need to create a written business plan right now that helps you to survive and helps you to face every unknown challenge that could come your way.

Contact us at Curious@AuroraConsulting.biz to discuss how you can plan, prepare and prospect during this pandemic.