Creating strategic alliances is a common practice for many businesses – and today, community banks are increasingly discovering the value of aligning their organizations with lending specialists in order to compete in the hyper-competitive lending market. These strategic alliances enable banks to offer lending products outside of their traditional “lending toolbox” and capture greater market share.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was officially established in 1953, and over the past six-plus decades has provided millions of loans and other forms of financing to small businesses across the U.S., Puerto Rico, the U. S. Virgin Islands and Guam. The SBA works with lenders to provide loans to small businesses and is responsible for establishing guidelines for loans extended by lenders, community development organizations and other lending institutions; and it guarantees these loans will be repaid – mitigating much of the risk associated with lending to smaller and “riskier” businesses.
Today, we live in a highly competitive global business environment – an environment where businesses of all types must consistently develop new strategies to outsell their competitors beyond domestic market borders. While some companies continue to serve regional or national domestic markets, the evolving global economy has heightened awareness among business owners of the significant growth opportunities available via exporting their products and services overseas. Expanding into overseas markets is not a new concept by any means, but it is a significant strategy shift for many smaller business owners who are already capital constrained and believe exporting products and services can only be successfully accomplished by large companies. On the contrary, the majority of U.S. exporters are actually small businesses.
On behalf of our entire team, I am excited to share with you the first issue of Innovative Financing Solutions’ Monthly Newsletter – IFS Viewpoints. Developed specifically with lenders and finance professionals in mind, each Newsletter will deliver thought leadership articles authored by our senior executive team covering topics such as: Small-business lending strategies, borrower and lender success stories, the impact of the evolving regulatory environment on commercial lending, and unique lending solutions available for small- and mid-sized borrowers.
