Lisa Stevens, the head of small business banking at Wells Fargo, said the company is one of a few that continues to lend to small businesses. Over the past 10 years, it has made more Small Business Administration-backed loans than any other bank. JAE C. HONG / AP
NEW YORK (AP) - When Lisa Stevens speaks about her role as head of small business banking at Wells Fargo & Co., she says she focuses more on how she can help her customers rather than how she can grow the bank's loan portfolio.
Wells Fargo is already one of the country's biggest lenders to small business. Over the past 10 years, it has made more Small Business Administration-backed loans than any other bank, with a total of $8.5 billion. But Stevens is aware that her customers also include those who can't qualify for a loan.
"It's about getting a plan and helping people to set up and establish goals and move forward," says Stevens, who has led Wells Fargo's small business banking operations for two years.
Stevens meets with small business owners several times a week and finds that many are in need of guidance.
"They don't know what they don't know, and they don't know what's available to help them," she says.
Wells Fargo is working to expand its services to business owners, including finding more ways for them to do their banking via mobile devices. Stevens writes a blog aimed, in part, at women business owners. And Wells Fargo continues to promote its lending programs, particularly to women-owned companies.
Stevens recently spoke with The Associated Press about her job and small businesses. Here are excerpts, edited for brevity and clarity:
What's your take on the state of small businesses and their recovery from the recession?
It's been very broad, with positive trends, and we've seen it regionally and across major industries. In regions like California and Florida and Arizona and the industries that were significantly impacted by the recession, we've seen the most improvement. We know that more than 20 percent of small businesses are in industries that are directly impacted by what happens in the overall real estate market. Construction, interior design, architectural services, landscaping, the list goes on. But we think there would also be a much larger impact on all small businesses from an improvement in the real estate market.
How does a major bank like Wells Fargo win over small business owners who might believe they'd be better off working with a smaller bank?
In the second quarter, lending on our Business Direct credit cards, lines of credit and loan products that are primarily under $100,000 were up 55 percent. These are for the small mom-and-pop startup businesses that are maybe opening their doors or are just starting to expand with that new employee, or maybe a new piece of equipment.
Being the No. 1 small business lender for 10 years gives us some credibility in any community. In every single community where you have a branch location, across the entire nation, there's someone in those branches, in those communities that can help small businesses be successful.
With small business customers, so much of it is about the relationship. You don't all of a sudden say, "I'm going to start a business and I'm going into a Wells Fargo branch and they're going to give me a loan." You've got to figure out what your business plan is, what you're going to do. Then, over time, we have to figure out what we need to do as a banker to help you understand how you can be successful. There's a lot more to the banking relationship than just the lending part.
What can an owner expect Wells Fargo to do to help them get on the path toward being able to borrow?
We support community-based organizations and microlenders who can make those loans. We've invested more than $95 million in 108 microfinance small business lending organizations since 1998. That's an important way to sometimes get help for people who can't work with the traditional financial institution at the start.
The biggest thing is figuring out, what are the company's goals, and what's realistic? Part of the job of the banker with the small business customer is to say, how can we have your business grow without you leveraging yourself too much? What's the step-by-step process so a year from now, 18 months from now, two years from now, when you are ready to take out that loan, you've got the credit, you've got the good credit score, you've got the stability of what's been happening with the business.
It's not just about credit. It's about how are they building the business to keep it moving. That's the biggest part for the small business owners to understand.
Original Print Headline: Relationship with lender is key
