Having been at Reward for a month I thought I would take an opportunity to say a huge thank you to all my contacts, introducers and friends who have been incredibly supportive since I landed.
They say that first impressions count for a lot. All I can say is it’s been a long time since I encountered such a vibrant, creative, can do approach to business and to top it all off, what a great bunch of people to work with.
The thing that really strikes you about the business is that it keeps things really simple. It’s just ‘common sense’ lending which helps businesses of all shapes and sizes with all kinds of requirements, not all of them straightforward!
What’s equally impressive is the speed with which transactions are turned around. All deals are underwritten in house, which means we can shape deals quickly to get the client what he wants. This is down to the years of experience that our senior management team have and the simple fact that they make the decisions. That is critical in the fast-moving, digital era that we live in, where businesses can access numerous lenders at the click of a button but perhaps won’t get the very hands-on approach that we provide, nor the flexibility to restructure things at a moment’s notice.
Some people say we are quirky, it’s probably a term I’ve used myself since I’ve been here. I understand that, but perhaps I’d be tempted to use words like “creative”, “different”, “common-sense” to better describe what we do and how we do it.
Our push into the North West has continued at pace and we’ve moved into larger offices since I’ve been here, and a big thanks to Russ and Paula for sorting that out…sadly I was otherwise engaged on moving day!
I’ve had a few jobs over the years and am often asked which I enjoyed the most and, if I’m being honest, I always recall the 9 very happy years I had at First National Bank where we specialised in consumer lending, leasing and commercial mortgages. Why??….because there was always another proposal to look at, always another customer to lend to and such a variety of products with all kinds of different scenarios.
Reward reminds me of those times…..lots going on with a real buzz about the business and two days never the same.
Here’s to 9 more very happy years.