Latest / Small Biz Florida / Ep 419 | Small Loans, Big Possibilities: Accessing Capital with Brandon Martinez

Transcript

Ep 419 | Small Loans, Big Possibilities: Accessing Capital with Brandon Martinez · Small Biz Florida

• 0:00
  Welcome to Small Biz Florida, your go-to podcast for all things small business in the Sunshine State.
• 0:08
  This podcast is sponsored by Florida First Capital, your trusted partner for financing and support.
• 0:13
  Here, you'll discover the latest news, trends, and invaluable resources to help you grow and succeed.
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  From startup strategies to scaling your business, we've got you covered.
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  Join us as we explore the vibrant Florida small business ecosystem
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  and connect you with the experts who can make a real difference.
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  And now, please welcome your host, Tom Kindred,
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  Regional Director of the Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College.
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  This is Small Biz Florida, the podcast and broadcast that's all things business across the state of Florida.
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  And if you've been tuning in lately, you know, Small Biz Florida is on the road again.
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  We are at the premier entrepreneurship and small business
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  gathering in the state of Florida.
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  It is the 2026 Small Business Success Summit, all brought to you by the Florida SBDC Network.
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  It's all taking place here at the beautiful, where are we?
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  Sun Seeker Resort.
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  Sun Seeker Resort in Charlotte Harbor.
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  Beautiful place.
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  Beautiful place.
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  The room is absolutely full of small business owners, operators, entrepreneurs, all here to engage in training, seminars, workshops, and hear some great speakers.
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  Lobby is full of vendors, suppliers, and resources available for those small business owners and operators.
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  So, incredible gathering.
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  We have with us right now a speaker, a sponsor, and an exhibitor.
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  We've got with us our very good friend, Brandon Martinez with Sun Coast Credit.
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  Brandon, welcome to Small Biz Florida.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  It's a pleasure to be here.
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  Absolutely.
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  Brandon, you serve as a micro enterprise specialist with Sun Coast Credit Union.
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  Give us a little bit of your background, your pathway to that role of micro enterprise specialist.
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  Yeah, I've been honored to be with the credit union for the past six years.
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  I started off just as bottom as you can get in the call center, taking calls over the phone.
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  That was during our COVID-19 pandemic.
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  After that, I made my way into the branches.
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  I became a teller.
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  I became a loan officer.
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  After that, a mortgage officer, and then decided to take my hat in business development.
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  So, at that point, I became a personal banker for large organizations like Amazon, Walmart, organizations that had a lot of employees.
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  I would go in there and bank all of the employees and show them everything that the credit union had to offer.
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  So, I think I did that very well.
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  And I was offered a position over in the micro enterprise area, helping entrepreneurs and business owners access capital on a daily basis.
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  So, that's kind of my journey on how I landed in this role.
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  Nice.
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  So, I want to start with a very basic question.
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  Of course.
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  What is the difference in a credit union and what we all know is that traditional bank?
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  Yes.
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  This is probably one of my favorite questions because I get to go in depth.
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  The only, the major difference between your run of the day, everyday financial institution and a credit union would be how it's operated.
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  So, a financial institution, they have what's called shareholders, people that own portions of this institution.
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  And, you know, their main goal is how much money can they earn on these shares.
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  The shares that are with Sunco is different.
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  It's a little bit of a different process because all of our members are shareholders.
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  So, you can't just go on whatever type of organization and buy a piece of Suncoast.
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  You'd have to become a member to have a piece of Suncoast.
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  And with that, I think that's the biggest difference that everyone who owns a piece of Suncoast isn't looking to make a profit or looking to make money.
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  They're just looking, hey, how can we level the playing field and give everyone a good interest rate and keep accounts fee-free as much as we possibly can.
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  So, that's probably one of the biggest differences.
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  We don't have stockholders to make happy.
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  We have what's called a board of directors.
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  And that board of directors, you know, it's voted in by members of the credit union and their everyday people, police officers, teachers, firefighters.
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  So, people that know what it's like to wake up and have to go to work every day.
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  And that's who's making decisions that are impacting millions of members.
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  Is there a difference maybe in relationship with your members versus just a bank and their clients and customers?
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  Yeah. So, at Suncoast, for example, for me, per se, I'm a business banker, but anyone that I speak to, you know, they have complete access to me.
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  So, you have my cell phone.
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  You have my email.
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  You have anything that you need to get in contact with me, book an appointment with me.
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  We've seen that this is only a service financial institutions provide if you have a certain dollar figure in your account.
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  And we're trying to flip that narrative.
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  We want everyone to have that same white glove service, per se, that we can provide to them.
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  All right.
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  So, let's talk about the most important issue that faces every small business owner.
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  Capital access.
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  Correct.
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  Getting the access to that capital needed to grow, scale, respond to a growth market.
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  Right.
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  So, biggest challenge a lot of times, one of the, I think, the biggest gap for our entrepreneurs and small business owners is the dollar figure a lot of times.
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  A lot of times, these smaller businesses certainly don't need millions of dollars.
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  They might need $100,000.
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  They might need $50,000.
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  Talk to me about a credit union and how low will you go?
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  So, specifically with Suncoast, we have an absolutely amazing, the micro enterprise development program.
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  They go as low as $500 and it goes up to $50.
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  So, we can, of course, this is a program that's getting your foot in the door.
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  We understand that businesses have to start somewhere.
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  So, we have this micro loan for $50,000 with the hopes of, hey, you get this loan, your business gets started.
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  After it's paid off, that opens the doors to more lucrative loans, whether it be small business, whether it be commercial, with that very attractive interest rate.
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  So, really, what we've seen, especially here in Florida, my time in my role, there's just not a lot of support for those businesses under $100,000.
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  Right.
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  So, what we are trying to do is we're just trying to make sure, and we understand with those new businesses, they're not going to have tax returns.
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  They're not going to have income statements or balance sheets.
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  So, how can we get creative to approve these businesses that they still need funding?
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  And how we do that is through a structured business plan, projections of what the business we anticipate them to make.
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  But still, it's not something that's just you fill out an application online.
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  You're going to work with me.
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  We'll work together.
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  We'll see the needs of the business.
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  And really, I think it is one of a kind in the state of Florida.
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  It's just not a lot of people know about it.
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  That's all.
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  Let's talk.
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  You mentioned the word projections.
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  Correct.
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  Let's talk about kind of hone in on that word projections.
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  Are you willing to talk to a business about a smaller loan based on projections?
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  If they could say, hey, if we can borrow the money to buy an additional delivery van, we could do this much more in business.
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  You'd loan them some money potentially based on those projections.
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  That is absolutely correct.
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  And I think it's a great part that for tomorrow I have the privilege of speaking as a panelist on the Bankers Roundtable, where we get to go into depth on how it is we're making these decisions that other institutions deem to be in the gray area.
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  Because at the end of the day, you're right.
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  It is projections and things change.
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  Life change.
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  We can have another pandemic for all we know.
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  So really what we're doing with the projections, but also the projections are just one piece of it.
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  The second piece of it would be that business plan.
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  So how much money you're needing, what the funds are going to be used for, what's your industry experience, what's your skin in the game type of deal.
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  So that partnered with the projections, that gives them a really good chance.
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  And just like a traditional lender, you've got requirements.
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  You're going to have to be profitable.
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  You're going to have to have cash flow.
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  You're going to have to have a reasonable credit score.
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  Is that a fair statement?
• 8:57
  Yeah.
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  I mean, for the micro program, we deal with businesses pre-revenue.
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  So they don't have a client base.
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  They really just have an idea.
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  And they're just thinking, hey, how can we make this idea a reality?
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  Or on the other hand, you have some businesses that they do have cash flows and they do have a steady trickle of a pipeline.
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  And they're just trying to, how can we take this to the next level?
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  And scale the business.
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  Correct.
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  Okay.
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  All right.
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  Yeah.
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  So really, I think the best part about what it is that the micro loan is, is number one, I think everyone can agree.
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  We have the lowest interest rate on a small business loan in the state of Florida.
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  And not only do we have one of the lowest interest rates, it's just everything that comes with it.
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  So no prepayment penalty.
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  So if your business starts off really, really good year one and you want to pay the loan off, most institutions, they're looking on earning that interest for the next couple of years.
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  Whereas with us, we're just, hey, you're going to grow.
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  We want to see you grow.
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  A hundred percent.
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  Nice.
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  Talk to us about coverage of Suncoast Credit Union.
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  Where are your brick and mortar?
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  And then can you work beyond the brick and mortar?
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  Yeah.
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  So Suncoast Credit Union, we have over 85 service centers throughout the state of Florida.
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  Primarily, we're located all in the West Coast and the Orlando area.
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  That's where our brick and mortar locations are.
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  But we service the entire state.
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  So if you're an entrepreneur or business owner looking to do business with us and we don't have a physical location near you, you can utilize us as an online bank.
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  We're in a digital world.
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  We're in a digital era.
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  And anything that you can do in person, I can do it for you over the phone.
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  Okay.
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  And you do SBA lending.
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  You can do an SBA-backed loan.
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  Correct.
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  Yeah.
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  We have an intensive SBA 7A program that we help entrepreneurs.
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  And it's all about asking the right questions.
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  When they come to us and they say, hey, I want a microloan or I want an SBA loan.
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  And we have that consultation and we learn a little bit more.
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  That's when we can decide, okay, this product is going to be best for this member.
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  Just because we want to make sure that they're taking advantage of everything that we have to offer.
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  Okay.
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  It is Brandon Martinez, who is with Suncoast Credit Union.
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  He serves as a micro enterprise specialist.
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  Brandon is also a speaker, sponsor, and exhibitor here at the 2026 SBDC Small Business Success Summit.
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  Brandon, how does one find Suncoast and find you?
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  Yeah.
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  So the most simplest way, suncoastcreditunion.com forward slash microloans.
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  It has everything that we do.
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  And if you're interested, you could submit your information.
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  It'll send me an email and I can reach out to you directly.
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  Okay.
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  Very nice.
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  Brandon, thank you for your support of Florida's small business community.
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  Thank you for your incredible support of this event.
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  So we appreciate it.
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  And thank you for your time here on Small Biz Florida.
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  Looking forward to being back for years to come.
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  I like it.
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  This is Small Biz Florida.
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  I am Tom Kinder, your host.
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  It is all about small business.
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  It's in the title.
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  This is the 2026 Small Business Success Summit, all brought to you by the Florida SBDC Network.
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  It's all taking place at the beautiful Sunseeker Resort here in Charlotte Harbor.
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  Stay tuned.
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  There is a whole lot more to come.
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  This is Small Biz Florida.
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  That's all for this episode of Small Biz Florida.
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  We hope you found valuable insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial journey.
• 12:29
  Don't forget to subscribe to Small Biz Florida on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode.
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  So follow us for exclusive content and connect with fellow Florida small business owners.
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  And for even more resources and support, visit our website at floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast.
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  That's floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast.
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  Until then, keep innovating and keep growing.
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  Thanks for listening.
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  Bye.
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  Bye.
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  Bye.
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  you
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  you