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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

I have worked nearly exclusively with a small regional bank here in South-Central Illinois: Carrollton Bank. I use Carrollton for both home and business banking. I say "nearly exclusively" because business credit cards are run through the Bigs (Bank of America, Chase, Citi)

Why I like it: I can call any time (during business hours, of course) and get a body on the other end. I have a direct line to the Branch Manager and the business banker. During COVID, the business banker handled everything with respect to PPP, PPP2 and an SBA EIDL Loan except the application which I had to personally do. They prepared and filed the PPP/PPP2 forgiveness paperwork and went out of their way to keep me updated on the status of all of the SBA programs available to my company. They have a huge network of ATMs - I have never been in a city on a business or personal trip where I could not find an ATM that was in-network (not that a $6.00 annoyance fee would break the company, but it's a nice convenience).

Borrowed Money? Personally, yes. (Mortgage). Business, no, but ran the EIDL through them.

Size? I can only speak for myself. MCS is a very small company. However, I do know that they serve several professional corporations (i.e. dentists, accounting firms) as well as many construction companies in the area.

Because I am who I am, we also have a back-up bank in the event we start running into crappy customer service. That bank, too, is a regional bank where we know the names of people.

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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

Good morning.....banks are banks, they have no soul....people have souls, recommend good people that happen to be bankers and your efforts will be rewarded. Be smart, all the time, banks like you one day, cant spell your name the next day....prevent any angst by having an amazing balance sheet and a back up plan! Have a great weekend

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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

Almost any community bank will do. Most dissatisfaction I see from private business owners and their banks have to do with money center banks like Chase or Citi Group. They look at this community as a credit score. Community banks tend to still loan based on the business and the character of the owner.

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Nov 21, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

Relationships... Aside from the "People do business with people, not businesses" cliché, it is the relationships you build with vendors/banks that that will be the most fruitful. While I believe you can have a relationship with the manager of your local BoA, Chase, etc., they still work for the Borg (Star Trek reference) and will assimilate you into their culture.

Back when I was just starting out and was a bankrupt carpet cleaner, I met the president of our local bank; Shore United Bank. For some reason he took a shine to me. At the time I was desperate for cash. After our second meeting, I asked for some. He said "no", that I was not ready.

But he continued to meet with me every quarter, monitoring my progress, offering counsel, but not money. It was not until year 7 the he offered me a loan for business expansion. This was a true relationship, in every sense of the word. Similar to Harry, they took care of all PPP and EIDL stuff.

Bottom line; create a relationship with a local/regional banking executive. Let them get to know you and visa versa. The three banks I do business with have all earned my business through this process. $100k companies up to $100 million companies can benefit from this.

Just my 1.5 cents

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Nov 21, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

I am in the western suburbs of Chicago and have used West Suburban Bank for over 10 years. I like the personal service and attention. During these 10 years I have worked with two commercial lenders and still have access to the first (he got promoted). I have borrowed money a number of times and each time went smoothly. I believe they can work with any size business and think they excel with the small to mid-size.

The have recently been acquired by Old Second (other regional bank) and I expect the same level of service due to past experience with Old Second.

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Nov 21, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

Loren.. I used to be a banker before owning a business. If I can be of help, let me know.

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Nov 22, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

I currently bank with Beneficial State Bank and absolutely love them. I work with people who know my name, get back to me immediately to do what they can to help. I am a person to them, and they know our business well. Rather than a spreadsheet being the end all, loan decisions are made starting with how they feel about me and our business. They helped me buyout an evil bank that screwed me on a commercial building loan and have also given us a $250K line of credit that automatically converts into a term loan if we don't renew. Can't say enough good things about Andy Furrow and Craig Hill there. Because they are a mission focused bank they don't have much competition for employees and people do not leave- always same people- always they know me- always they take care of me. I think they would be a great fit for small businesses around 1-10M in revenue.

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Nov 22, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

We've had 2 good banks and one crappy behemoth. Since one of the good ones, and our amazing banker were bought by a different crappy behemoth, that leaves one: Wintrust. They're local to the Chicago area, I love our banker (I agree, the banker is key), and yes we've borrowed money.

As for size, I know they work with folks much larger than us, but I can't say for sure who or in what manner.

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Nov 26, 2021Liked by Loren Feldman

Worked with small regional Beacon Community in Charleston SC. Extremely responsive, have set up LOC which had local fast decision making and they answer questions quickly. Highly recommend for small business.

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