If you’re a small-business owner, you may find it hard to get money from a bank, particularly if your credit history isn’t all that shiny.
If that’s you, you’re the market that Wirth Business Credit is targeting.
Wirth Business Credit is a new franchise concept from Golden Valley–based Winmark Corporation. Winmark’s previous franchise offerings have typically involved retail sales of used consumer goods: Play It Again Sports (athletic equipment), Once Upon A Child (children’s toys and clothing), and Plato’s Closet (clothing for teens and young adults),
Wirth Business Credit, then, is something of a departure. There’s no need for franchisees to open a store—they can work out of their homes or current businesses. Each Wirth Business Credit franchisee sets up financing agreements for small-business customers for equipment and services such as computers, printing, copiers, and security systems. Once an agreement is signed, the franchisee hands off the customer to Winmark, which provides the funding. Customers lease their equipment from a provider of their own choosing.
According to Steve Briggs, Winmark’s president and COO, small firms are “the most underserved area of American business.” Many small-business owners, he adds, finance their operations on their own high-interest credit cards. With Wirth Business Credit’s help, small-business owners can direct more of their capital to growing their operations, Briggs says.
“Wirth Business credit provides a different type of solution than banks provide,” says Mark Hooley, the Winmark subsidiary’s president. “First of all, we’re much more convenient and flexible than banks. A bank transaction may take quite some time to get closed. Our system basically is founded on the belief that we’re going to turn things around very quickly.” Often, Hooley adds, loans can be approved in just a few hours.
Though Wirth Business Credit is not a typical Winmark franchise concept, Winmark itself is not new to business financing. Another unit, Winmark Capital Corporation, works with larger companies to provide lease financing for their technology equipment. Wirth Business Credit, which expects to have its first franchisees this spring, will mostly do equipment-lease financing of $250,000 or less.
Hooley and Briggs say that Wirth Business Credit franchisees will be taking advantage of the relationships that Winmark has developed with equipment vendors and other franchisors like Alphagraphics, whose franchisees need funding for their equipment. Wirth franchisees will receive sales leads from Wirth’s national sales office as well as generating their own.
