In early March, Rinaldi Advisory Services and ECS Financial Services (ECS) announced the rollout of a new financial tool for CEOs and principals of equipment leasing and finance companies. This strategic partnership combines the deep industry expertise of Bob Rinaldi and ECS to provide CEOs and principals with regularly updated data analysis tools developed by the leading-edge programmers at Liventus.

This new tool, called C3A, is designed to integrate data from a company’s historical financial statements, application data and staffing metrics into powerful proprietary models, updated and delivered each month to clients in spreadsheet, chart and graph formats, along with ready-to-use PowerPoint slides. The financial data generated will be reviewed with company leaders via monthly virtual meetings and will identify areas of strength and weakness, and provide recommendations for improving processes, financial performance and scale.

Equipment Finance Advisor met with Bob Rinaldi, President, Rinaldi Advisory Services, Nancy Geary, Shareholder, ECS Financial Services and Tobey Wilson, Shareholder, ECS Financial Services, to learn more about this new financial tool and how it will help company leaders in the equipment finance industry achieve their financial, efficiency and market growth goals.

Equipment Finance Advisor: How did this partnership develop, and why did you decide to join forces?

Bob Rinaldi: Well, I have known and worked with Nancy and ECS often over the years. They are simply the best when it comes to understanding our industry. When I started my private advisory practice, I had a vision of how I could help independents in their journeys, which almost always involves scaling and/or preparing for an exit at some point. Commonly, independents are missing the necessary data about their business metrics from a historical perspective to identify different types of trends. They have the data somewhere, but not in the most helpful manner.

You know what I love about doing what I do, and what gets me excited? It’s watching these entrepreneurs and their passion! They are “fighting the fight” every day, 365x24x7. I want to provide them with the tools and my experience to help them be as successful as possible. But there is only one of me. With ECS, I can leverage our combined talents. C3A is a scaled-down version of what I do with my core clients in terms of time and deliverables, making it very economical for most lessors. ECS provides deep analytical and accounting skills to review the data and keep the dataset current. We will provide C3A clients an hour each month to go over the data and identify trends. I created the initial model, then ECS helped me think through improvements and develop the historical modeling. After a year of development, and almost two years of discussions with ECS, C3A was born.

Nancy Geary and Tobey Wilson: Bob Rinaldi is an industry veteran with valuable experience and sharp business acumen, and he has been involved in running several successful leasing companies. Individuals like Bob have a great deal of experience, insight and perspective to offer existing businesses, whether they are well-established or just getting off the ground. We believe Bob’s strengths and ours provide a winning combination to help lessors and brokers grow and prosper. We are honored to be teaming up with Bob Rinaldi to present this valuable tool to the industry.

Equipment Finance Advisor: Please tell us the reasons you feel this unique analysis tool is so important for the equipment finance industry. What was missing in the marketplace?

Rinaldi: My experience in building and selling leasing companies, along with rapid scaling, has taught me that if we just focus on our successes, we tend to believe we have all the answers. But it is nearly impossible to be objective if you are a CEO/Principal. There are some fine consulting firms in the market, but what is missing are specific products with easily understandable processes and roadmaps. Likewise, the benefits to the clients of CCR (a separate product available from Rinaldi Advisory Services) and C3A are that they are easily understandable and tangible. These products are easily adaptable to the many variations of independent lessors. We have come to find that CCR can also be a valued tool for bank-owned lessors.

Equipment Finance Advisor:Please explain how this tool will provide business leaders the ability to develop strategic decisions that are geared toward managing growth, operational and financial efficiencies.

Geary and Wilson: We think Bob hit the nail on the head in that the CEOs and principals we see right now wear so many hats in running the day-to-day of their respective businesses that they often don’t have the time to look up and objectively evaluate the big picture. By accumulating the data and then taking the time to review and discuss it with these business leaders regularly, we will become a pseudo board of directors for them – a sounding board to help them identify and assess strengths and weaknesses, discuss areas of potential improvement and ideas for change.

How many of us attend conferences and other networking opportunities, making notes about strategic changes we’d love to implement, but then get back to the office where our day-to-day duties steal our attention back, and the ideas go in the drawer, never to be seen again? We believe the monthly virtual meetings will act as a form of accountability. We can discuss realistic timelines and track implementation so that those ideas don’t get lost along the way.

Drawing on Bob’s many years of industry experience, our financial expertise and ability to manage, present and interpret the financial data, and the accountability the monthly virtual meetings will provide, we are confident that this tool will quickly pay for itself in bottom-line efficiencies and improvements.

Equipment Finance Advisor: Please explain the role ECS will play in this partnership.

Geary and Wilson: ECS will be responsible for housing and reporting on the monthly data provided by each client. We will also participate, along with Bob, in regularly scheduled virtual meetings with clients, where we can review and discuss financial reports, help to evaluate company and process strengths and weaknesses, and assist in the planning and implementation of process changes.