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American Association of Commerce Finance Brokers
Commercial Finance Expo
By Vicki Shimkus, Balboa Capital Relationship Manager

AACFB held their annual conference in sunny Glendale, Arizona, April 16 - 19. There were 273 attendees registered for the three-day event.

Monday afternoon there was a VIB (Very Important Beer) pre-event charity concert featuring members of Foreigner (Michael Bluestein, Bruce Watson and Luis Maldonado). $3,000.00 was raised to benefit Cancer Support Community Arizona. Attendees said it was an incredible show that I am sorry I missed.

Tuesday morning hotel guests got a very early wakeup call at 4:10 am when the hotel fire alarm went off directing guests to evacuate the building. It was lovely to be able to visit with fellow attendees in our Pjs and we had a fun time comparing what “emergency” items we brought out with us. Most brought room keys and mobile phones, however, one attendee came down having brought his work laptop and golf clubs. He clearly had his priorities in order. It was just a faulty smoker sensor so we were allowed to return to our rooms quickly. It is always nice to have a little excitement at a conference.

The conference began in earnest with educational sessions on Brokering Essentials part 1 and 2, Transitioning from Broker to Broker/Lessor, and a First Timer/New Member Orientation/Intro to CLFP. For those playing in the AACFB Golf Tournament at Palm Valley Golf Club, it was a beautiful start to the conference.

The Women in Finance luncheon was well attended and included many industry veterans as well as several first timers. It continues to be an amazing opportunity to discuss the contributions and advancement of women in the industry as well as a chance to network. I hope it inspires the first timers to get involved and see how their contributions are so important to our industry.

The opening reception was a night of good food and fun with a casino themed night of gaming. The crowds were having a great time trying to parlay their 500 gift chips into more AACFB bucks for Thursday’s much anticipated auction.

Wednesday the exhibit hall opened with over 53 exhibitors meeting with attendees. Overall, it felt like a lot of optimism in the air while acknowledging the higher rate environment, disclosure changes and challenges being faced in the industry over the last year. There was a sense of being able to see getting to the other side. Like the phoenix, we will rise.

The Keynote Speaker, Nate Randle of Gabb Wireless, inspired the audience with insights on how to serve your customers and teammates to succeed in driving more sales while still uplifting those you work with. His words reminded us that what we do is more than simply making a sale and moving on. Those who are truly successful take it to the next level and see how what we do has far reaching effects beyond the “sale.”

The day continued with afternoon educational sessions featuring marketing, trends in AI, vendor referrals, selling in a high-rate environment, and many more. There were many sessions to take advantage of with a wide variety of timely topics.

The final day of the conference was busy with final a final opportunity to meet with exhibitors in the hall before the Business Meeting luncheon and auction. During the luncheon, the gavel was passed from Immediate Past President of AACFB, Teresa Cranney, to the incoming President, Roderick Knoll.

The Association took time to recognize those on the conference planning committee, sponsors, and committee chairs. There was a touching moment of silence for Barry Reitman, an original founding member of what is now the AACFB as well as all those we have lost from our industry over the years.

The auction got off to a roaring start and the bidding was hot and heavy for items donated for the auction. The conference ended with a happy hour and half while as attendees wrapped up last minute conversations before heading back to our offices.

Vicki Shimkus, CLFP
Balboa Capital, A Division of Ameris Bank | Broker Relationship Manager

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Vendor Acceleration
By Scott Wheeler, CLFP

Originators in the commercial equipment finance and leasing industry call on vendors to leverage their efforts. Strong vendor relationships create a flow of new business opportunities. A well-aligned financial partner for any vendor allows the vendor to sell more equipment, to streamline the sales cycle, and to take control of the sale.

The three major questions to know about any potential vendor are:

How much equipment does the vendor sell?
How much of that equipment is financed?
How much of the financing aligns with the originator's funding capabilities?

If an originator does not know the answer to these three questions, then they do not have a meaningful relationship with the vendor.

On any given day, vendors have multiple new transactions that are being worked on. The objective of every call is to aggressively suggest that it is in the vendor's best interest to work with the originator to secure funding on the vendor's current transactions which align with the originator's capabilities. There is no better time to start or accelerate the relationship than the present.

Top originators know that they get what they ask for and they need to be asking for the next opportunity on every call. An originator's follow-up reflects her seriousness in building a meaningful relationship.

If you wait a month or even a week or two before following-up on successful vendor call, you are telling the vendor that you don’t care about the relationship.

To accelerate a vendor relationship, the follow-up to a strong vendor call should be a matter of days, not weeks.

Don’t be bashful and let another sales person take the deal and possibly the vendor away from you.

Scott A. Wheeler, CLFP
Wheeler Business Consulting
1314 Marquis Ct.
Fallston, Maryland 21047
Phone: 410 877 0428
Fax: 410 877 8161
Email: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com
Web: www.wheelerbusinessconsulting.com

Wheeler Business Consulting is working with individual originators and sales teams throughout the industry to ensure that they are well positioned in the market, capturing their fair share of business, and outperforming the competition. To schedule a one-on-one meeting contact Scott Wheeler at: scott@wheelerbusinessconsulting.com

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Leasing and Finance Industry Help Wanted

Goal Setting for Career Success:
Creating and Pursuing a Vision for Your Future
By Ken Lubin, ZRG Partners

Having a clear vision for your career is more crucial than ever. Yet, many find themselves drifting, unsure of how to navigate their paths toward career fulfillment and success. The secret lies in effective goal setting - a process that, when done thoughtfully, can illuminate the road to your professional aspirations. Let’s explore how to set realistic, measurable career goals, track progress, and adjust your plans to achieve your long-term objectives.

Define Your Vision

Before setting specific goals, it’s essential to have a broad vision of what you want your future to look like. This vision serves as a guiding star, helping to direct the specific goals you will set. Ask yourself where you see yourself in five, ten, or even twenty years. What kind of work are you doing? What impact do you want to have? The answers to these questions will help you create a vision that is both inspiring and grounding.

Set SMART Goals

With a vision in mind, it's time to get specific. The SMART criteria are a well-regarded strategy for setting effective goals. Each goal should be:

Specific: Clearly define what you want to achieve.

Measurable: Ensure you can track your progress.

Achievable: Be realistic about what you can accomplish.

Relevant: Ensure it aligns with your broader career vision.

Time-bound: Set a deadline for achievement.

For example, instead of saying, "I want to be better at my job," a SMART goal would be, "I will complete a professional certification in my field within the next six months."

Create a Roadmap

With your SMART goals outlined, the next step is to create a roadmap for achieving them. This means breaking down each goal into smaller, actionable steps. If your goal is to land a management position, identify the skills, experiences, and qualifications you need. Then, set smaller goals like completing a leadership course or leading a project team.

Track Your Progress

Regularly tracking your progress is vital to staying on course. Create a system that works for you, whether that's a digital planner, a spreadsheet, or a journal. Update it regularly with your achievements and reflect on what's working and what's not. This habit not only keeps you accountable but also provides valuable insights into your strengths and areas for improvement.

Stay Flexible and Adjust as Necessary

One of the most crucial aspects of goal setting is the willingness to adapt. Your career path is not set in stone; as you grow and the world changes, your goals and strategies might need to shift as well. Regular check-ins on your progress can be great moments to assess whether your goals still align with your vision and make adjustments as necessary.

Celebrate Achievements

Remember to celebrate your milestones, no matter how small. Achieving goals is hard work and recognizing your successes is vital for maintaining motivation. Whether it’s treating yourself to something special or simply taking a moment to reflect on your journey, acknowledgment of your efforts is crucial.

Seek Support

Finally, remember that you’re not in this alone. Seek out mentors, join professional networks, or find a career coach. Having support can provide you with insights, encouragement, and accountability, making the journey towards your vision a shared and more enriching experience.

Setting realistic, measurable career goals is a powerful step towards creating a fulfilling professional life. By crafting a clear vision, breaking it down into achievable steps, and being willing to adjust your plans as you grow, you can navigate your career path with confidence and clarity. Remember, the journey towards your career success is as important as the destination.

Ken Lubin, Managing Director
ZRG Partners, LLC
Americas I EMEA I Asia Pacific
C: 508-733-4789
https://www.linkedin.com/in/klubin

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ELFA Reports New Business in March down Year-over-Year
Up 18% from February

(Chart: Leasing News)

The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association’s (ELFA) Monthly Leasing and Finance Index (MLFI-25), which reports economic activity from 25 companies representing a cross section of the $1 trillion equipment finance sector, showed their overall new business volume for March was $9.3 billion,
compared To $7.9 in February, 2024.

ELFA President and CEO Leigh Lytle said, “Some pullback in new business volume in March largely reflects the effect of banks tightening their lending. Instead of a customary end-of-quarter spike, banks saw originations fall more than 20% in March, while other respondents enjoyed a stronger month. Credit quality is mixed, with receivables continuing to improve while charge-offs ticked back up. Interestingly, results of an informal poll of MLFI-25 respondents indicate some customers are limiting their equipment acquisitions until interest rates come down, which supports our Foundation’s forecast that equipment and software investment should pick up in the latter part of the year when the Fed is expected to begin its rate cuts. Along with the improved GDP growth forecast, we remain cautiously optimistic for continued growth for our industry.”

Miles Herman, Chief Executive Officer, LEAF Commercial Capital, Inc., said, “The equipment leasing and finance industry has historically been an excellent predictor of economic times. There was much confidence as we entered this year that originations and portfolio performance would continue to improve as witnessed by the strength of the U.S. economy. However, the punch bowl may have been taken away with March’s inflation report. We are seeing industry benchmark rates returning to November levels. As a result, the thought of a Fed rate cut may be delayed. We already saw a dip in small business optimism and persistently higher levels of inflation may further dampen it. Middle market businesses had seemed more optimistic in Q1 to spend, but CFOs may hit the pause button as well. All this suggests rougher waters to navigate over the next few months on both sides—front end originations and back-end portfolio management.”

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The Downfall of Purchasing Email Lists
and Strategies for Organic List Growth
By Alex Vasilakos, Digital Marketing Consultant

In the high-stakes world of email marketing, where the reach of your message can mean the difference between roaring success and unnoticed failure, it’s tempting to take a shortcut. Buying an email list can seem like a quick fix to get your campaigns in more inboxes faster. However, this ill-advised move comes with a slew of problems that can inflict long-term damage on your brand and marketing efforts. This piece will dissect why purchasing email lists is a recipe for disaster and provide you with actionable strategies to grow your email list organically.

The Downfalls of Buying Email Lists

Sender Reputation Suffers: When you buy email lists, you’re acquiring a batch of contacts whose interest and consent you’ve not verified. This can result in a high bounce rate as emails hit inactive or incorrect addresses and ISP’s keep score. The result? Your sender reputation takes a hit and your emails could be relegated to the spam folder, never to see the light of day.

Legal and Trust Issues: Recent privacy laws – like GDPR – have upped the ante on consent. Buying email lists doesn’t square with these policies. Caught purchasing lists? You might be slapped with enough fines to make your marketing budget weep. Worse still, you compromise the trust potential customers place in your brand.

Engagement Plummets: Engagement is critical in email marketing. Unsolicited emails seldom receive the warm welcome you desire. Engagement rates are dismally low for purchased lists, undermining the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Organic Equals Loyal: Subscribers who have willingly signed up are interested in your offerings. They’re more likely to open, click, and convert. This organic list growth seeds a garden of loyal followers who could bloom into long-term customers.

Interest and Relevance: Those who opt into your list do so because your content resonates with them. They’re the audience you want to reach – interested, engaged, and more receptive to your calls to action.

Strategies for Organic Email List Growth

Quality Content Reigns: Create and disseminate valuable content that serves your audience’s needs and interests. When people recognize the value you provide, they’ll subscribe for more.

Capture With Forms: Deploy pop-up forms, slide-ins, and embedded sign-up forms effectively across your website. Make subscribing as easy as possible for visitors.

Enticing Lead Magnets: Offer lead magnets – from insightful ebooks to exclusive webinars – that provide substantial value in exchange for their coveted email addresses.

Engage with Contests: Organize giveaways or contests that tantalize your audience, making email submission a part of the entry process. It’s fun for them and fruitful for you.

Social Media Synergy: Leverage your social platforms by promoting compelling content that includes calls-to-action for email sign-ups.

Referral Rewards: Initiate a referral program rewarding subscribers for spreading the word and bringing in new sign-ups. This can be a powerful method to multiply your list.

SEO Optimization: Drive organic traffic through strong SEO. Visitors finding you via search are already interested in what you have to say.

Consistent Engagement: Stay in regular contact with your audience, both via email and social media. Engaged audiences can grow organically as they share your content within their networks.

Building your email list doesn’t have to cost a dime – just a commitment to growth through genuinely engaging with your audience and offering them real value. Free strategies may require time and effort, but the resulting list will be worth its weight in gold for your email marketing campaigns.

Alex Vasilakos Digital Marketing Consultant
o: 518-727-7921 | m: 518-727-7921 | t: @avasilakos | web: www.vasilakosdesign.com

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Fewer Americans on the Move

Overall, when looking at both migration between U.S. states and within them, fewer Americans are moving each year. In 1948, the first year on record with the Census Bureau, more than 20 percent of the population moved in the past year. This had decreased to just 8.7 percent in 2022. While the share of Americans moving across state lines remained more stable, those moving within their state became much fewer, from between 15-17 percent of Americans per year in the 1950s and 1960s to results in the single digits in the new millennium.

In absolute terms, the annual number of Americans moving peaked in 1985 at 38.1 million or 20 percent of the population. In 1948, 20 percent of Americans had only amounted to 23.8 million people. While they move less often now, Americans are still known as one of the most mobile population on the planet. In 2011 and 2012, Gallup asked people around the world if they had moved in the past year. 21 percent of Americans said yes then, compared to only an average of 8 percent globally. FiveThirtyEight calculated - based on 2007 Census data - that the average American at that point in time was expected to move 11.4 times in their lifetime.

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Factoring Sector Slightly More Optimistic
as Industry Expects Better Business Conditions and Portfolio Performance

Secured Finance Network Issues Year-End Factoring Survey Results

NEW YORK, NY,– While lenders experienced subdued demand for factoring in 2023, reflecting soft consumer retail spending and a cautious retailer approach to inventory management, the Secured Finance Network (SFNet) Year-End Factoring Survey found that overall factoring sentiment improved somewhat last year, up 6.0, to 64.8, where 50 indicates a neutral outlook. The report attributed improved sentiment to the U.S. economy’s strong position at year’s end and a persistently solid labor market, which continued into the second quarter of 2024.

Factoring is a form of financing where a non-bank lender or bank affiliate − known as a “factor” − purchases the accounts receivable of a client, at a discount. Clients typically are companies involved in providing retail merchandise, business services, shipping or transportation, and other companies that want to improve cash flow, according to SFNet. Over the past two decades, many factors have also embraced inventory lending to compete with traditional asset-based lenders (ABLs).

“Factoring continues to be strong and resilient, successfully adapting to market conditions, and playing an essential role in fueling our economy,” said SFNet CEO Rich Gumbrecht.

Challenges facing the retail and trucking industries put a small dent in factoring portfolio performance in 2023, but some factors believe demand will increase after the first half of 2024. The industry is also more bullish about two of the four sentiment indices – business conditions (up 13.6, to 63.6) and portfolio performance (up 12.7, to 72.7) – in the Factoring Confidence Index. The other indices, for new business demand and employee headcount, showed little and no movement, respectively.

Despite ongoing job gains in 2024, averaging 276,000 through March, “there are signs that consumers are starting to feel pinched,” the report stated. “Indeed, a low savings rate and rising credit card delinquency rates raise questions about how long consumers can continue to fuel the economy. Meanwhile, inflation is still a risk to watch as it hovers about the Fed’s 2% target and service-sector inflation remains particularly sticky.”

Factoring volumes, client totals show decreases
Overall factoring volume slipped by 2.6% among respondents who reported volume for both H2 2022 and H2 2023. While U.S. volume was off 1.6%, international volume dropped much more heavily, by 28.2%. The significant drop in international factor volume is attributed to a drop in the number of clients in this market. As expected, apparel’s share of factoring volume increased to 49.4% in H2 2023 from 29.1% in H1 2023. The increase is largely due to the seasonal nature of apparel businesses being heavily weighted to the second half of the year. Four other industries – transportation/trucking, services/staffing, automotive and electronics – together comprise about a third of all volume.

Meanwhile, “the number of factoring clients declined by 5.2% from H2 2022 to H2 2023,” the report said, “with U.S. clients dropping by 4.6% and international clients decreasing by 8.6% over the same period. Comparing the relative small decline in U.S. factoring volume to the reported U.S. client base, we can assume that the decline in U.S. client was centered in smaller service based clients exiting the market. Banks and brokers remain the top two sources of client referrals, accounting for over half of all referrals during those periods.”

There was little change in the regional distributions of factoring volume and clients throughout last year, but there was a big gap between volume and client distribution, as the Northeast had the highest volume share, by far, in H2 2023 (57%), but the Southeast had the highest clients share (26%).

“Non-recourse factoring continued to comprise the vast majority of total volume (85.6%) while full recourse factoring comprised the majority of clients (78.8%),” noted the report. Typically, factors offer full recourse factoring to smaller volume clients in the transportation and services industries, accounting for the high concentration of clients in this category. “Non-notification factoring comprised over half of all volume in H2 2023 (55%) overtaking notification factoring, with its share of volume increasing steadily from H2 2021 (23.0%). Notification factoring still comprised the vast majority of clients (96.3%) and its share of clients was relatively unchanged across all reported periods.”

Additional Factoring Survey Highlights

Total funds in use fell by 10.8% for respondents reporting in H1 and H2 2023, with 70% of them reporting a mid-year over mid-year decline. From H1 to H2, 85.7% of factors saw their average earning assets (AEA) decline. The decline in AEA is attributed to a decline in consumer spending, as retailers and clients sought to rebalance and reduce inventory levels.
Average return on assets went up last year, from 2.21% to 4.35%, while average return on equity went down, to 13.26%.
Average loan turnover fell from 47.8 to 45.5 days in the second half of 2023, when average days sales outstanding also decreased from 50.7 to 44.6.
Factoring revenues were down by 4.4% from H1 to H2 2023, while net interest revenue – which still accounts for most revenue – rose to 60.8% during that time. As one would expect, with a decline in volume, the share of revenue going to service fees fell slightly.
The number of factoring employees decreased marginally, by 1.2%, between the first and second halves of 2023. Account management, business development and underwriting all reported lower headcounts.

About Secured Finance Network
Founded in 1944, the Secured Finance Network (formerly Commercial Finance Association) is an international trade association connecting the interests of companies and professionals who deliver and enable secured financing to businesses. With more than 1,000 member organizations throughout the US, Europe, Canada and around the world, SFNet brings together the people, data, knowledge, tools, and insights that put capital to work. For more information, please visit SFNet.com.

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