BLUE COLLAR CFOsBoots before spreadsheetsBoots on the ground, before it becomes a workout.
When the collateral is in trouble or a borrower needs help, banks and lenders bring our team in. We go see what is really there, get the business back on track with the lender, and give your team what it needs to decide, before charge-off or liquidation is the only option left.
Most credits do not fail on day one. They drift.
A covenant gets waived. The reporting comes in late, then stops tying. Payments land on the last day. Nobody has seen the trucks in a while. By the time the file moves to special assets, the options have narrowed and the relationship has soured. The earlier somebody is on the ground, the more ways there are to fix it.
Work for the bank, or work inside the borrower.
Eyes on the collateral and the books
You hire us, and the report comes to you. Site inspections with every unit checked against the schedule. Desktop equipment appraisals at orderly and forced liquidation value. Suspected-fraud reviews. Credit reviews of underperforming loans, with a plain recommendation: hold, restructure or exit.
Lender services »A turnaround CFO in the business
With your introduction and the borrower's consent, our team becomes the borrower's finance function. A thirteen-week cash forecast and a full map of the debt stack in the first two weeks, then the structure fixed and a monthly reporting package in the format your workout team needs.
Special assets »Call before the file goes to workout.
- A covenant missed, or waived more than once
- Financials or borrowing base reports that arrive late or do not tie
- Receivables that do not match the deposits
- Payments coming in on the last day, or not at all
- Equipment notes behind, or collateral nobody has seen in a while
- An owner who has gone quiet
- A file on its way to special assets
It is rarely the losses that kill these credits. It is the absence of information. A borrower who cannot produce a thirteen-week cash forecast cannot be underwritten, cannot be forborne and cannot be trusted, whether or not the underlying business still works.
Fear is what kills these companies. Information is what stops the fear.
Getting the business right with the lender.
The goal is a borrower the lender can keep: real numbers on a schedule, a structure the business can carry, and someone on the borrower's side who speaks credit.
Our team came up on the lending side of these facilities: underwriting them, funding them, monitoring them and, when they went wrong, recovering on them. We know what the committee is worried about, what a forbearance realistically looks like and which requests get granted.
Every member of our team has operated the equipment and sat on the other side of the table.
- Higher recovery than liquidation. Equipment at auction brings orderly liquidation value at best. A stabilized business services its debt.
- Clean optics. The file shows a borrower who brought in professional help and produced reporting, not one who went quiet.
- The relationship survives. Owners remember which lender helped them through it.
- An honest answer if it cannot be fixed. We run buy-side M&A as well. If the answer is a sale, an orderly sale to a qualified buyer beats an auction.
Straight answers.
When should a lender call you?
Before the file goes to workout. A missed covenant, reporting that is late or does not tie, payments arriving on the last day, collateral nobody has seen in a while. The earlier we are in, the more options are left.
Who do you work for?
It depends on how you bring us in. When the lender hires us to inspect, appraise or review, we work for the lender and the report goes to the lender. When we go inside the borrower as its turnaround CFO, we work as the borrower's finance function, with the lender's introduction and the borrower's consent, and the lender gets reporting in the format its team needs.
What happens in the first two weeks inside a borrower?
A thirteen-week cash forecast built from the bank account, and a full map of the debt stack: senior debt, equipment notes, factoring, merchant advances, taxes and guarantees. That is usually the point at which a workout officer can tell whether the file is fixable.
What if the business cannot be saved?
Then we say so, quickly, and the conversation turns to recovery. We run buy-side M&A as well, so we have real buyers for distressed asset-heavy companies. An orderly sale to a qualified buyer beats an auction of a fleet almost every time.
Where and in which industries do you work?
We are based in Caldwell, Idaho and work nationwide, with trucking and logistics, construction, excavation, oil & gas services, manufacturing and specialty trades borrowers.
Have a borrower heading the wrong way?
Tell us the industry, the collateral and what is bothering you. Thirty minutes will tell you what we would look at first, and whether there is something left to save.