When your business banking clients need support, you want to ensure that you’re referring them to a trusted partner. You may be familiar with Pursuit Community Finance’s loan products that can help your clients access financing when they’re unable to qualify for traditional business loans, but did you know that we also provide advisory services to help improve their financial picture?
Our goal is to help your clients become eligible for financing through your institution in the future, and we make that possible through a variety of advisory services provided by our team and our Consulting Corps of experts.
What do we mean by business advisory services?
As a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI), Pursuit Community Finance not only provides affordable and responsible capital to small businesses, but also supports these investments by providing advisory services to ensure our loan clients’ success now and in the long term. Pursuit Community Finance’s business advisory services (BAS), more commonly known as business Technical Assistance (TA), is non-financial assistance provided by specialists on a wide array of subject matter related to running a small business.
TA can range from sharing information, including resource articles and referrals, to group learning in workshops and webinars, to one-on-one instruction, coaching, mentoring, and more. In all cases, the objective is to build the business owners’ capacity to successfully run and grow their business.
What business advisory services does Pursuit Community Finance offer?
Through our internal staff and expert outside consultants (paid for by Pursuit Community Finance to provide their services at no cost to the business owner), your client has access to an experienced team that’s dedicated to helping them and their business succeed. They can take advantage of services that include:
- Bookkeeping: Accurate and timely financial records are essential to the running of any business, regardless of its size. Our team occasionally encounters viable businesses that have not yet invested in an internal bookkeeping system, and instead rely on outside accounting services. Some have made the investment in bookkeeping software, but are not using it correctly or taking advantage of all of the features it offers.
We can help your client properly set up their internal bookkeeping system so that they can always have an accurate picture of their business’s financial standing.
- Financial Forecasting and Analysis: Even with a good bookkeeping system to keep track of actual results, business owners often do not have the time or ability to make real time decisions using this data, or to set goals with a financial forecast. Our consultants can work with your clients to help them better understand their financials and train them on the skills needed to create a forecast for future growth.
- Digital Marketing and Social Media Strategy: Many business owners struggle to keep up with the latest trends in marketing and haven’t taken the time to set up an effective digital presence. From video campaigns to social media strategy, our consultants can equip your clients with the knowledge and tools they need to launch a successful marketing strategy without breaking the bank.
- Strategic Planning: The day-to-day requirements of running a business don’t always allow ample time for planning for the future.Without a clear plan and goals for the future, it’s easy for a business to grow stagnant. Our team can help your clients develop a strategic plan for the future and create a roadmap to attainable goals.
- Human Resources: Human capital is often a business’s key asset. The responsibilities of hiring, training, and retaining employees and contract workers are some of the greater challenges facing business owners today. Our human resources specialists can help your clients navigate this complex area of their business and set up policies and protocols for the long term.
- Website and E-Commerce: Whether your client needs to launch their first website, increase their website traffic through SEO, or add e-commerce elements to their web presence, we’ll connect them with an expert to help them reach their goals.
How can Pursuit Community Finance’s business advisory services benefit your institution?
By connecting your client with a trusted resource, you’ll demonstrate that you’re invested in their growth and success. Connecting your clients with Pursuit Community Finance will help you:
- Improve your customer experience with deeper engagement: We’ll act as a trusted advisor to the business owner throughout the term of their loan, providing guidance and support to ensure their success.
- Gain new loan clients: It’s our goal to help your client become eligible and ready for a loan through your institution. Through our business advisory services, they’ll improve their business operations and management and be on an accelerated track to traditional financing with you.
- Improved client long term viability: Our advisory services will broaden your clients’ knowledge base and their capacity to manage their business through the highs and lows.
Here are just two real life examples of businesses that benefited from business advisory services
We’ve helped hundreds of business owners through our advisory services to get on track for success.
For example, after Pursuit Community Finance made a loan in 2018 to Brooklyn-based Terry’s Little Teddy Bears to upgrade its daycare facilities, owner Terry Stephenson took advantage of the opportunity to have a paid consultant review her business’s financial reporting systems.
According to Terri, “The free advisory services offered by Pursuit Community Finance were a blessing. The work of the financial consultant really improved the way I manage my bookkeeping and reporting, which helps me make strategic decisions. This allows me to focus on education and childcare, the real heart of my daycare business.“
Will Kavesh and Nicole Cornell, owners of Token NYC, received two loans from Pursuit Community Finance in 2017 and 2018 before taking advantage of our advisory services. The two worked with a consultant that helped them with branding for their business, and another that provided support for them to develop a financial strategy.
“Our work with Dan(our financial adviser) has been so helpful in giving us a more complete and easily digestible view of the finances of our business,” says Nicole. “Our initial consulting work with Dan was of such great value, that we made the decision to bring him on as our bookkeeper.”
Come through our door and you’ll find that others will open
When you refer a client to Pursuit, they’re getting more than a business loan. They’re gaining access to a team of experts dedicated to their long-term success. If you have a deal to discuss, get in touch with us today.
