050: Finding Financing with Mark Ritter

The Small Business School

My guest today is Mark Ritter. He is the CEO of MBFS and Nu Direction Lending and an expert in all things credit union and small business lending. We discuss the stages of his business; the early years, the biggest challenges, the best moments, and the mistakes and lessons he learned. We also discussed the process of small business loans, the advantages of approaching a credit union for a loan versus a traditional bank, the biggest mistake he sees small businesses make when looking for financing for their business, and his advice for someone who is just starting out and wanted to get a small business loan.

Today’s Guest

Mark Ritter

Mark Ritter is the CEO of MBFS and Nu Direction Lending. He is an expert in all things credit union and small business lending. Both organized are owned by credit unions and designed to help credit unions fund more loans to real estate investors and small business owners in their communities. In 2002, Mark started Members 1st Federal Credit Union’s business lending program as “one person and a desk” with no policies, products, staff, systems, or business members. That program grew to be one of the top ten in the nation in the number of loans, balances outstanding, and loan participation for federal credit unions. After ten years at Members 1st, he took on the challenge of being the CEO of a business lending credit union service organization (CUSO). Mark was the fifth CEO in five years for the organization, which lost money every month of its existence. In the past eight years at MBFS, Mark increased the number of credit unions the company services by over 8x, grew the revenue by 15x, and ensured positive cash flow every full year he’s been at the CUSO. More importantly, MBFS has helped countless credit union members gain the financing they need for small business and real estate investment needs.

Website:

• https://www.mbfs.org

Social Media:

• LinkedIn: @markrittermbfs