Like VoIP business phones, community banks drawing business customers

In today’s business environment, company owners and managers need to be constantly moving toward bigger and better solutions that could help their bottom lines and make them more competitive in the market. As a result, many business owners are choosing to borrow from community banks rather than large financial institutions, according to Entrepreneur Magazine.

Part of the reason for this transition is that smaller community banks are looking to gain a larger share of the market, as the problems major institutions face haven’t hit smaller banks as hard. Many of these larger institutions were preoccupied with transitioning due to new legislative acts or simply weren’t lending to customers who they deemed to be a big investment risk.

“We take out billboards that say, ‘We have money to lend,'” CEO Rusty Cloutier of MidSouth Bancorp, which serves southern Louisiana and eastern Texas, told the news source. “Every Thursday morning, we have an aggressive calling campaign where all of our offices are calling on small businesses, trying to get our bid out and find ways we can lend to them.”

Cloutier is trying to attract small business customers with low-interest lending available at as low as 1 percent, the media outlet says. While affordable loans can help a business grow, small companies can also cut costs in other areas to improve their bottom line.

For example, recent studies suggest that switching to VoIP business phones that offer cloud computing and other complimentary features can reduce a company’s communications costs. This is especially true if members of the business make frequent international calls, and that savings can also be increased by working with a provider that offers installation and training services that won’t deplete a company’s existing resources.

Cloutier is trying to attract small business customers with low-interest lending available at as low as 1 percent, the media outlet says. While affordable loans can help a business grow, small companies can also cut costs in other areas to improve their bottom line.