United Bank & Trust Blog

The start of the new year provides me with the opportunity to plan and think about the year ahead. As we continue on the path of economic recovery, I just received this interesting overview from the Mortgage Bankers Association regarding the Deloitte 2012 Commercial Real Estate Outlook.

Here are a few important observations that I would like to point out:

• Commercial real estate appears to be on a “gradual but uneven recovery.”
• Any momentum experienced in the industry during the first half of 2011 was stalled due to weak macroeconomic fundamentals, mostly involving the European debt crisis and the U.S. budget woes.
• The future of Commercial Mortgage Backed Securities (CMBS) will play a significant role in the ultimate recovery of commercial real estate.

I encourage you to read the full MBA article to learn more, and please feel free to contact me if you have any other questions or comments.

United Structured Finance Company (USFC) was ranked as the number-one Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in Washtenaw, Livingston, and Lenawee Counties and number-three in the state of Michigan for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011 (in SBA 7a dollars approved) based upon information provided by the SBA. We financed more than $30 million in projects and helped to originate over 30 transactions in Michigan.

These results continue to demonstrate our commitment to supporting the communities we serve by helping small businesses succeed and retain jobs here in Michigan.

A recent transaction we completed provided an opportunity for a borrower, who specializes in fiber coating processes and engineering consulting for industries such as automotive and aerospace, to grow their business and hire additional employees. In addition, they export about 70% of their products overseas.

The borrower asked for additional working capital due to nearly $5MM in increased business. Because of this request, their existing lender ordered an updated appraisal of their commercial real estate which showed a reduced value and the lender was no longer willing to work with the borrower and demanded full payment.

Payroll for this borrower was on Wednesdays, and we knew the proceeding Monday that if we weren’t able to put a solution together for them by then they would have to close their doors and almost 60 employees would suddenly be out of a job.

Not only did we refinance the borrowers existing debt but we added about $800,000 for the borrower to have available as additional working capital for their sales growth.

This is yet another exciting example of the things we are able to do for our borrowers and communities by using the SBA loan programs.

If you are looking for expertise and solutions that can help you in business expansion financing, business acquisition financing, debt restructuring or SBA financing programs, contact United Structured Finance Company today.

See how we have helped other small businesses grow and succeed.

Are you tired of the new fees popping up at larger national banks? Not getting the type of service you deserve? May be it’s time to consider a new banking relationship. United Bank & Trust is extremely proud of the service and solutions we provide our clients each and every day because we continue to deliver on our promise to treat our clients differently than the big banks.

Why you should consider a community bank like United
As a community bank, United Bank & Trust has always been focused on supporting the local communities we serve. We reinvest locally deposited funds directly back into the local economy in the form of loans to local businesses, individual consumers and non-profit organizations.

How has United helped?
Already this year, United has helped 288 clients buy a new home, 301 clients refinance their mortgage and 20 clients build new homes. United has also secured 30 SBA 7a loans totaling more than $30M, the third most in the state of Michigan, helping small businesses succeed. In fact, the most recent loan secured for a client saved 60 jobs that would have been lost if our client could not have funded their revenue growth.

United’s commitment extends beyond the walls of the bank
United’s involvement extends beyond the walls of the bank into the community through individual co-worker volunteerism and company-wide support for those in need of help. In 2010, United Bank & Trust contributed $271,000 to 196 community organizations and non-profits. Our co-workers volunteered over 10,000 hours to 261 community organizations and non-profits.

So, if you are ready to make the switch to a bank that cares about its clients and your local community, contact a United banking office today or start the process online now.

Also, see what our clients have to say and how we have helped them.

I came across these 10 tips for creating a successful small business – and while I am sure there are numerous top 10 lists with the same subject matter – I thought this did a good job encompassing a lot of things that I as a lender look for when meeting with potential borrowers.

10 Tips for Creating a Successful Business

#1- Understand that you as the business owner are responsible for everything that happens in your business. You cannot delegate that responsibility.
#2- The attitude of the business owner is reflected in the employees working in the business. If you don’t like the attitude you see in your employees – look in the mirror.
#3- Personal growth and business growth are not the same but they are closely related. When you stop growing as a person you stop growing your business.
#4- Know that you don’t know everything. It is not possible. When you come to that realization, investing in trusted advisors makes so much sense and it becomes an easy decision.
#5- Life is short. Enjoy what you do and others will see that and be attracted to you. It is fun to work with and be around someone who is positive and excited about what they do. If you don’t like what you do, find something else to do.
#6- Give others credit for their contribution to your success. Everyone loves to be a part of something bigger than themselves and to be recognized for their contribution to the overall success of the organization.
#7- Know that your success is tied directly to how well you motivate, manage, inspire, sell and encourage people. Your success, especially as you grow your business comes through the performance of others.
#8- If you can’t measure it how do you know it works? Measure everything.
#9- You must understand how the business you are creating will help you create the life you want. There can be no misunderstanding. True success lies in creating a business that is consistent with and supports the life you want to create.
#10- Develop a passion for your work and have fun!

I won’t comment on every item but here are a few of my additional thoughts on some of them.

#2- When I take a tour of a business, be it a manufacturing facility or a restaurant, you can tell a lot by how the employees greet you, how they are walking, talking and interacting with each other. Do they look like they enjoy what they are doing? Do they take pride in what they are doing? How do they interact with the business owner?
#4- As soon as a business owner isn’t willing to listen (or at least consider) advice from his or her trusted advisors, I become worried about the ability of their business to survive. Whether the trusted advisor is an attorney, CPA, banker or (most importantly) an employee, a business owner must know that there is always a better way to do things, and sometimes it’s the key employee or trusted advisor who comes up with the best ideas. No matter how incremental the idea, there is always room for improvement. Feelings of contentedness and complacency oftentimes become the ‘tipping point’ leading to the failure of a small business.
#5, 7, 9- All speak about passion and attitude. People want to follow people that inspire them and want them to succeed. Whether it is a neighbor friend or an employee trying to help people be and do better goes a long way.
#6- In his book, “Good to Great” Jim Collins talks about how great leaders, “…look out the window (at others) when there is a success and in the mirror (at yourself) when there is a failure….” A leader who gives credit out to the team when there is a success is easy. But taking responsibility for the team when something goes wrong is where the rubber meets the road. Without a leader who will support a team in a failure the team will begin to self destruct, point blame, and become dysfunctional.

As an SBA lender in the banking industry, we deal with a lot of start up businesses; and being able to identify some of these characteristics in a potential borrower/business owner adds to the lending decision.

The fiscal year-end for the SBA was 9/30/2010 and United Bank & Trust and United Structured Finance Co. were again the number one lenders in the counties we serve.

On a combined basis, for the counties of Lenawee, Livingston, Monroe and Washtenaw, we approved 25 SBA loans resulting in over $10,000,000 in funds going into our local businesses and communities to spur economic growth and create jobs. We made more than twice the number of SBA loans than any other lender in our communities (25 compared to 11) and made almost four times the dollar amount of loans than any other lender in our communities ($10.03MM compared to $2.53MM).

In our market we made 24% of all of the SBA loans done in the fiscal year and over 30% of all of the dollars lent in fiscal 2010 were made by United Bank & Trust and United Structured Finance Co.

I am proud that this validates our commitment to our communities, local businesses and desire for job growth. So far in the fiscal year 2011 we are off to a great start in lending and are excited to see other financial institutions in our community stepping up to utilize the SBA loan programs at record levels for the benefit of all of our community clients.