Professionalism

I just got off the phone with a friend who is a banker and we were sharing stories about the unrealistic expectations of potential borrowers of funds. I told her about a broker that brought a deal to me for a multi-million dollar resort. This broker provided me with financial statements scanned into a computer and out of order. When someone is looking for money in this range, one would expect them to go out of their way and provide documentation that looks professional; and is in order.

I understand that accounting software data is not always readable when it is sent as a file to others. A simple solution that I have used is to print it to a PDF file. This is then readable by anyone who has a PDF reader. I use CutePDF (www.cutepdf.com) which is a free PDF writer. This writer is great for any documents that I send people which I do not want to be editable, such as contracts.

Pay attention to how you are presenting yourself in person and on paper (e-mail included). Check the spelling of documents and make sure that attachments that you send people look like you have read them before they went out. Putting in the extra effort in the beginning can really help to make a difference in the long run.