Message from the Publisher

We are planning an edition Wednesday, which always includes our “Sales makes it Happen,” and a December 30 th , where we will list the top stories of the year, as determined by how many readers have “opened” the article to read it.

Tuesday, January 3rd , we will announce the Leasing News Person of the Year for 2005, along with a full “funder” list.

Eventually we will get all the lists more up-to-date, as we have with back office, books, portals, software, and the several others.

We have written to many “decision makers,” trying to get them to submit the information to make the list more accurate, but come the first of the year, we are going to print them anyway without the full information, as we have done in other “lists.”

I personally think it will be very controversial as we have turned down those who said they were “super brokers” and those who claimed to be “funders.” In reality, they are “discounters” and go to others more on a “non-recourse” basis than servicing their own portfolio and deciding on the credit.

Another criterion is a “clean” Better Business Bureau report.

Also look to the first of the year for a new “bar” addition to our web site. We want to make known more items on our “site map,” such as all our “lists.”

Many readers may have also noticed the new edition feature, “Calendar Events.” This came from an idea from a reader who told us Microsoft and even printed calendars no longer indicate certain holidays or celebrations. While many may not be interested, just as in our baseball and American football poems (football on the internet is soccer), we hope the readership will grow.

I would like to take this time to reminiscence, which is a publisher prerogative. First, I appreciate all the readers who have wished my son Dash a Merry Christmas. Whatever political viewpoint we all my have, it is important to support our men and women in the military, especially during the holidays.

Above is perhaps my favorite picture of my son Dashiell with me. It is five years old now, from when he graduated from US Naval School in Great Lakes, Chicago. He continued his education in the US Navy, and then served six months in the waters off of Kuwait, inspecting vessels primarily, and also supporting other ships in naval operations. Now he is in the riverine unit, based out of Norfolk, Virginia.

I wrote about starting in the leasing business on December, 2004, the last day I also took our lab Sammie to the office. He passed away over a year ago.

It was this day in 1972 that I actually moved in at 2175 De la Cruz Blvd., Santa Clara, California. The landlord was Frank Sanchez, who had a microfilm business in the building. He became a very close friend, to die of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, exactly around the time my wife also died of the lung cancer, also from smoking cigarettes.

In December, 1972, I used an advance on a commission from Harold McAfee, Triple C Leasing, and rented an office in Santa Clara, California. “Mac” was surprised. I was a commissioned salesman, basically living off the advances. It was a two room office and I first subleased the second office to an attorney, when he left, then a vendor whose main office was in Oakland, building business enough to hire a part-time secretary. Eventually we had all the offices, except for one, on the second floor of this small building for eighteen years, until we outgrew it, and moved into our own building.

In 1971, I was going to work for KCBS radio as the news editor, but two weeks before I was about to start, my friend, Jim Simon, the news director, had accepted to become news director at the Chicago radio station, a larger market. I waited for a replacement, and when he was hired, he brought along a friend for the news editor job. I had counted on it, was told I was going to get it, and found myself out of work for over six weeks, maybe longer. After many months of free lance, part-time work, my wife and I decided it was time I had some money, to get out of the “musical chairs” news business. To make a long story short, I eventually decided to try "automobile leasing." I told the car dealership sales manager I would work for free. I started cold calling in Santa Clara Valley. My friends wanted me to come to San Francisco, but I thought this was where the growth was going to be.

In the first few months, it was pretty tough, as I spent all my time cold calling. While I eventually found some car leases, most of the people I was calling on were more interested in equipment.

One of the reasons why I like to push the free classified ads at Leasing News. I remember the days we only had “gumbo” soup in the closet. There were a few lunches where I would go into a Denny's type restaurant, order tea, and put the catsup in the water for soup and eat the crackers. Or I would eat tomatoes and vegetables that were on sale at stands on the road in Santa Clara County, once a large agricultural area. At home, we would visit friends for dinner as they had no idea of our condition, and I used the credit cards for milk and baby food. We would drive to my parents' house in San Rafael, California, and not only eat there, but get a "care package." I certainly was determined to make money and never be broke again.

The move to an office was daring in its day in December, 1971. You see our Christmas tree in San Bruno was given to us by friends, the Griffiths, and my parents, friends, and relatives supplied most of the gifts to our kids, two and three years old at the time.

I brought my old desk and typewriter from home. My late wife and I went to Levitz and with a Levitz finance, which later turned out to be GE, picked out a sofa, two chairs, and coffee table. It was a very big deal in those days. A gamble. No one knew how nuts I was.

I told my late wife I would buy her a house because I was going to make a lot of money in equipment leasing. She had wanted a house since we got married in 1968. It was the most important thing to her, she said. She was an accountant (she did Harrah's daily P&L when she lived in Nevada, delivering it to him in person every morning). She always managed our money, and rarely did I ever even know what was in the bank account. She had faith in me, she said.

I had been driving my old 1961 Porsche S-90, which needed a paint job, working out of an answering service. No cell telephones in those days. No car telephones in those days. I couldn't even afford a copier for the first year, as I remember, and then the first one made “wet copies.” No Federal Express, as I would drive the application to Triple C Leasing in San Rafael. Later “Mac” would allow me to drive them directly to Security Pacific Bank in San Mateo, where the loan officer there was making the decisions whether to accept or reject a lease. I left after Triple C Leasing hired a credit manager, who kept turning down my deals. I wanted to keep my vendors happy, and the referrals I was getting from bankers, so I went to Duane Russell in San Francisco, or Jack Mancinelli in San Mateo, or Studebaker-Worthington in Novato (Bill Grohe remembers the contact name, a good friend of his, and later deals to Bill) and Tiger Leasing in Redwood City, CIT in Kansas City, Russ Rickards at CenVal in Oakland, Rick Wilbur at company that went through Budget Financial in Los Angeles, to Jay Coles in San Francisco at Foothill, and later directly to banks in a discounting arrangement as a lessors. Most often, with a full set of financials, too. There was no “application only” for any size lease. I found the other companies accepting the deals, and the commissions were larger. Then I made a connection at Wells Fargo and was one of the first to start discounting with the auto dealer center, also keeping the residual at the end. It was then I decided to start “American Leasing” in 1974.

In those days, we walked the streets, knocking on doors. While considered the hard way today, we wanted to get to know our customers with the idea of generating repeat business. My goal was to always go after repeat business and to work the radius an hour from the office, not go after the big dollar leases or business out of my immediate area.

I can't remember anyone ever kicking me out or even being rude when I was cold calling. Of course, I didn't get to see the person making the decision on the first visit, although sometimes it worked. But I got a business card and started a telephone follow up systems with 3x5 cards along with a master sheet, calling the receptionist and trying to reach the decision maker. One of the vendors who I met along the way showed me how he trained his salesmen to make calls.

He told me to set goals. My first was $2,000 a day. The third month I had $80,000 in leases signed, mostly all under $10,000. My goal went to $5,000 a day in six months. In a year, I had doubled that.

This was 1972.

I worked trade shows, auctions, and even spoke at all the service clubs in two counties who wanted to hear about leasing (most of the questions at the time concerned vehicles, as equipment leasing was not very well known at the time.) The owner of the building, Frank Sanchez, and I became very good friends (he later died of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes as did my late wife.) He let me use his UPS shipping, even showed up one late Christmas eve to give me a high power bulb that had burnt out so I could video my kids Christmas discovering presents under the tree in the morning---you needed high powered lights in those days to shoot indoors and he was in the microfilm business. I called him and he never gave it a second thought to meet at his office so I could use my video camera with a connection to the VHS recorder. He was that kind of guy. )

The first year and a half, I took the train back and forth, leaving my old car in the train parking lot. It was safe in those days, old and battered. I parked it around the block so when I walked the industrial park, or signed leases, no one ever saw what I drove.

When we had saved enough money to move, it was to an apartment in Santa Clara, California, where we even bought a television set (we never had one while we were first married.). I also had become president of the Santa Clara Chamber of Commerce, primarily because I brought in the most members, had this idea to establish a convention bureau financed by a hotel tax, and after going through three managers, convinced the board to appoint the secretary as manager---Betty Hangs retired last year after 30 years in the position, and they named the successful convention center, next to Great America, after her.)

1974--That's me in the middle.

Jim Kalinski who started out as general manager with the incentive to become a general partner, which he did.

 Jim in 1977. As one of the perks, he attended all the leasing conferences for American Leasing. He once came home from playing golf for the first time, I think at the conference in Hawaii, with a trophy that he was most proud of, telling the office how well he did, and was going to take up the sport, as he won “The Highest Score.”

1982-First male president of Credit Women International, with outgoing president Jenny Lindell presenting him the gavel. He is the former president of Credit Grantors of Santa Clara Valley. American Leasing was “hot” with two other San Francisco Bay Area branches.

My wife died in 1989 and it changed many things. Jim Kalinski left in the early 1990's to go into business for himself. I left the bank I was one of the founders, got out of the wine business, out of the stock market, and was busy in community activities and had help with good people operating the company. Eventually I met the lady I am with today and started to enjoy life more, actually taking time off.

In May, 2005, American Leasing downsized from 15 offices in Santa Clara, California, to four in Los Gatos, California, about five to seven minutes from home, an area I have lived for over 30 years and enjoy the communities very much. At one time we had two branches of American Leasing plus Santa Clara. Through the ups and downs we survived. Now I enjoy a small office with less responsibilities, and write Leasing News, originally started as another one of my hobbies.

Kit Menkin