Intro:
Broadcasting live from the Business Radio X studios in Detroit, Michigan. It's time for Detroit Business Radio. Now, here's your host.
The Mag
Lee Canter here is another episode of Detroit Business Radio, and this is going to be a good one. But before we get into it, it's important to recognize our sponsor, Activate your great consulting agency who's supporting this episode. Today on Detroit Business Radio, we have Ted Austin with Bank Michigan. Welcome, Ted.
Ted Austin:
Hey, Lee, how are you?
The Mag
I am excited to learn what you're up to tell us a little bit about bank Michigan, how are you serving folks?
Ted Austin:
You know, bank Michigan, we're a small community bank, we're based out of Brooklyn, Michigan. But we've got branches in Ann Arbor, Onstad, in Brooklyn. And, you know, we're able to serve as people, we have a great online presence as well. So we can do a lot of stuff digitally. But we've been, we've been around since 1907. We were founded in 1907, Arbor Onstad small farming town, but we, you know, throughout the years, we've grown and with technology, and we still utilize the latest technology to help service our clients even though we're a small community bank. So
The Mag
Now can you explain to our listeners the difference between maybe kind of the billboard bank that they might see, maybe that's on a stadium? Versus a community bank? Can you explain to how those two entities, may think they're the same, but they're very different, aren't they?
Ted Austin:
Yeah, very different, you know, when, when, when you have a big bank, because I've worked, you know, I've been in banking, banking and financial services for, you know, over 15 years now, myself, and I worked for some of the big guys, and now I work for, you know, a small community bank, and it's a world of difference. You know, when when you have a big bank, you walk in, and you do, you know, functionally they function a lot the same, right, you have your transactions, but on the back end is the difference. You know, when, when I'm sitting down with a customer, I know that customer's name, I know everything about them. And I really, you know, we really stress building relationships, and building a partnership with our clients, you know, and helping them as opposed to them just being numbers on a paper and, and having, you know, fill in, you know, filling out a box and checking all the boxes on a form. You know, we really try to help our customers and go out of our way and know their business almost as well as they do so that we can help provide them guidance and support and do whatever they need to do to grow their business.
The Mag
And in today's business climate, that to me is critical. Because that could be the difference between, you know, getting an SBA approved a loan, it could be the difference between getting some of that PPP. Having a partner as your banker as a partner could be game-changing.
Ted Austin:
Yeah, absolutely a bit, you know, when you have a relationship with your banker, it really, you know, your banker becomes an advocate for you and your business, right, so, so when I've got my client sitting in front of me, my you know, I don't like to compromise, you know, I'm more of a partner with them, you know, I feel I have a vested stake in their business, you know, maybe not as much as they do, obviously, as being the business owner, but you know, we have quite a vested stake in their business as well. So we really want their business to succeed. So, you know, we really do everything we can we put 100% of our energy into, you know, getting that and stuff like PPP loans, we have an SBA division, which is actually something unusual for some, you know, some of the smaller banks don't have a dedicated SBA division, they'll do SBA loans, but we actually have a dedicated SBA team. And so we really try and come up with all the different products and services and try and be come up with the best way to to make their business successful and give them what they need. I like to say when other banks say no, you know, we try and find a way to say yes, you know, even if we have to be creative about it.
The Mag
Right, so your client or customer or partner is actually getting pretty much everything they would get from one of these kinds of mega banks, but they're also getting that a lot more personal service and advocacy of you helping them and watching their back.
Ted Austin:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. That that advocacy and that partnership really is the Keystone for the community banks, you know, it's, we have the best interest at heart for them and they know when they walk in the door, or even you know, even if they don't walk in the door, we're looking out for them and they're our number one priority. You know, we don't it's not they're not just another number that if something goes wrong, we can just go out and find another customer you know, there are a partner you know, we really stressed having a partnership with them and, and we're not afraid to have the hard conversations with them if we think things are going bad and or we think they need to make changes. Well. We'll sit down and have those cameras stations within we'd like to, we'd like to shoot it straight. And, you know, I think that's really important for our business person, you don't want to waste time with, you know, trying to track people down or having you know, or somebody who's beating around the bush and just kind of giving you the runaround, if they don't want to work with you, you know, we try to cheat our customers straight.
The Mag
Well, even worse to me is the fact that every time you go in there, there's somebody else in there, like you're the person you might have dealt with in the big bank, you know, last week isn't there this week, there's somebody else, and you got to re-explain everything, and they don't know who you are, you're just kind of a name on a spreadsheet. And
Ted Austin:
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely staff turn to no turnover is one of the that's one of the biggest headaches I've heard about complaints about larger banks is they don't know who they're dealing with. And with me, you know, that personalized information, you know, the CEO of my bank is in my office, you know, three, three days a week, he walks into my office and has a conversation with me about my clients, and what can we do for him? You know, and we have that, you know, so that we, you know, the CEO of our bank is actually working directly with clients as opposed to in you don't get that at, you know, one of the big banks.
The Mag
Now, let's talk a little bit you mentioned earlier about this SBA loan program that what you're doing is a lot different than maybe other community banks, and even maybe even some of these larger banks. Can you talk about, you know, how you help get access to capital because that's one of the biggest hurdles for small businesses' access to capital? And if you've kind of figured out a way to help these folks, kind of get those SBA loans where maybe they were having a difficult time, or maybe they didn't even consider getting one because they thought it was too impossible.
Ted Austin:
Yeah, there's, you know, the SBA is a great tool. We implemented our SBA team, all I want is that we brought them on board. October of last year, October of 20, I'm sorry, October 19. Not October of last year, I can't believe time flies when you're having fun, right? October 19, is when we started our dedicated SBA team and Katie and Mike, do a great job, they specifically dedicate 100% of their time to working with SBA deals, because when you're dealing with the SBA, it can be a little bit more cumbersome. So a lot of people, a lot of business owners will say I don't want to deal with the SBA, because it's you're dealing with a government agency, and the bureaucracy of getting one of those laws can be very intimidating for somebody who owns. You know, let's say you own a manufacturing plant or in New Zealand, you know, most of your time is being consumed by running your day-to-day business to have to deal with the bureaucracy of a federal government agency can really be intimidating.
So Katie, and Mike and our SBA team do a fantastic job, they kind of run make it super simple for our business owners, they actually put together all the paperwork, we'll go over every line, you know, make sure all the T's are dotted, all the eyes are crossed, or however, however it goes and, and, you know, make sure everything is perfect. So if the if is if an SBA loan is appropriate, and there's a lot of cases where an SBA loan can be appropriate for our business, you know, they don't need to feel intimidated or feel scared to go through that, because our guide will walk them right through it and kind of do it do everything for them and make it as easy as possible. I've seen, you know, working in something when I was working in one of the larger banks, I've seen SBA loans that took, you know, anywhere from four to six months to close, you know, from application to closing. And I've seen Katie and Mike I've seen them close SBA deals in as little as three weeks. So they really cut down on the time and hassle that it takes, you know, for the business owners a lot. And the SBA can be a great source of capital, because, you know, there's a couple of things that the banks look at when they're trying to figure out a deal for our customer. And then they look at collateral, and they look at cash flow. And if one of those, you know, for a bank to do a traditional loan, the client needs to have good collateral, and they have to have good cash flow. Well, that's that makes the deal a no-brainer. But what the SBA does is the SBA will guarantee those loans, sometimes up to 90% of the loan to the bank and say, hey, if there's a problem here, because there's maybe the collateral there's a shortfall on collateral, or maybe the deal doesn't cash flow out perfectly.
USBA takes a lot of the risk off of the bank so that that allows the bank to make loans to customers who have a shortfall in one of those areas and gives us a little bit more latitude to work with some of those, those people and then it also make they're also it's also a great resource for the customer themselves because the SBA is going to put a lot of or procedures in play. They put a lot of procedures in place to make sure that the client is getting a good deal, right that they're not getting taken. advantage of, there's a lot of hoops that you have to jump through that, you know, for you to get a loan that, you know, let's say you're purchasing a business, right? You, you have to make sure that that business is a fair price, and you're not getting taken advantage of and, and it really becomes a good backstop to make sure that the business owners getting a good deal not to getting taken advantage of and but is still able to make the deal to get the capital that they need to really get to work and start growing their business.
The Mag
So now, what are some of the things that an SBA loan can be used for?
Ted Austin:
Oh, gosh, it's, I mean, it's quite a lot. We've done SBA loans for, you know, purchasing businesses, we've done, we've done SBA loans for, you know, just last year, we did one for a guy who was buying a buying his father out of the business. So we actually use that as a purchase. So if you want to like he had worked for the business for years, and he wanted to buy, his father was retiring, so they were able to do a set up an SBA loan so that they could, you know, the Son can purchase the assets, and the dad could take the money and go off and retire. And golf and sit on the beach, we've done that, you know, but even we've done SBA loans for, I've got a painter who set up an SBA line of credit so that he's able to buy paint in bulk and buy, you know, sprayers and all of his equipment, so that he could go out and do commercial work and do you know, do some bigger jobs and not have to worry about the cash flow of getting money from the client upfront or getting the job done.
So he has the money to buy the materials, you know, to go out and do the work, and then get paid from the client, he doesn't have to worry about he makes sure his guys get paid and all that. And he's got that cash flow purposes. So and we've even had, you know, you can use SBA loans to buy buildings or buy real estate or just an infusion of cash because you're you know, you have a new prototype that you're building, and you need to bring it to market, something like that.
The Mag
Now, I'm, I'm a big proponent of having a banker become part of your kind of trusted advisor, you know, maybe an informal, trusted adviser board that you might have, because of those reasons, you can help with access to the capital you can help with, you know, kind of keeping the financial engine running, in terms of the kind of watching our back. But also, you know, everybody in town, you know, all the players and you can really help from a networking standpoint as well, do you find that being in your seat, knowing so many business owners, it enables you to really kind of be a matchmaker and help maybe introduce some folks that maybe didn't know each other? But should?
Ted Austin:
Yeah, absolutely. You know, I think Michigan especially we take partnership, being a partner with our clients, very, very strong, we define the partnership, you know, if we've got, and I've done that multiple times, where I'll have a customer who, you know, we've got a customer who was a farmer who grows corn, or I'm sorry, well, we've got, you know, and he actually, we've introduced him to a customer who's using that corn to make mash for, you know, a distillery. And then we've got another customer who we've introduced to that will buy the used grain that you use to feed his pig. So we can, you know, we find that we try and find that help finds that symbiotic relationship, we've got one customer that's doing something and they come to us and say, Hey, I need this. And, you know, what can I do? And, you know, so we know, we've got another customer that's doing something in that same field or something that can be complementary to them, we absolutely will, you know, make that invite, maybe we will take them out both out to lunch and say, Hey, you guys should meet each other and see if you guys can do business. Again, we have a vested interest. We have as a community bank, we have a vested interest in being an economic engine to grow the economic forest in our community. And if so, if we can just make an introduction and be a resource for our clients, to make business connections or even, you know, client connections, we were absolutely more than willing to do that. We do that all the time.
The Mag
Now, the community bank, we've been talking a lot about business, but you're also there for personal financial solutions as well. Right?
Ted Austin:
Yeah, absolutely. We are, you know, we are, you know, members of FDIC and equal housing lenders. But we do Yeah, so we, we offer community, you know, consumer products as well. We have checking accounts, savings accounts, CDs, and money market accounts. We have all the same products and services that you would offer a home equity line of credit. You know, we really try and take a tool any kind of financial tool Somebody needs, you know, we want to be able to provide that for them.
The Mag
So, yeah, so now, what's the most rewarding part of the job for you?
Ted Austin:
You know, really, for me, I love working with the clients and working with people and watching them succeed. You know, one of my favorite clients that I talked about all the time, you know, obviously because of secrecy rules I can't get there was a client he started off as you had a taco truck, he was just a food truck service and tacos out of a truck and he came to me and wanted a loan to start as start a sit-down restaurant, he now has three sit down in over five years, he has actually grown up to have three sit down restaurants and still has a taco truck which is doing fantastic and, and you know, seeing him but being able to see him grow he now employs over 70 people. He's you know, he's struggling right now because of the pandemic obviously, but you know, he's staying afloat he's been able to stay afloat because he can do a lot of takeout and stuff like that we've been able to help him with a couple of PPP loans, but we keep them afloat, but he's doing a tremendous job and, and I have no doubt that his he's gonna keep growing. He's got, he's got plans to even keep growing is his restaurant once this is everything gets back in working order, but he's one of my favorite clients. And that's not because I still get free tacos when I go I just love when he, you know, his success story over the last five years, I've seen him be able to grow so much. It's been tremendous. So
The Mag
Well, I mean, like we were saying earlier during these chaotic times, this is when it would have been nice to have invested in a relationship with a banker like you. But you know, the next best time is today. So if somebody wants to learn more about bank Michigan, what's the best way to kind of connect with you or somebody on your team? Do you have a website?
Ted Austin:
Yeah, bankmichigan.com It's really easy in we chose bank Michigan as a name, because as a name and a statement right? We bank Michigan. So bankmichigan.com is a fantastic resource. You can learn all about our products and services. Reach out we're also on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram, we're on all those social media websites as well. Yeah, and we're always you can always reach out to us as well. My, my, my branch phone number here is is 517-592-1079. Give us a call here or hit me up on social media.
The Mag
Good stuff. Well, Ted, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You're doing important work and we appreciate you.
Ted Austin:
I appreciate you, Lee.
The Mag
All right. This is Lee canter. We'll see y'all next time on Detroit Business Radio.
Image source: https://www.facebook.com/ted.austin.773
