Small business lending will lead pandemic recovery
Small and mid-size business loans have quickly become a core pillar for our current economic recovery, yet over the last decade many institutions have largely ignored the overall lending experience available to these businesses.
The speed at which business loans now need to be processed cannot be understated. According to the Harvard Business Review,“Businesses with fewer than 500 employees account for 48% of American jobs and 43.5% of GDP. Yet while these smaller firms are an essential part of the U.S. economy, they’re often financially fragile, with little cash on hand or resources to buffer even a minor financial shock.”
We can agree that the last six months have been more than a simple financial shock and businesses are looking for a way forward. Revitalizing the small business sector is crucial to achieving their pre-pandemic contributions to GDP and credit unions can have a big impact on that.
It’s necessary that lenders continue to focus on increasing their current operational bandwidth to deal with short-term spikes in volume. Most importantly, you should not be tempted to process new loans using only traditional tools and solutions. Using external providers with specialized, refined solutions can greatly improve your scalability.
Credit unions are known for actively filling important gaps in financial services in order to serve the underserved. Now is the perfect time to step up and show your local business community how much you care by providing them with the same world-class service credit unions are known for, even during hectic times.
Whether you have a seasoned book of business or are looking to begin offering business loans for the first time, Lucro Commercial Solutions can help streamline your processes to maximize your impact and profitability. If you’re interested in scaling your current capacity to better serve your members, Lucro can quickly set you up with a custom, software-free, online business loan portal created to assist with automating and centralizing the collection of applications and documents. We’ve even included tools to help prepare real estate project cash flows. Visit www.Lucro.org/DBLC to learn more or contact Heather Bosenko at heather@lucro.org.