Latest / Small Biz Florida / Ep 431 | Get Loan Ready: Simplifying Small Business Financing with Loan Mantra

Transcript

Ep 431 | Get Loan Ready: Simplifying Small Business Financing with Loan Mantra · Small Biz Florida

• 0:02
  Raj: Welcome to Small Biz Florida, your go-to podcast for all things small business in the sunshine
• 0:07
  Raj: state. This podcast is sponsored by Florida First Capital, your trusted partner for financing and
• 0:13
  Raj: support. Here, you'll discover the latest news, trends, and invaluable resources to help you grow
• 0:19
  Raj: and succeed. From startup strategies to scaling your business, we've got you covered. Join us as
• 0:25
  Raj: we explore the vibrant Florida small business ecosystem and connect you with the experts who
• 0:29
  Raj: can make a real difference. And now, please welcome your host, Tom Kindred, Regional Director of the
• 0:35
  Raj: Small Business Development Center at Indian River State College. This is Small Biz Florida, the
• 0:42
  Raj: podcast and broadcast that's all things business across the state of Florida. And if you've been
• 0:47
  Raj: tuning in lately, you know Small Biz Florida is on the road again. One of my favorite places to visit,
• 0:53
  Raj: my favorite conference, is the annual FLAGLE get-together. FLAGLE stands for Florida Association
• 1:00
  Raj: of Government Guaranteed Lenders. The room is absolutely chock-a-block full of SBA lenders,
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  Raj: bankers, platforms, fintech, to help small business owners get access to the capital they need
• 1:14
  Raj: to be successful in business. And that's why I love being here, because it is an important issue
• 1:19
  Raj: for small business owners to scale and grow, be able to get access to that capital they need.
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  Raj: And right now, we have with us one of our very good friends and one of those fintech
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  Raj: platforms that is designed to help that small business owner get that capital. We've got our
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  Raj: good friends with Loan Mantra. We've got Raj Toshan and Emily Doxford. Guys, welcome to Small Biz
• 1:45
  Raj: Florida. Dom, thank you for having us. Absolutely. Excited. Yes. So we've talked for an hour before we
• 1:55
  Raj: got on the podcast, but I do. I love this platform. It's a great platform. We've talked about it before
• 2:03
  Raj: at a flagel in previous years, but I love when fintech and technology can help small business
• 2:11
  Raj: owners. That's what this is all about. But before we get to the conversation about Loan Mantra,
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  Raj: real quickly, let's start as we always do, just a little bit of your background and pathway to your
• 2:22
  Raj: current roles. Raj, you are the CEO and the founder of Loan Mantra, and Emily, you serve as a vice
• 2:29
  Raj: president with the organization. So we'll start with Raj, background, pathway to creating Loan
• 2:36
  Raj: Mantra. Absolutely. Tom, again, thank you for having us. This is an incredible conference. I'm in
• 2:41
  Raj: Florida. The reason we spoke for an hour is because you guys do so much awesome things. I'm like,
• 2:46
  Raj: every time I talk to you, you are like a treasure trove of information. If anything, one should do
• 2:51
  Raj: is to just talk to you and just listen to you talk. Well, I don't know. You'd have to talk to my wife
• 2:57
  Raj: and children about that. They're not that interested in listening to me, but yes.
• 3:01
  Raj: That's every wife. You've asked my wife. That's the same story. So yeah, I will write you on that.
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  Raj: No, look, I started my career working for an investment bank and I'm going to date myself.
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  Raj: So when I started, you know, the one-stop shop happened, a lot of larger banks and all merged to
• 3:16
  Raj: provide the, you start a deposit relationship all the way to having money to your four, you know,
• 3:22
  Raj: bonds and all in your 401k. Ironically, that same thing does not exist for small business.
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  Raj: The small business industry is highly fragmented. And that's how we came about Loan Mantra. We
• 3:34
  Raj: started off as a consulting company. We started off, you know, helping small business owners,
• 3:38
  Raj: hey, get access to capital. And that's where Loan Mantra started. We started off with saying,
• 3:44
  Raj: hey, you know what? You have a problem getting in touch with a financial institution. Let me help
• 3:48
  Raj: communicate the language of a financial institution through a technology portal.
• 3:53
  Raj: So from consulting, we helped give them an arm through the technology portal. And now soon to be,
• 3:58
  Raj: we are looking forward to getting a CDFI certification. Thereby, we'll be able to help
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  Raj: and work with small businesses in the small business community. Nice. Very nice. Emily,
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  Raj: same kind of question. Pathway to your current role. Absolutely. I think maybe I said this last
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  Raj: time to you as well, Tom, but I come into finance a little bit dishonestly. So I, I have a graduate
• 4:23
  Raj: degree in English and American literature. So just, just like everyone else here at this conference
• 4:28
  Raj: pursued those humanities, those liberal arts and ended up in, in technology. When I was in graduate
• 4:38
  Raj: school, I started working with, uh, with NYU's Stern program with their school of business, worked with
• 4:45
  Raj: several professors, did some salting work, some research, eventually met, met Raj. And Raj is one
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  Raj: of those founders that it's kind of like you, Tom, you want to listen to him. You want to follow him
• 4:57
  Raj: anywhere. I really believe in mission of what we're doing and, uh, and have made my, made my career here
• 5:06
  Raj: for several years. So I'm more honest. Uh, very nice. I'm glad, I'm glad you found the honest
• 5:12
  Raj: pathway near her. Thanks. Uh, me too. Yes. So again, this is an easy conversation for me because
• 5:20
  Raj: of coming from the SBDC, one of our primary metrics, one of our primary goals, one of our primary
• 5:27
  Raj: missions, we know we have to help clients access capital, uh, because it's obviously what they need
• 5:34
  Raj: to, to scale. They've got to buy equipment. They've got to expand a building. They've got to, uh, buy
• 5:41
  Raj: vehicles. There's just all kinds of things, uh, you know, that a small business owner is going to face
• 5:46
  Raj: as he scales and grows that business as, especially in a growing market like Florida, you, you know,
• 5:52
  Raj: you've got to be ready to respond to the marketplace. I can't tell you how many times people walk in the
• 5:57
  Raj: office and say, well, you know, with all this residential building going on, I, you know,
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  Raj: I need to increase some inventory so I can, you know, take advantage of all this growth,
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  Raj: but you need capital for that. So every time I come to Flagle, of course, uh, one of the things I love
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  Raj: to see is what we call the FinTech space, which are these financial technology, financial platforms
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  Raj: that are really helping small business owners understanding and, and get access to capital.
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  Raj: And you're one of those tools, uh, that's been so helpful. So talk to us a little bit about
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  Raj: loan mantra. What, how does it work? And, you know, how does it help that, uh, that small
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  Raj: business owner get access to capital? No, absolutely. Look, there is never a shortage of
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  Raj: capital. We live in a beautiful country where business owners can look for capital as low as
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  Raj: $5,000, probably lower going up to millions and millions of dollars. And it's always available
• 6:59
  Raj: to them. It's just getting them the access. Look what the SBDC does. It's the first front forward.
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  Raj: Everybody interacts with them. So what we did was we essentially created a tool, as you said it
• 7:10
  Raj: correctly, except we created it on steroids. We now allow the small business owner to go ahead and
• 7:16
  Raj: complete all the information online, do it in a chronological manner so they can then communicate
• 7:22
  Raj: their vision, their thought process to a financial institution exactly in the language the financial
• 7:28
  Raj: institution did. So what we did was we took a tool and created a bridge out of it. We essentially,
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  Raj: if you ask the financial institution, what's your big pain point? The small business owner is not
• 7:38
  Raj: interacting with me. They don't give me documents of time. You ask a small business owner, what's your
• 7:43
  Raj: pain point? The financial institution keeps asking me for information. I swear I gave them the information
• 7:48
  Raj: the other day. Well, guess what? Give them a common medium. Give the financial institution what they
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  Raj: need. Let the small business owner provide that information in a timely, in an organized manner.
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  Raj: I'm a small business owner myself. I work the whole day and then I will go access capital in the
• 8:05
  Raj: evening. Give them LoanMantra.com. Log in there. Complete the application on your own. Get
• 8:11
  Raj: everything. And guess what? If your local bank is not willing to do that, you hit delete on the local
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  Raj: bank's name, put another bank and connect with another lender and you don't have to redo anything
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  Raj: again. So this is an important point that I want to make clear. Well, a couple of things. So what
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  Raj: we're doing here is we're alleviating this huge pile of three years worth of personal tax returns, three
• 8:35
  Raj: years worth of business tax returns, personal financial statement, all in paper form that I'm
• 8:41
  Raj: carrying around to the three local banks. We're basically putting that in a digital format that
• 8:49
  Raj: then any bank can easily access. That fair statement? Tom, I'm looking to go to Moon one day. I am not
• 8:56
  Raj: looking to go on a cart somewhere. Yes, absolutely. No more paper anymore. No more interest. Your
• 9:03
  Raj: accountant sends you the tax returns through email. You take that and you upload that directly
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  Raj: into Loan Mantra. From Loan Mantra, you will share directly with your lending institution,
• 9:13
  Raj: be the lending institution in the state of Florida or anywhere else. It's a click of a button away.
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  Raj: And what I love about this is that now we're not limited to that local market with lending
• 9:27
  Raj: institutions. So let's go back 20, 20 years, 30 years back when I was in business. You know,
• 9:35
  Raj: I really only understood that local financial space. I didn't realize there were banks in
• 9:43
  Raj: California that might loan me money for a small business in Florida. But a platform like Loan
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  Raj: Mantra really opens my loan up to let other banks take a look. Is that a fair statement?
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  Raj: Absolutely fair. And Tom, in addition, you said this rightly from the beginning,
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  Raj: a small business owner may or may not be going to their local bank. They may also
• 10:07
  Raj: not be getting their loan approved by their local bank. Some of that could be a little bit of a
• 10:13
  Raj: fallacy, right? So they're more likely going to see their local SBDC and having those relationships.
• 10:21
  Raj: And this platform is set up to work with all of those various partners, not just a lender,
• 10:27
  Raj: but with a bookkeeper, with their partners in this process. And everyone has visibility. And I should
• 10:36
  Raj: mention, to Raj's point, you upload your tax returns, the small business owner uploads documents
• 10:42
  Raj: in a SOC 2 compliant system. So they're not just going anywhere. Right. And this is a platform that
• 10:49
  Raj: is recognized by banks, lending institutions. This isn't, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's absolutely white
• 10:56
  Raj: label. There's a lot of institutions who are actually using our platform. A lot of times I tell
• 11:01
  Raj: my small business owners and anybody at the top of it, if you see the name of the bank, look carefully.
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  Raj: It's a name of the bank dot loan mantra dot com, which means essentially they're using has to
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  Raj: essentially pressure and to to for the small business owner, the lending institution also. Right.
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  Raj: For them, it also solves a pain form. They don't have to chase the small business owner. Look,
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  Raj: we are all busy. The lender is busy with their thing. They're thinking revenue, et cetera. The
• 11:27
  Raj: small business owners thinking revenue from their point of view. They're like, I have to either sell
• 11:32
  Raj: enough burgers. I have to make sure I pump enough gas. All of that, that happens.
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  Raj: So it's important. Right. Okay. And it also just allows for some organization to all this is in one
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  Raj: place. Uh, we know if something's missing, we, we get, we check the boxes and once this is done,
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  Raj: then it really does make it easy for the bank to communicate, makes it easy for the customer to
• 11:59
  Raj: communicate, makes it easy for people to review faster decisions, more efficient decisions on loan
• 12:05
  Raj: borrowing that, that a fair statement that a hundred percent. In fact, I'm going to go a step
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  Raj: ahead. Here's an analogy. I'm going to give my cousin a hundred bucks. Am I, what am I giving the
• 12:15
  Raj: money for? I want to make sure my cousin's going to pay me back. How do I know what my cousin's
• 12:19
  Raj: going to pay him? Because I've known my cousin for a very long period of time. So for a small business
• 12:23
  Raj: owner, before he or she even starts the lending process, if I need money in March of 2027, start
• 12:31
  Raj: putting in your documents today. Just complete everything. This way you've given yourself enough
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  Raj: runway. And guess what? Even after the loan is done, you have access to the portal. It's your
• 12:41
  Raj: information. Put in the information for the next year. If your 26 tax returns come to you in March,
• 12:48
  Raj: save a copy for that. And guess what? When you don't, you don't need it today, but in 2029, when
• 12:53
  Raj: you need 27 tax returns, you're not rummaging through looking for the 27 tax return that your
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  Raj: accountant sent you. You can go to Loan Mantra, go under your own portal, you'll find your 27.
• 13:03
  Raj: Every small business owner throughout their life cycle takes seven to eight liability products.
• 13:09
  Raj: You can take care of all of that under one environment over the life of the business.
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  Raj: Well, and I do. I love your point, Raj. Why wait until you need to borrow the money to start compiling
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  Raj: this? Be ready for capital access. Be ready to go out and access the capital you need. Don't wait
• 13:28
  Raj: until the day, you know, you're, oh God, you know, we probably ought to look at a line of credit or
• 13:33
  Raj: some capital to expand the business. And you'd already have your, your platform, your shell
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  Raj: built in Loan Mantra. 100%. And for the financial issue, if you're a lender, it's the same cousin
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  Raj: analogy, right? If you're a lender, you've seen all this history from the past. There is a compelling
• 13:51
  Raj: reason why they will want to give you money because they know you're organized. And for them as a lender,
• 13:56
  Raj: it makes complete sense because now I have all your history and everything. They don't have a
• 14:01
  Raj: feeling because they are trying to mitigate risk, right? The lender is trying to make sure,
• 14:06
  Raj: hey, I have all the information. If you provide them that in a language that they understand,
• 14:11
  Raj: it's a win-win situation. It's a marriage made in habit. So let's ask, so small business owners
• 14:16
  Raj: listen to us, says, you know what, I may need to borrow some money next year. I want to start
• 14:20
  Raj: uploading. What is your business model? Do they just go in, log in, create their own platform?
• 14:27
  Raj: Is there a subscription fee? How does it work with the small business owner to build their portal?
• 14:34
  Raj: We are here for the small business owner and we want to be an everyday resource for the small
• 14:40
  Raj: business owner, similar to an SBBC. We want to work in partnership with all these other incredible
• 14:46
  Raj: resources. So a small business owner is very welcome to log in, create their own profile.
• 14:53
  Raj: And to Raj's point, nothing kills a future loan faster than an incomplete file and time, right?
• 15:01
  Raj: Flag time. So prepare your documents. You only have to upload your driver's license once, right?
• 15:09
  Raj: I mean, hypothetically, but some of those documents are on file and some, if you do it once a year,
• 15:15
  Raj: you're ready in 2029 when you need an additional line of credit.
• 15:21
  Raj: Right. Okay. How does one find Loan Mantra to start their, create their portal?
• 15:26
  Raj: It's super easy. Fire up your computer, go to a portal and type in www.loanmantra.com
• 15:33
  Raj: and self-explanatory. In fact, the portal has been built. The front end of it is bill keeping the
• 15:40
  Raj: small business owner in mind. There are plenty of resources there. Under resources, you'll see
• 15:44
  Raj: information on all types of lending products that are available. There's a loan calculator where you
• 15:50
  Raj: can calculate, hey, if I borrow X dollars at X rate, what would my monthly payment be? There is
• 15:55
  Raj: state level resources that are available. So, and on the top right inside, that's where the fun begin.
• 16:01
  Raj: Click on apply now and easy questions, it'll take you through the whole process. So www.loanmantra.com.
• 16:09
  Raj: So again, you just educated me a little more. It's not just a platform to preserve documents. You've
• 16:15
  Raj: got resources on the platform. 100%. A financial checklist. So we really want to, again, be there
• 16:24
  Raj: for a business owner every day. How's your business doing today? What do you need to do to be loan
• 16:29
  Raj: ready tomorrow? Nice. It is our very good friend Raj Toshan, who is CEO and founder of Loan Mantra,
• 16:38
  Raj: and Emily Doxford, who serves as a vice president with the organization. Guys, thank you again for
• 16:44
  Raj: your time. Thank you again for being a vendor exhibitor here at the Flagle Conference. And
• 16:51
  Raj: thank you for all you do for the small business community. Thank you for having us. This has been
• 16:56
  Raj: a great conversation as always. Absolutely. This is Small Biz Florida. I am Tom Ginniger, host. It is
• 17:03
  Raj: all about capital access for small business owners and operators here at the 2026 Flagle
• 17:10
  Raj: Conference, all taking place here at the beautiful JW Marriott in Orlando, Florida. Stay tuned. More
• 17:16
  Raj: to come. This is Small Biz Florida. That's all for this episode of Small Biz Florida. We hope you found
• 17:23
  Raj: valuable insights and inspiration to fuel your entrepreneurial journey. Don't forget to subscribe
• 17:29
  Raj: to Small Biz Florida on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode. We're also
• 17:34
  Raj: active on Instagram. You can find us at Small Biz Florida. So follow us for exclusive content and
• 17:40
  Raj: connect with fellow Florida small business owners. And for even more resources and support, visit our
• 17:45
  Raj: website at floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast. That's floridasbdc.org forward slash podcast.
• 17:54
  Raj: Until then, keep innovating and keep growing. Thanks for listening.