Ron Sturgeon

With fewer small business loans being given and fewer community banks to give them, you need to know everything you can about getting to yes with your banker.

This book exists because many of the questions that entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs ask me are about how to get the money to start or grow a business.

What I know about working with bankers was learned by trial and error. I wish I had had a book like the one that you’re holding when I first applied for a small business loan.

Such a book would have given me a much better appreciation for what a banker needs to approve a small business loan and the ways that I can make his or her job easier.

Over the last 30 years, I’ve borrowed money to start and grow businesses in a variety of industries, and each experience has taught me more about the path to yes.

I’m passionate about business and helping other businesspeople succeed, and glad to share what I have learned.

Apply the principles and advice in these pages and you will be on your way.

Greg Morse

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted. And experience is often the most valuable thing we have to offer. Experience is given and taught from many people. Looking back, my dad was much more influential on me than I could ever have imagined. We often grow up and don’t realize who some of our best mentors are until it’s too late to thank them. A rancher named Sid Evans taught me how to pull a calf, pull an all-nighter and how to pull off a great business deal. He also taught me that a man can’t drown in his own sweat.

I would be remiss if I failed to mention the hundreds of teachers, professors, colleagues, bosses, leaders, employees and friends that have helped me live my dream. At this juncture I also have to extend thanks to the best grammar teacher I ever had, Sammie Slocum. She was a secretary of mine in the late ’80s and early ‘90s. One of the hardest tasks of her career had to be teaching a 25-year-old-plus, hard-headed male how to write a sentence. She even remains a great friend today.

I thank Ron Sturgeon for picking me to help author a book with him. I would also like to thank Jennifer Henderson, who told me I was not crazy to co-author a book with Ron Sturgeon.

I have always believed that my potential is God’s gift to me. What I do with my potential is my gift to God.