Cash Flow Specialists – Business Consultants, Finders, Intermediaries
I want to make it perfectly clear:
1. We are Business Consultants, Finders, and Intermediaries. We are not Brokers. We require a one page overview, completed Executive Summary using one of our templates, bio’s of key personnel, a detailed use of funds, a five-year pro-forma, and a written Exit Strategy if you choose to do business with us. We charge a fully earned fee of $2,500 to review these items of yours.
2. We require a signed CFSI Fee Agreement and a signed Mutual NCND on every transaction unaltered and unedited. If you cannot live with our written agreements than you should do business with someone else.
3. Our fully earned, non-refundable expense fee is 1%, minimum $2,500: maximum $25,000 per project, capped at $100,000 for four or more projects per client. The term of the agreement is six months and is renewable for an additional fee. If you are adverse to paying fees then you should do business with someone else.
We are not miracle workers. If you have a desperate situation then you need to be truthful with us. If you needed money yesterday don’t call us.
I have been involved in financial services since November 1976. 90% of the business that we have comes from referral. The other 10% comes from my public speaking engagements, our websites and hundreds of articles that I’ve written.
About 1/3 of the executive summaries that cross my desk can be funded but that doesn’t mean that you may like the rates, terms, and conditions.
About 1/3 of the executive summaries that cross my desk are Dead On Arrival (DOA).
The rest require some form of remediation – something is broken and may require hours, days, weeks, months or years to fix.
We DO NOT GUARANTEE funding. We make a best-efforts basis.
The best thing that can happen to you is funding with us because we will do our very best to serve you. I have begun my workday at 7AM Pacific since I started in the financial services business in November 1976. I return all morning calls at 11AM to 12 Noon: and all afternoon calls after 4PM to priority clients and referral partners first and to others in order of availability. We provide regular follow-up emails and will call you periodically when we have updates.
If you choose to do business all expense fees are fully earned and non-refundable. I don’t want you coming to me six or eight months later whining that you didn’t get funded and that you want your money back. If you’re a whiner do us both a favor and don’t do business with me.
We’re professionals. We do our best. We’ll give you the best advice that we can. We are business consultants.
If you have a problem with paying us for our time then move on down the road.
We are not for the wimpy, weak-minded, or wounded. If you are emotionally ready, even eager for unorthodox but proven and comprehensive strategies in obtaining alternative project funding than we may be a solution for you.
We are NOT for everybody. We can serve, at best, 10 new clients with about 20 projects a month.
Our expense fee is fully earned and non-refundable period. I can’t go back to my assistants, landlord, phone companies, computer people, office supply vendors, and other service providers and tell them that the project didn’t fund. It’s a cost of doing business for you.
If you’re ready and you CHOOSE to business understand that if we are not successful in obtaining funding the expense fee is earned for the consultation given.
This is correspondence between a VC Intermediary and me September 20, 2007 on this topic:
Joe,
I agree – we certainly have very similar traits.
Clients will get a term sheet and then shop it around and burn you any time they can – so if you at least have an expense deposit, they have something vested in you and you have mitigated that risk of being screwed. Let’s face it, there just aren’t that many honest people around – and that’s the biggest shame of all.
Please – by all means – use and adapt that fee agreement as you see fit. I appreciate your compliments and my hope is that that agreement saves you and your assistants a great many headaches.
I am out of here. I admit I’m feeling a bit sick today. I have to be “checked” by my cancer surgeon tomorrow so say a prayer that NO CANCER is present in my body. I will be in his offices at 10:15 AM and out of there by 11, home by 2:00 PM my time and 11 AM your time. If I am cancer free I will probably put in 2 hrs of work from 2-4 just to “clean up the week.” HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND, relax, see friends, enjoy life……and I’ll be back here for another week’s privileges next week!
Cheers!
Chris
Update: April 15, 2009 Chris succumbed to cancer today at age 48.
Chris,
You and I appear to have similar traits. The Bible says to “choose a good name whatever the cost.”
My assistant tweaks the NDA and referral agreement continually. It started as a simple one page agreement and has morphed into what he sent to you.
We have three funds that do real estate and other humanitarian projects. I’ve attached information for your consideration.
Thanks for the approval of adapting your shared expense fee agreements. They’re the best that I’ve seen. We’ve been burned on many occasions by prospects who “talk big” but with no “skin in the game” they play sources against each other and just waste others time. As you said the expense “investment” stops the nonsense and causes the relationship to solidify and separates the lookie-loo’s from the serious.
Joe Tufo