We in the lending industry have a front row seat to the pain Small Businesses are facing every day, such as supply chain issues, overseas manufacturing issues, cost of goods compressing margins, and an overall slow down in certain market segments bleeding through ancillary segments.
While a recent survey conducted by IOU Financial shows that the majority of Small Business owners are optimistic about how they will fare in 2023, there are still plenty of challenges to overcome; challenges that directly affect our business.
Businesses that are well run and make forward-thinking decisions as opposed to knee jerk emotional reactions will have an easier time navigating these turbulent economic headwinds. A market experiencing increased rates combined with increased delinquencies – January 2023 U.S. bankruptcy filings were the largest since 2010 – will expose the faults of weaker companies.
Fortunately, here at IOU Financial, this is NOT our first rodeo and our underwriters leverage over 20 million historical data points to analyze trends and adjust underwriting criteria with surgical precision. We have done what is needed to successfully weather economic headwinds that have been on the horizon for several months.
The bottom line is that we have experienced similar circumstances before and always managed to come back stronger. We have every confidence we will do it again and are endlessly thankful for our valued broker partners who continue to work with us to help fuel the success of those Small Businesses that will also overcome these challenges.
Robert Gloer
IOU Financial President and CEO
