There's NO WAY.. I'm letting this one go.

"Just venting" she texted. The Nth time I'd seen the same message over the last couple of months.

The lender would do something "irrational" and Lauren would check-in to find out if they were in fact overreaching or if it was just part of the process. Most of it, was just part of the process. And honestly it's why I do - what I do. Business owners, or those looking to buy or start businesses, just don't speak "SBA". While the lender's are meant to coach their clients through the various stages of getting an SBA loan, sometimes it just helps when it's NOT coming from them. A middleman willing and able to go to bat for both sides. Someone to remind the bank it's okay that the application has a typo (we'll fix it before we close). Or someone to tell the borrower why it matters if you're going to add investors in the mix.

When I first met Lauren, just 65 days ago, I could tell she wasn't going to take no for an answer. I soon learned that also meant I wouldn't take no for an answer either.

"Tell me what to do, and I'll do it. If I need a bigger down payment, I'll find it." She said. While I wish it was always just as easy as going to find more to put as a down payment, we all know it's not. But, I told her I'd see what I could do. I sent her a list of "busy work" while I made a few calls to gauge interest. It took her all of an hour to get me back her rough draft business plan, application forms, tax returns, etc. There was no busy work with, Lauren, if it was a task in front of her you might as well consider it finished.

She's a successful wedding planner who has built start-up venues for other owners, and was ready to go out on her own. She had found the property she knew was going to be hers. I briefly mentioned some smaller places or other ideas, but she was adamant. This plan works for this specific property on this specific Island, and here is why. There were holes all through her plan, but as soon as there were pointed out she had a thorough and well planned answer to plug the gap. Every. Time. She simply needed help getting the mess in her mind out on a piece of paper so a potential lender could understand as well. That's where we were able to help most here, I think.

I typically stay with my same core group of partner lenders. They understand my clients needs and they close deals. In this case, I had spoken with a lender a few months ago about a potential deal in the US Virgin Islands. She said that her bank would be open to looking at these deals so long as there wasn't heavy construction, and so I earmarked them as a potential source if it came up again. Well, it did. Laurens dream property was located on Water Island in the USVI. Somewhat excited knowing that this lender had mentioned start-ups and the Virgin Islands before, I figured I'd give them a try. I was just certain they'd love her and her project as much as I did.

"She is in NO WAY strong enough for this loan in the VI.  We would not be interested at all." Was the response I got from them. It's one thing to bounce something like that off of me, and it still stung a bit. I'd hate to imagine what she might would have said directly to Lauren if she had applied straight with them. Likely not something as blunt, but it could have still carried a sting deep enough to knock the wind out of her sails (I actually don't think anything would have stopped her, but still).

I don't think I ever even mentioned this hiccup to Lauren. I didn't need to. Luckily, this wasn't our first time financing a project in the Virgin Islands. I called on my previous partner who had funded one of our other VI projects, and walked him through the deal. You know what he did? Asked questions. You know what we did? We answered them. You know what happened next? We closed.

Today, Lauren closes on her dream property, in her dream location, to start her dream business. And I'm proud to have played a part in bringing this dream to reality.

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