CFA Entrepreneurial Finance and Factoring Conference - The Value of Collaboration

By Toby Dahm, Senior Vice President, Hennessey Capital

I have just returned from the Commercial Finance Association’s annual Entrepreneurial Finance and Factoring Conference.  This is an event where specialty lenders that serve the smaller part of the financing spectrum come together to share ideas, build new relationships and cultivate existing ones.  Each year I get more out of it.  This year I came back with a particularly strong sense that the relationships I forged and the ideas that we shared as a group will play a big role in the growth and strengthening of Hennessey Capital.

In a word, the key to the value of the conference is collaboration.  Although many of us may compete, there is a feeling that we are on a common mission.  We fill various financing niches.  Each one of us meets a need, many of which are underserved.  In order to be successful, we all must understand and manage risk wisely, while creating prosperity for our clients and our firms.

I met a number of people whose firms complement what we do.  By partnering with other specialists, such as purchase order lenders, or export finance firms, we will be able to meet a much broader financing need than any of our individual firms could do.  In addition, I met numerous niche lenders that may not complement what we do, but who can meet financing needs that we cannot and thus become a valuable business resource.  We call the concept of building our network and using it to the benefit of clients and associates “network capital”.  This conference provides a great opportunity to expand our network capital.

The key to having this collaboration work is the attitude of being on a common mission.  There is a strong need for what we collectively do and there is enough business for all of us to prosper if we continue to improve as a group.  The pie is not finite.  If we grow the pie, we all eat more.

I look forward to continuing some of the initiatives that we started at the conference and building on the relationships formed.  Most of all, I look forward to coming together as a group again in November.  This is definitely a group where one plus one is more than two.