A look at the annual Commercial Finance Association conference

By: Jeff Wright, Senior Vice President, Hennessey Capital

I recently attended the CFA Annual Conference held in Las Vegas. The theme throughout the conference was “Opportunities. With the current lending environment being what it is and access to capital tougher to acquire, plenty of opportunities exist for asset based lenders to help both small and mid-sized companies finance their working capital needs.

The event was highlighted by the key note speaker, Condoleezza Rice, sharing her experiences as the Secretary of State. She stressed that free trade is critical and that the U.S will be led out of the recession by the private sector investment and their willingness to take risk. Ron Shapiro, author of “Power of Nice” discussed how to be prepared. His eight-step methodical approach to being prepared and out performing the competition is

1. Understand your objectives
2. Plan with precedents
3. Know of alternatives
4. Define the interests
5.  Set your strategy
6. Do a timeline
7. Pick your team
8. Write a script