Call Your Bank

Most likely you have a line of credit and a relationship with a bank.  Call your loan officer. If you do not have a relationship with a loan officer who has significant pull with the bank get one. Sometimes if your loan is not a problem you get assigned to a junior loan officer. Even if you do not need any pull at the bank at the current time you want to make these relationships in good times so when you need them they are in place.

In home building we were always highly leveraged so we usually got one of the more senior loan officers.  Ours was excellent.

I called her one day when I didn’t need anything and asked her how we were doing. I could hear computer keys clicking in the background. I might have panicked her a little. She must have thought something was wrong that she missed because why else would I call. She assured me all loans were current.

I asked her to make a list of her top ten customers and let me know if we make the list. A few days later she called me back.  We had indeed made the list as number two.

“What criteria did you use to judge the customers?” I asked boldly.

She replied, “Timely payments, history of paying back loans on time, accurate and on time paperwork and financial records and most important her boss never asks about us because we do not show up on problem lists. “

We talked about what we did and was there anything we could do better. The discussion helped me understand how the bank evaluated us and we learned this at a time when there was no stress and we were not asking for anything.  The next time we did propose a new project I was better prepared to help meet her needs so she could meet ours.

Finally I asked what her number one had that we did not. She told me that company had a million dollar cash balance in a low interest money market.  I then assured her it was unlikely I would ever have such a large cash balance… in a low interest account.