You know it was not that long ago when business schools advised students going into business to develop a business relationship with your local banker. In fact the Small Business Administration recommended this tact in all their literature. Then came the big bank mergers and your business relationship well it was all for not. The big banks had rules and corporate guidelines and they did not care about you or your name, now you were a number. That is when every thing changed in banking for the small businessman. But what if small business loans and credit were still based on your integrity like before? What if it made sense to develop a relation with your local banker, without worrying that they might be transferred to another branch or the entire bank maybe sold to a larger bank? A business with 20-years in the community typically has no better chance at a loan than one just starting up. We all know that the failure rates amongst small businesses is 80 percent in the first five years. Once a business gets past that they tend to be a safer bet. Generally a business with 20-years experience and the community behind them would be a good candidate for a business loan. Your business would be your proof of your integrity in the town. Yet it seems we no longer have that sort of support for small businesses in our nation and it is a shame. What if small business loans were as they were before, what would that mean for the strength of our economy? With small businesses employing 75% of our citizens, perhaps we may wish to rethink the way we capitalize them and the way we treat them, because at the bottom of a business cycle it is always on the back of the small business people that we make the climb back up. Think on this. |
