Business lenders build business knowledge to assess, impress and help borrowers

While business lenders are well advised to be careful giving advice, you also play an important role in the brainstorming process when talking with your borrowers.

Developing your business know-how helps when meeting with:

• a prospective business borrower
• a current business borrower you would like to keep (and isn't that most of them?)
• a current business borrower requesting a restructure of their loan
  

To that end, I recommend you add to your weekly reading a few stories with practical ideas that a business has used to turn things around for the better.

I'll pass along the ones I stumble onto...and here is one.

Chris Carey is president of Chris Carey Advisors LLC, working with entrepreneurs on business redesign to increase profits and improve performance.

The Case for Sharing Company Performance Data

Small business owners often keep their managers in the dark. That's a huge mistake. Chris shares the steps one company took to bring their managers into the light and reverse a death spiral in the making. Read the article here...

If you like that one, take a look at Chris's Business Tip series published at BusinessWeek.com:
 

• Examine Pricing
• Create Forecasting for Business Units
• Assess Customer Profitability
• Establish Daily Forecasting
• Measure Current Performance

What are your favorite sources for honing your business knowledge?