As a business owner, it’s so important to have a strong, trusting relationship with your financial partner. Tune in to Money, I’m Home as Lynne chats with business development manager Melissa Evans about her personal and professional experiences and how they’ve shaped her outlook when it comes to working with local business owners.

 

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0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home! Hi there, I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. Thanks for being with us today. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And today, we have a very special guest. She’s our business services development manager. I’m telling she’s out there and she’s making sure businesses have great success here in West Michigan. Joining us is Melissa Evans. Melissa, thanks so much for being with us today. I’m so excited to have you on our podcast.

0:00:34.5 Melissa Evans (ME): Well, thanks, Lynne. I appreciate it and looking forward to chatting.

0:00:39.3 LJJ: So, hey, let’s find out a little bit about you. How did you get to Consumers, when did you come, what started this passion for business services?

0:00:46.3 ME: Oh, sure. So, actually, my passion for business services started years and years and years ago. I’ve been in commercial lending for over 25 years, so just a few years, obviously. Started out as a wee child in diapers, but…

0:01:02.5 LJJ: You have experience, let’s say?

0:01:05.3 ME: Yes, yes, exactly, exactly. And actually, my passion started with the fact that my entire family, are all entrepreneurs. So, I have first-hand saw exactly how banks work with business owners, and how important it is to business owners to have a strong financial partner. So, I’ve always known that it was something that I didn’t want to start my own business, but I really wanted to help businesses. So, I came to Consumers about seven, eight months ago, so not that long ago. And I was originally contacted by a recruiter, somebody that I had known, and they said, “You know what, I think this might be a really good fit for you.” And I thought, “Credit unions do business lending?” [chuckle] So, yeah.

0:02:00.6 LJJ: Isn’t that just amazing? Here, you’ve been in business lending for so long, and still, that comes up for us quite often.

0:02:06.2 ME: I was a bank person. I just truly lived and breathed banking. And saw how banks have grown. Saw what has happened with banks and how they have kind of moved from relationship lending to transactional lending. And I just became a little disheartened with that. I kind of missed the full relationship. At the time I just did lending, and I really missed being able to help my clients on a full basis. So, help them to make sure that their deposits were there, that they had the right type of loans available, and also that I could help them on the standpoint that they might need a residential mortgage. When I was approached, I thought, “You know, this kind of sounds cool,” and I sat down and talked to people and said, “You know what, this really reminds me of when I first got into banking, a really community-oriented organization,” and I thought, “This is really what I want to do. These people are pretty cool.” I’m back to what I really have a passion for and having the opportunity to work the lakeshore where I’ve been at for the last 23 years.

0:03:24.8 LJJ: You know what’s neat Melissa, if you fast forward seven months, we’ve opened Muskegon, we have Grand Haven. You know there’s all the lakeshore offices, it must just thrill you to see growth, too.

0:03:35.2 ME: Oh, it is! You know, it’s fun, too. We’ve seen in some areas that the banks are really pulling out of areas. They’re reducing their branches, and here we have offices, and making such an investment in Michigan. That is very exciting because I may have a member that lives here and may have a business in Lansing. Well, guess what? We’re expanding to Lansing now and we’re here to stay. So, it’s really exciting, it’s very exciting to have this opportunity to really reach out to quite a diverse population.

0:03:41.0 LJJ: You know, with your experience, the one thing I think that you can be helpful for our business members or for those who are considering banking with a new financial institution, you mentioned one thing about the partnership. What are the things that businesses should look for when they are looking for success in a banking partner?

0:03:58.3 ME: You want to make sure that you have somebody who has interest in your business beyond just the numbers. You want somebody who takes the time to understand what your business is, how your business ticks. And understanding that all businesses have different cycles to them, and somebody who really will take the time to listen and not just say, “Oh, this is… This one thing fits all” type of thing. You want somebody who can get… Having an imagination and be able to really spend the time to figure out what works best with a specific company, because one size doesn’t fit all for anything.

0:04:47.2 LJJ: You know, it’s interesting when you say that, especially right now, what are you seeing on the streets? The inflation…

0:04:55.1 ME: Yeah.

0:04:55.1 LJJ: Has taken up, supply change, management, talent, all of these things seem to be a perfect storm for stress.

0:05:01.6 ME: Right. Lynne, I think that it is so critical to have a good partner doing this, because a lot of these businesses may be fairly new, like let’s say, the last 10 years or so. They haven’t been through these huge cycles that we’ve experienced. And there’s going to be some changes in the next couple of years. I think it’s very uncertain what’s going to happen, so you want somebody who really is going to be with you in the good times and the times that are a little bit rough, that you don’t have to worry about, “Oh, in three years, oh my gosh, my loan is ballooning, and now I have to refinance this and the economy is bad, and there’s nothing saved at the bank” say, “Oh, I don’t want this industry anymore,” so you’re going to have to find a new institution.

0:05:52.9 LJJ: Touch on that ballooning.

0:05:56.4 ME: Oh, sure.

0:05:56.5 LJJ: Because I do know that that’s one thing that differentiates us in a really big way.

0:06:01.6 ME: Yeah, that is so true. So, a business has a building, and we do have a mortgage loan and a commercial mortgage loan on that building. We would amortize that in term for 20 years. So, for 20 years, they have a loan. I think you would see in most other institutions, they do them on five-year basis. So, in five years, that loan balloons. They may amortize it over 20 years, but in five years, it comes due, so you have to go through rewriting that loan, underwriting the loan all over again, and that’s stressful for businesses, especially if there’s a downturn in the economy, and they may have a year that is not as strong as the previous years, another institution could say, “Pass.” You know, your ratios are out of whack. We need $50,000 additional to bring this back into our ratios. We don’t do that. You’re paying your loan, we’re resetting the interest… The rate that you have, maybe every five years, but we’re not rewriting the loan again and underwriting and all of that all over again, so they’re really in there. As long as they’re making their payments, I won’t guarantee that something doesn’t happen, but you’re not rewriting the loan again.

0:07:21.6 LJJ: And you just mentioned that it’s that close partnership to be able to have someone pick the phone up and talk to an individual who you trust and you admire and can give you sound advice.

0:07:34.5 ME: Right.

0:07:34.6 LJJ: That’s what this business partnership is all about. Well, Melissa, congratulations. We’re so glad you’re on board with us. And Melissa is just one of our business development specialists. She is an officer over in the Lakeshore. We’ve got them all over West Michigan market and into Michigan. We sure can help you. Melissa, thanks so much.

0:07:54.1 ME: Thanks Lynne.

0:07:54.4 LJJ: Hey everybody, listen up, have a great day. And if you have a great content that you’d like to send to me, just do so, consumerscu.org. Thank you, Jake Esselink for your production skills. Hey, everybody, have a great week!

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