In business, opportunity often only knocks once, and if a chance is missed, it is missed forever.

Take, for example, a medical imaging center in Florida. The imaging center had been doing business for a number of years, and had grown as big as its revenue would allow. Month in, month out, business was decent and routine, but the center’s prospects for growth were limited.

Then, one day, the knock came. Opportunity arrived in form of a large Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), inquiring to see if the imaging center offered a specific service. The HMO needed a new partner, and was seeking a contract to refer its clients to the center if that service could be offered. This service, compared to the imaging center’s current operations, was particularly lucrative, and the contract would be a huge boon for the center.

There was only one problem: the center did not have the equipment to offer that service.

Undeterred, the owner of the center thought to finance the equipment. With financing in place, he could offer the service, get the immediate clients from the HMO contract, and use those revenues to repay the loan and enjoy new profits.

Then came a bigger problem: he could not get the financing....
 

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The nation’s largest privately held security system integrator is relied upon by hundreds of banks and financial institutions to ensure their security. And when these premier customers asked for affordable equipment leasing solutions, the vendor relied on FirstCorp.

Among many services, the vendor installs closed circuit cameras and detectors, along with digital video recording systems to keep video archived. These closed-circuit security systems play a large role in protecting bank assets. As these banks and institutions are mostly “A” credit borrowers, the vendor had a lot of options when choosing an equipment leasing partner.

After weighing the alternatives, the vendor chose Firstcorp. “We chose FirstCorp because they are small enough to work hard for every job, yet large enough to be able to provide a sales team that covers every base for my people, making a lease option a much easier option than what we have experienced elsewhere,” said the vendor's Executive Vice President of Sales.

The arrangement is a win for the vendor's sales team and its customers. Many financial institutions prefer to lease security equipment over purchasing, because it allows them to keep their systems flexible and up-to-date. Offering a lease through FirstCorp has allowed the vendor to meet that need, opening doors to new customers and providing new solutions to existing ones. Leasing also helps the vendor to sell more equipment, as more equipment can be acquired for the same monthly cost as compared to a purchase.

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Since 1993, Educorp Training and Consulting, Inc., has been growing its business on the basis of providing world-class training services to higher learning institutions and Fortune 500 companies. Now, with the help of FirstCorp, the company is about to embark on one of its largest expansions to date.

Educorp is currently in the process of opening a new training center, a venture with expenses totaling near $600,000.

The new facility required a telephone system, a network of computer workstations, and office furniture to build each new training station.  EduCorp could have financed these products from each vendor or reseller, but creating, signing, and then paying on each separate account would have created unnecessary overhead.

In addition, undertaking an expansion of that size can put a strain on any company’s cash flow.  Realizing these constraints, the company turned to FirstCorp.

FirstCorp was able to provide a lease which would preserve the company’s lines of credit and keep their cash flow available to use on other parts of the facility.  Secondly, the lease encompassed all the necessary equipment from three separate vendors, allowing for one contract and an easy-to-manage payment.  And with the additional revenue the new facility will generate, making the payment and retaining profits on top should be a shoe-in.

“FirstCorp provided EduCorp funding that supported our investment of just under $1 million in our newest training facility in Dallas. The facility will house our headquarters and 7 state-of-the-art technology classrooms that will allow us to increase our training revenues by 15% for each of the next 3 years,” said Steven Durham, V.P of Finance for EduCorp.
 

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Need to make a complex message or idea stick long after you've left the boardroom?  CIO Insight reports on the book  Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, with a key excerpt detailing six tips to make ideas succeed.

Baseball's "hitting surge" that occurred in the late 90s is often attributed to steroid use by the players.  However, two baseball historians are disputing that notion, and say that the hitting surge was a result of an expanding strike zone.

The IFC family of companies come together to meet almost any leasing need. From medical leasing to small-ticket to brokered funding to middle and large ticket financing, learn about IFC's family of companies here.