Have you ever had one of those days where you stop, gobsmacked by something or someone? By something so simple that you say to yourself, OMG, why didn’t I think of that? Years ago, I did, and frankly, it changed my life.
I can’t remember all the circumstances surrounding it. Still, I remember someone on one of our factory floors stopping me and making a brilliant suggestion for improving operations and saving money. I am pretty sure they stopped me because I was the only one from the ‘head office’ who gave a big smile to everyone, regardless of whether I knew them.
Irrespective of what the absolute truth was, I quickly learned it was smarter and better for my career to let everyone else talk, hand me workable suggestions and then let me figure out how to fashion and sell those ideas up the food chain.
All those years of silently biting my tongue are how I got comfortable admitting when and what I didn’t and do not know. Nobody has ever chastised me for saying, ‘I don’t know’; everyone has always been gracious and helpful. This is probably why I freely jumped into the ‘green world’ without any information, education or credibility. And why I figure I’ll have my PhD in all things green in a few short years from all the brilliant minds I have had the privilege of tapping into.
2024 in a nutshell
The beginning of this year began with a conversation about a UK technology that was finally ready for primetime and would forever change how businesses look at their industrial waste. I’ve even heard from a few of you saying you invested in that technology. Now, we end the year with a conversation about a new way of financing the process businesses must go through to transition from their old to new energy technologies. I hope some of you might be interested in adding your thoughts and experience to the mix.
Borrowing options for businesses
You may or may not know just how difficult it is for successful businesses to get extra liquidity for regular operations. There aren’t that many options. Bank loans for about 80% of real estate assets and 50% on inventory levels, if you’re lucky. Maybe 90% on receivables if you go the factoring route. Most everything else comes out of the regular cash flow stream each month.
The lack of flexible borrowing is one of the main reasons businesses will defer large maintenance projects for as long as possible. It’s also one of the main reasons why if something was planned and budgeted for at the beginning of the year, it suddenly gets removed before the end of the year. Insufficient cash flow generated from regular operations means monitoring all spending closely and making sacrifices.
You may or may not also know how transitioning from the old fossil fuel technology to the new energy technology is not so simple for businesses that WANT to join the ‘sustainable revolution.’ While the leadership team may have the best of intentions, the banks rarely see eye to eye with them.
News flash: transitioning from one energy form to another has little to do with growing the business. It has everything to do with maintaining the company’s current process. And those processes are typically seen as something other than worthwhile endeavours for borrowing money.
Enter — my guest
My guest is a recovering tax lawyer who is well-versed in all things law, finance, and economy. He has in-depth experience in the US real estate industry and knows a solid way that the real estate industry was able to tap into previously unheard-of loans. He is taking all that industry experience and transporting it to another sector: the world of Pensions.
He has devised a straightforward method to secure the funds that businesses need to transition from one technology to another, all while meeting the requirements of banks and tax authorities without compromising the necessary stability and growth from a pension fund. It’s a simple yet ingenious idea that immediately sparked my curiosity- why hasn’t anyone thought of it before, and how can it be effectively communicated and implemented? The simplicity and ingenuity is what makes his solution so impressive and inspiring.
I’d like you to tune in to this series. Many of us believe that our financial systems could benefit from a shakeup. It’s not a shakeup that jeopardizes the system’s security, but certainly one that encourages less bureaucracy and a whole lot more investment in clean technology throughout the entire chain. The potential for positive change for a more sustainable and efficient future is within our reach.
Who’d have thought a tax lawyer could develop a way to get more money into the hands of businesses anxious to implement clean technology? It’s definitely a most unlikely source. It’s a solution that challenges our preconceptions and opens up new possibilities. And maybe the best reason I can give you is that his solution really is a do-better for the highest good of all.