Speed is a relative concept. What’s slow to you can seem like lightyears to someone else. But when it comes to small business lending processes, most lending institutions and small business owners can agree—it’s slow. Slower than it should be and slower than it can be!
Communication lags, processes delay, materials come and go slowly, and time wastes away. Operations are inefficient on both sides of the equation, and everyone feels the pain. If one thing is true of today’s world, it’s that we’re not well-suited to waiting—for anything.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. The efficient, personalized, quick-touch applications we rely on to manage our personal finances every day are a testament to that. Now, digital, automated solutions are breaking into the small business lending space, redefining the speed of small business lending, and opening up more opportunities for not just higher ROI, but rapid ROI.
From your rate of return on a single small business loan to overall revenue on your entire small business portfolio, a small business lending solution with end-to-end automation capabilities can generate higher returns in less time—reducing time-to-revenue at every level of your lending operations. Here’s how you can select a solution that generates ROI at speed and scale.
Look to individual loans as a model
As you turn to digital to streamline small business lending, keep in mind that the key to quicker returns isn’t just automation, it’s end-to-end automation.
A digital solution that connects the dots along the entire small business lending continuum—from origination to underwriting to funding and repayment—creates the greatest opportunity for speed. Minimizing manual tasks, reducing wait-times between steps, and removing in-person interactions entirely.
With a fully automated end-to-end small business lending solution, your institution can completely fund a small business loan in less than ten minutes—without incurring any additional risk, and simultaneously reducing the total cost of the transaction. What does this mean? Rapid, higher-value ROI—and an easy-to-implement solution to increasing both productivity and profitability.
Prioritize speed from the start of your search
When it comes to maximizing the value of your small business lending solution, survey the competitive landscape and select the option with the quickest path to the highest ROI. Most options can take a year or more to go live.
Comprehensive data collection, integration, transition, and acclimation processes can be lengthy throughout the transformation phase. In these cases, ROI won’t roll in for a full year, at minimum. In the context of high upfront costs and smaller-sum small business loans, a lengthy transition can mean taking a financial hit. Other solutions can get your small business operations up and running in as little as 90 days. This can mean breaking even in as little as six months—eight at most—and progressively boosting your bottom line from there. It’s simple: successful small business lending starts with speed—and so should your digital solution.
Determining which small business lending solution will deliver the highest value ROI to your lending institution starts with asking the same questions your small business lending customers are asking themselves: why wait?
Start getting higher ROI on your small business loans.
