Lending Library

I had the recent opportunity to talk with Tim Mahony of Mahony’s Home Improvement. Tim was looking for a way to finance bigger projects so he could expand his business. Here’s what he had to say about his experience with Lendio.

Tell me a little bit about your business.

I own Mahony’s Home Improvement, we are a remodeling company that specializes in bathrooms, kitchens, and flooring. We do it all, but those are our specialties.

Why and when did you start it?

I started the company back in 2012 because I had been working for a contractor that was teaching me the business and I thought I was ready to go out on my own. I was wrong, and the first year was a huge learning experience for me.

How did you get the initial capital to start your business?

The initial capital came from Christmas presents and bidding tools into jobs actually. I would borrow what I needed until I had the money to purchase my own tools. The first year was dedicated to funding the business.

What keeps you going? What’s your passion that drives your business?

My family and my drive for success keep me going every day.

What did you need funding for?

This isn’t my first company, I have failed in the past. This is my longest running company with over 3 years and having a passion for the work itself greatly helps. With the line of credit, I got from Lendio, I have been able to take on bigger projects. Customers don’t like giving a complete stranger thousands of dollars for materials before the job begins so I’ve been limited in the size of the projects I could do, until now. I have 3 jobs going on as we speak that are bigger than any other jobs I’ve ever gotten because I had the line of credit to pay for the materials myself.

How was your experience with Lendio?

I found Lendio on a google search along with multiple other companies. I chose Lendio because of the rep, Tracy Schultz. Unlike the other companies, she continued to call just to check on things. I changed my mind about 20 times on what kind of funding I wanted and what I was going to use it for, and she stayed on top of it, always updating me on the progress. She made me feel like I wasn’t just another sell.

My experience with Lendio was fantastic. They got me more money than I thought I could ever get and I will always use them in the future.

I would definitely recommend Lendio to all of my contractor friends and already have to a few.

What general business advice do you have for other small business owners?

My business advice I give everyone is to just get up every day and go to work. Every day will not be the greatest, you will not make a million each day, and there will be days you want to give up. You just have to go to work, do what you do best, make every customer as happy and as satisfied as you can possibly make them, and at the end of the day, know you did everything you could to make your business successful that day. Continue doing that and everything should work out.

You can find out more about Tim’s remodeling business here.  To get started with Lendio, visit www.lendio.com.

I recently caught up with a very busy Joshua Villarreal, CEO at Create the Bridge, a creative agency in Texas that’s passionate about creating work that makes an impact. They’ve experienced incredible growth in 2015 and came to Lendio to help them find and access capital so they could seize opportunities as they expand further into global markets.

Tell me a little bit about Create the Bridge.

Create the Bridge is a full-service creative agency that specializes in product development. We were founded on the principle of always delivering best in class products. Our team has a single quality that ties us together: Everyone loves what they do. Our development team enjoys elegant, clean code that is semantic and rich. Not so different from our design team, which seeks expertly crafted architecture, and stunning visuals to accompany one-of-a-kind user experiences. Our marketing team rounds things out by giving a voice to the products we build.

With each project we learn from our clients and refine how we approach our work. We’re dedicated to providing a great relationship from start to finish.

Why and when did you start it?
Create the Bridge was initially founded by Joshua Villarreal, Nathan Villarreal, and Luis Trevino in early 2014 in Edinburg, TX. 6 Months later, Create the Bridge added two other co-founders, Joshua Tyree as CTO and Sara Gonzalez as CCO. The company began to quickly scale by expanding to global markets, acquiring clients from Canada, Stockholm, India, and various cities throughout Europe.

How did you get the initial capital to start your business?
Create the Bridge was bootstrapped and funded solely by it’s founders. It was a tough journey, and thankfully we’ve been able to find funding opportunities such as Lendio.

What keeps you going? What’s the passion that drives your business?
What keeps us moving forward is our passion to create and solve new problems. Working with our partners to achieve their vision is both rewarding in its own right as well as financially.

What did you need funding for?
Our company achieved 300% growth in 2015 and we’re aiming to not only duplicate but surpass that growth margin. The one key element to achieving that is access to capital. Timing is everything, especially when finding crests for ROI in decisions, and seizing opportunity.

Have you seen anything positive from the funding yet?
We’ve used a portion to scale our sales team as well as segmented capital into testing various strategies which may help us compound our sales momentum.

How did you find Lendio?
I’m a huge fan of TechCrunch and recently I saw a client of ours as a featured story and when I went back to find it I discovered Lendio. Immediately I was intrigued to try the platform because it’s solving real problems for companies that may be new or have growth far outpacing their historical borrowing power.

How was your experience with Lendio?
It was great, the software definitely keeps things organized.

How was your experience with your Lendio rep?
It was fantastic, my account manager Mike [Bias] communicated well with me over whichever medium I was available. I didn’t feel like I was being sold. He took the time to learn about our history, understand my objectives, and find the specific financial instruments I was interested in.

Would you recommend Lendio to a friend?
In a heartbeat.

What general business advice do you have for other small business owners?
If you want to succeed, you have to put aside the fear of failure. You also have to accept that certain things are beyond your control. Just pursue your goals and eventually you will discover how to get there. Be prepared to deal with many failures and successes along the way. No matter what happens, keep going forward. In short, it’s about chasing your dreams and making them a reality.