Met a friend for lunch to talk about some of the ins and outs of banking and loans. My friend's name was Mike Hall, former banker for years and years. He is now retired. He was a master and even won a number of different recognitions and awards. I had a bunch of questions for him, and we chatted after finishing our lunch. Here are some of the things that I learned.

- Sell the vision - it really helps if you can transfer the vision to others - Mike talked about a client that would take him out to the site (physical location) and show him what he was thinking. Any way to help show that vision.

- Be excited about it - You've got to love it - Having that real entrepreneurial spirit

- He had clients that would bring in others to help pitch the pitch - key contacts, clients, end users, etc.

- Numbers are numbers, very black and white. Eventually it comes down to the person who is pitching it and/or the person who has to carry the weight (financial burden). Sometimes the person's attitude can tip the scales. Say the numbers are 50/50 (could go either way), do they believe in the person (character).

- Don't overkill on the numbers. Help them see the intangibles. That is huge - what benefits will this bring, what are the cause and effects, what happens that is hard to place a number on, etc.

- Collateral is a big piece. Another big one is cash flow. You can have a great idea that is making money but it you can't cash flow, it tends to die.

- We talked about Sears and JC Penny's and how they had the entire catalog market - they were set. Eventually they went under due to be so tied to brick-and-mortar stores vs going digital like Amazon (using technology). You got to be willing to change.

- If there is some set criteria, make sure that you hit it. After that, the banker tends to make or go off of gut feeling on how well it will do.

- We talked about relationships (with your banker). If you have a good relationship, it becomes easier to talk about the hard conversations and/or give insight if things are going well or not so well. Bankers don't like it when a missed payment is the first sign of trouble. They would much rather have a good relationship (open) with you and your business.

- We talked about investors and venture capital (VC) stuff. He said, there tends to be good VC guys and bad VC guys. He hasn't met too many that are in the middle. He was saying be really careful of companies that stack the deck. Is it a win/win or is a winner take all (super one-sided, especially for failure). We also talked about private capital or private equity.

- Keep the expectations real. It's not a war - us vs them. Play well together (meaning investors and borrowers or owners).

- Make sure it's a good fit. It's ok to agree to move on and play/transact with other lenders.