I was recently nominated to join a local, fairly exclusive, “CEOs Club” where we meet once a month for dinner and have guest speakers from all around the “business building” spectrum.

Late last week was their second meeting (the first I attended) this year, I had no idea what to expect but was pleasently surprised.

The structure is that we all get there about an hour before dinner and stand around networking. After that we grab dinner and sit down to eat. As we’re eating, the guest speakers start presenting on the topic of the day - the presentations are about 1 - 1.5 hours.

The networking was obviously one of my favorite parts of the meeting - I got a chance to hear about some amazing companies and great ideas.

The actual “training” session was OK, I’d give it a 6 on a 1-10 scale, but I did learn a few things that I will blog over the next couple of days.

Here’s something I learned - Part 1 of a series I’ll do over the next few posts…

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Getting Bank Loans - Displaying TANGIBLE Value In The Intangible…

There was a veteran banker presenting and she mentioned something that I think is important for everyone to know. She said that many times banks prefer to back companies that have a lot of “physical” assets like equipment, etc…

This is because that equipment serves as “collateral” to the loan. However, this is a big issue for “internet” and many “technology” companies who’s biggest physical assets are a few computers.

In a situation like that, it truly is hard to get a bank line of credit. A tip she gave…

1. If you’re profitable - TELL THEM THAT. She said to make it very clear if you’re cash flow positive, they like that.

2. If you own “digital” assets - For example if you have a customer list, lead list, etc… These are still valuable things that the bank could sell if need be.

So if you have an internet business, don’t despair - you CAN still get a line of credit from a bank. It’ll just be harder and you’ll have to apply to more banks to find the right “understanding” banker.

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