Are you a Harry Potter fan?  In the first Harry Potter film, there is the scene where he visits the bank. His somewhat guardian pal Hagrid brings Harry to the bank to access the money Harry has inherited from his deceased parents.

Harry’s initial impression of the bank is similar to that of most of us folks: mild horror and total intimidation. The clerks at the bank, rather ugly looking gnomes, force young Harry to run a gauntlet of questioning, forms, more questioning, and ultimately a bizarre roller coaster ride so he can access HIS OWN MONEY.  Ouch.

The gnome-clerks are the GATEKEEPERS.  And they put Harry through all this brutal rigamarole simply to access money that rightfully belongs to him.

What happens when the GATEKEEPER is protecting the BANK’S MONEY? Please remember: the banker may be substantially better looking than one of the Harry Potter World gnome-clerks, heck, your banker might even be charming and may have, at one point treated you to lunch. But the banker is not your friend and the banker does not work for you.

Your banker “friend” is a GATEKEEPER to protect the bank’s money.

The charm is a clever disguise. When you, the busy, harrowed and exhausted small business owner need access to the bank’s money to finance an aspect of your business, whether that’s a Commercial Mortgage or a business loan or business line of credit, that banker’s charm will mislead you to believe it’s all so easy! Submit this document; sign this form; pay this fee; ask your CPA (at your expense, of course), to prepare this income statement, yes, it’s all so easy and charming.

Smiles all around.

Until you’re not smiling anymore. Until you’re riding that nightmarish roller coaster deep in the dungeon-depths of the bank.  Except, unlike Harry Potter, you never arrive at any destination.  Instead, the banker’s smiling charm evaporates when the bank either declines your loan request or offers you something completely different than what you need, something that doesn’t solve your financing problem to grow your business.

Beware the GATEKEEPER. We’re NOT the Gatekeepers.

We’re Brokers. Our experience and knowledge of this subterranean depths will guide you to the satisfactory conclusion to your financing request: the money you need to grow your business.

Visit our Financing Fodder YouTube Playlist on how you can prepare for your loan request application process.

It happens all too often; we hear from clients, Attorneys, CPA’s and friends; the same sad story.  A business owner needs financing for their business, whether it’s a Commercial Mortgage or a business loan or business line of credit.  The business owner turns to one of “the usual suspects”, the banker.

Weeks or months later, after spending money on application and appraisal fees, after wasting time submitting countless documents, the banker responds with an offer (if the business owner is lucky!).  But the offer to lend from the banker falls far short of the requested financing from the business owner.  Time and money wasted: not a proper way to run your business.

But, WHY?  Asks the business owner. The banker responds with all kinds of technical jargon and hyperbole which boils down to one concept: the bank doesn’t want to make the loan the business owner needs; the bank wants to control the money and lend what it deems to be the lowest risk to its banking business.

But…but…but…the business owner has all her accounts with the bank! Business checking account, payroll account, even her personal accounts and probably her retirement accounts too!  “You have all my money! You know how good a risk I am!”, screams the business owner.  The banker has no response to this outburst.

Banks are very good at collecting money.  Building deposits, building accounts, building liquidity, collecting fees, collecting payments for credit accounts, mortgages, loans and etc., ad nauseum.

Banks are not good at lending. They’re not. Accept this as the norm. Disabuse yourself of the notion that the bank, your “usual suspect” where you keep all your money, is interested in actually making loans. They are NOT unless the terms are absolutely the most favorable for the bank, including the lowest tolerance for risk on the planet.

The usual suspects are not the friends of small business owners.

But there’s good news.  There are other Lenders out there, Lenders who thrive on the amazing prospects of small businesses growing.  Those Lenders are very interested, and VERY GOOD, at lending money to small business owners.

Visit our YouTube channel for our Financing Fodder playlist on how to prepare for your loan application process.