Sean Murray: I've been told the industry is back in the office,
but I wanted to see it for myself. So I visited the well
known commercial finance company on Long Island, National
Business Capital, and it's YouTube personality CEO, Grow By
Joe.
Joe Camberato: Welcome, guys come on in.
National Business Capital was founded in 2007. Since then,
we've secured over a billion dollars in financing for
business owners all across the country, we've built a really
cool platform, it's got over 75 lenders on it. And we just
simply and easily connect business owners to the right
financing for their business.
Sean Murray: With more than 14 years in business, national
survived a pandemic, and is still going strong.
Joe Camberato: It was a wild time to say the least. I mean, I
think it was just a wild time in the world for everybody,
anybody, who owned a business. And I think even if you didn't
own a business, everyone was faced with, you know, challenges
that they never experienced before.
Sean Murray: So I was going to ask you if you preferred, remote
or in person, and I think I have my answer, just by being here,
you know, there's people in the room.
Joe Camberato: Yes, we have real people here, definitely in
person, you know, it's great, the technology with Zoom and
stuff, I think is awesome to communicate with people across
the country across the world, in another state. I think it'll
help with meetings and stuff like that. But I think the
reality is in person is where it's at.
Sean Murray: One thing that comes with experience is having
a well trained sales force and a model that produces consistent
deal flow. How long does it take? Because you've been in the
business for a long time?
Joe Camberato: Yeah.
Sean Murray: How long does it take for everyone else? Or, or a
normal person to learn how to offer these products know the
ins and outs of them? Like how long would you say, it really
takes someone to get a good grip, in understanding it?
Joe Camberato: It's really never ending like we we do never
ending training. We do a weekly like lender guideline update
training, um, because guidelines are constantly training. So the
trainings, never ending. But I think the reality is, it takes a
solid nine to 12 months for someone to really get up and
running. And I think year one, someone's in a really great
place here at the company. And that's like, we have a specific,
we have a success coach, his position is just all he does is
training with all the business financing advisors here, and
then he'll stick with you, you know, along the way. But even
you know, with the structured with the training, I mean, you
know, it takes nine to 12 months for someone to really, really
get it and I think at 12 months it things are really just
starting to click and you know, when you approve someone for
100,000, 250,000, half a million, million plus dollars,
busienss owners want to talk to somebody they want to
understand, they have questions. So I think it's a combination of
understanding the lender guidelines, understanding all
the different products, and then every lender is a little bit
different in the way they operate. So it's a lot of
training, and then also just understanding business and
people's businesses and their needs and opportunity. And it's
not an easy thing to do. It's probably the hardest part of it
all.
Sean Murray: So nine to 12 months, a success coach, what
would you say to someone then just starting out? Or looking to
get into it? Is it still possible to just start up a
company?
Joe Camberato: I mean, it's a great question. I mean, listen,
I think anything's possible, it's just a matter of how much
work you want to put into it. And how you know, what you're
looking to build. And I think, whether it's this industry or
any industry, if you're going to build a business, there's a
major sacrifice, there's a lot of upfront work, you've got five
to seven years of work to come, work ahead of you. And for
things to really come together. And I think that's really in any
business in any industry, you know, talk to any business
owner. And even if you were able to raise a ton of money, like,
when you start a new company, you got at least five years
ahead of you of relentless, you know, building and growth. So,
you know, I would say just prepare yourself and be prepared
to work really hard. It's a lot of long hours. And then the
reality is, the industry has really evolved tremendously. So
there's been a lot of established players, technology,
infrastructure brands that have been built. So you're competing
with that. So really know what you're getting into and bigger
is not better at you know, maybe it makes sense to have a tight
lean shop. You know, it's a really tough answer. And even
when I got started 14 years ago, it didn't really come together
till about seven years in, you know, so. And that was with
working around the clock, you know, and you look at any
business, any industry, it's really the same thing. And think
a lot of people it's very easy. You know, there's that like
saying in that quote, like everyone sees the player on the
field, but no one sees all the training that happened. The
years of training, I think is the same thing when you're
building a company and a business. Everyone just happens
to see you and things are all great, but no one sees all the
work that was done. Wait long hours.
Sean Murray: With all the knowledge and training required
getting into the business now could prove daunting. Where do
these deals come from? Are you just picking up the phone and
dialing from the phonebook or are you buying leads? How do you
find these people?
Joe Camberato: No, we are we knocked down from the phonebook.
I haven't seen a phone book in years.
Sean Murray: I'm showing my age a little bit.
Joe Camberato: That's great. We don't really buy leads, and
we'll test and we'll test buying different things and see how
they perform. But we've done the best. We produce a lot of
different content. We have a big online presence. And then all
the typical channels like Google, Pay-per-click, Direct
Mail, and Strategic Partnerships. So I think just a
mix of getting business from all over but we're not we're not an
outbound dialing, you know, business. You know, most of, all
of our customers are calling into us, and we're applying on
the website.
Sean Murray: I asked Joe, what he thinks about the future of
this industry.
Joe Camberato: I'm bullish, I'm excited about what's ahead. The
reality is businesses are going to need financing to get back to
where they were and beyond. I think there's still you know, a
road ahead. I don't think things are just going to boom back
overnight. But I do think business is going to slingshot
back. I think the economy is going to read boom, again, we
see each month the momentum building so I'm really excited
about the second half of this year. I'm really excited about
next year. I'm already my mind's already into into next year the
way I work and operate.
Sean Murray: I'm Sean Murray reporting from the headquarters
of National Business Capital in Long Island.