6 Things Not to Do When Raising Debt

We like CEOs — we really do — but when it comes to lending, they sometimes drive us crazy.

Granted, every business has clients that cause irritation, so we’re no different from everyone else. Here are a few things to avoid as a CEO looking for debt.

1. Withholding Information

A lot of irritation, wasted energy, and, perhaps most importantly, time could be saved if CEOs were more in tune with their finances.

For example, we often see CEOs who know their finances are suspect, but can’t provide us a whole lot more detail.

Our business is information-based, so despite however much due diligence we perform, we’ll never know more than you do.

For us to steer you properly, we need information – and lots of it. We need to know about your sales, existing loans and other debt, your future prospects, your competitors, and so on.

2. Being Disengaged

In the same vein, we often run across CEOs who simply aren’t engaged and just tell us to do our thing.

We’re honored about the confidence you place in us but, strange as it sounds, lending is a personal thing. We can do the legwork, but you need to take an active role in the process as well.

After all, it is your company. You’ve got to actually take the time to read about the financial options we present to you.

3. Micromanaging

On the other hand, we also run into CEOs who present the opposite problem – they’re micromanagers.

Yes, we want and need a lot of information, but you’re hiring us for our expertise. Let us tell you what we need and allow us to present the best options to you.

We’re happy to take your constructive criticism afterward; every time we deal with a CEO it’s a learning process on both sides. Your thoughts will be well taken, and we can certainly adjust our recommendations after hearing your input.

4. Waffling

Next up is the waffling CEO — the executive who can’t make up his/her mind. We can present all the information in the world and make general (and sometimes) very strong recommendations, but we can’t pull the trigger. We sometimes wonder how this executive accomplishes anything.

5. Not Communicating

A cousin to the waffling CEO is the CEO who doesn’t communicate. Yes, we realize you have a busy schedule, but A) you hired us and B) it’s safe to conclude that your finances are important. The occasional phone call/text/email will work wonders.

6. Being Impatient

And there’s the CEO who’s impatient.

Securing a loan is a complicated process and, to get the best results, it will take time.

Sure, we might line up something relatively quickly with an online lender, but you’re likely to pay through the nose in terms of an interest rate, and the other terms might not be favorable, either.

We realize you may have waited too long to seek our counsel, and we also understand your time constraints, but to do our best, we’ll need more than a few hours. Believe us when we tell you we’re working as quickly as we can.

But lest you think we’re ungrateful, we enjoy working with all sorts of CEOs — and we haven’t even described the type of CEO who is our most common client. That would be the CEO who gets it.

They realize our relationship is a partnership, are active and engaged (while not meddling), and they have frank discussions throughout the process. Not surprisingly, these CEOs conclude our interaction with the highest satisfaction ratings, not to mention the best possible loan that meets their needs.