Building A Relationship With Your Banker

Though most business owners realize the imperative of finding the right bank, what’s often overlooked is the importance of sustaining a good relationship with bankers after the fact.
Here are a few suggestions on how you can be more candid with your banker:
Provide Your Banker Monthly Financial Statements. If you aren’t producing monthly statements, then start immediately.
Be Creative. Keeping your banker abreast of your business doesn’t have to be a humdrum task. Inform them to a fault via newsletters, emails, personal visits or event outings.
Prepare Your Banker For The Worst. Let your banker know about the possibility of unprofitable times. Most bankers will work with you as long as you keep them closely informed.
Exhibit Some Strategy. Wamsganz states that a great way of sealing the association is by preparing a company plan and communicating it to the banker. This should include what each of your short-, mid-, and long-term business/personal goals are.
Invite Them For An On-Site Tour. Seeing a business on paper is great, but it’s not enough. The more familiar a banker is with your locations, employees, business processes, and assets, the more they’ll be able to help out.
Introduce Bankers To Accountants. You’ll rest much easier knowing that these two are on the same page.
Be Proactive. If you know you won’t have enough money in your operating account to cover checks on a particular day, pick up the phone and call your banker. Ask if they can cover you on it. Be proactive versus doing nothing about it and waiting for it to show up on the overdraft.