[DoingTheDeal]

Hey everyone!

I have a friend who has been doing an MCA/ISO now on his own for around 3 years and thought I would be good at it. I got the chance to spend a few weeks with him and seeing what he does and I've decided to dig in a little more. I've been in the small business loans with a local credit union and then got into judgment enforcement, so if you have a debtor and a judgment please let me know I've collected in 20 different States.

I have a few questions if anybody can help me out, and I apologize if this isn't the best forum but nothing else made sense to me.

Lenders

• What exactly is a lender called? I've seen a few lenders on this board but my question is there an exact term? For example I am starting an ISO.
• Are there any lenders who are new ISO friendly?
• When singing up with a lender, is there NDA or no contact agreement with the merchant? I only ask because my friend is always worried about the lender going around them for the deal.

Merchant

• I've heard there are a few states which you don't really want to do business in, is this just a rule of thumb or is there actual legislation?

Leads

• I've read that paying for leads with bank statements is just a waste of money, I feel like this probably isn't 100% true, but just very expensive.
• Can anybody recommend a leads source they trust?

Debots

• I really don't have any questions here, I'd actually like to purchase some of the debt or if someone has some judgments I'd work them as well. I feel like this could be a benefit in terms of a relationship with me and the lender.

[ectorro]

There have been similar threads like this started before. Consensus is usually leads are the hardest part and anyone with a good lead source is not going to disclose it. If you trust your friend probably not a bad idea to see if he'll broker your deals as you start our and cut him in on a point or 2. Good luck there's a lot of competition

[FCF Fund]

Hey everyone!

I have a friend who has been doing an MCA/ISO now on his own for around 3 years and thought I would be good at it. I got the chance to spend a few weeks with him and seeing what he does and I've decided to dig in a little more. I've been in the small business loans with a local credit union and then got into judgment enforcement, so if you have a debtor and a judgment please let me know I've collected in 20 different States.

I have a few questions if anybody can help me out, and I apologize if this isn't the best forum but nothing else made sense to me.

Lenders

• What exactly is a lender called? I've seen a few lenders on this board but my question is there an exact term? For example I am starting an ISO.
• Are there any lenders who are new ISO friendly?
• When singing up with a lender, is there NDA or no contact agreement with the merchant? I only ask because my friend is always worried about the lender going around them for the deal.

Merchant

• I've heard there are a few states which you don't really want to do business in, is this just a rule of thumb or is there actual legislation?

Leads

• I've read that paying for leads with bank statements is just a waste of money, I feel like this probably isn't 100% true, but just very expensive.
• Can anybody recommend a leads source they trust?

Debots

• I really don't have any questions here, I'd actually like to purchase some of the debt or if someone has some judgments I'd work them as well. I feel like this could be a benefit in terms of a relationship with me and the lender.

Rule #1 MCA are not loans so there are no lenders, just funders.

Rule #2 Learn to originate your own leads, if you are buying leads chances are the lead has been sold to 10 other ppl. No such thing as exclusivity, no way to prove otherwise but someones "word".

Rule #3 careful who you let shop your deal or who you send your deals to. Lots of sticky fingers so prepare yourself

Figure out how to be profitable with #2 & #3 and you will be on your way.

[JasonBishop]

Rule #1 MCA are not loans so there are no lenders, just funders.

Rule #2 Learn to originate your own leads, if you are buying leads chances are the lead has been sold to 10 other ppl. No such thing as exclusivity, no way to prove otherwise but someones "word".

Rule #3 careful who you let shop your deal or who you send your deals to. Lots of sticky fingers so prepare yourself

Figure out how to be profitable with #2 & #3 and you will be on your way.

It would actually be an advantage to at least, partner with a lead source while you are learning or attempting to generate leads internally. Originating on own is fine, if you have the resources. Expect to burn some money while this learning phase occurs. The marketing costs are going to be one of the ISO's biggest expense. Adding non-exclusive, shared leads into a pipeline is a good thing vs laying out costs in experimenting with ads and have nothing to show for it. Self-Originating leads is a priority for many ISO's, but the budget, and the know how to deploy that budget correctly are more important. If you are content on doing a handful of deals per month (as an independent), then you can spend some time mastering originating strategies. If you have a vision greater than that, then utilizing various lead sources (including your own) simultaneously to create a hedge is important.

[fundinggrasshopper]

Look, DoingtheDeal, you seem like you’re going in with good intentions and some minimal understanding of this industry, but your questions reflect that you have an extremely limited understanding of this industry and the basic mechanisms that create this industry from the ISO perspective as well as the Lender perspective.

My advice to you is to spend another 6+ months with your friend before even thinking about starting your own company. Your questions about Leads and Merchants specifically reflect that you really don’t understand the WHY’s to your questions even if 20 different people were to give you the answers. Instead of asking this forum those questions, and using those answers as your foundation for starting your company, you really should gain more experience & understanding of this industry and focus on not the answers to your questions, but the REASONS why things in MCA are the way that they are. You’ll never know everything about this space, but you clearly will be putting yourself & your potential company in a bad position jumping in with such a limited understanding of the basic tenets of this industry.

[fundinggrasshopper]

And as Trump would say, I wish you well.

[fundinggrasshopper]

Rule #2 Learn to originate your own leads, if you are buying leads chances are the lead has been sold to 10 other ppl. No such thing as exclusivity, no way to prove otherwise but someones "word".

Rule #3 careful who you let shop your deal or who you send your deals to. Lots of sticky fingers so prepare yourself

Like these two rules, they’re great! I would agree 100%. But if I was helping someone start a company with a limited knowledge of the industry, what is far more important to understand than these two pretty basic rules is the REASONING behind them

[FCF Fund]

Like these two rules, they’re great! I would agree 100%. But if I was helping someone start a company with a limited knowledge of the industry, what is far more important to understand than these two pretty basic rules is the REASONING behind them

Both are self explanatory....Rule 2 if you originate your lead you control costs, you control your lead more then a lead that came into a 3rd party and sold to 4 other brokers. If that lead came to your site there is an affinity with your brand, easier to close.

Rule 3 refers to sticky fingers. Employees at funders can steal your lead info and sell it to another ISO friend of theirs and cut you out, this is called backdooring and is a major problem in this industry. Also, many "funders" are actually ISO pretending to be something they are not so be careful who you send your deals to because they could have a major backdoor lead with an employee or a ISO pretending to be a funder to collect your deals and cut you out.

[fundinggrasshopper]

Yes, this might be self-explanatory for you, and for me, but the fact he asked these questions in the way that he did implies these concepts are not self-explanatory for him.

There WILL be a learning curve, so its just a decision on if you want to go through that learning curve while also trying to create your company & get it off the ground, or if you want to go through the learning curve while working for say, your friend with 3 years of experience, and then try to get your company off the ground.

Because just going off of the questions he asked, even with his experience at credit unions and with collections, the learning curve is gonna be pretty steep any way the cookie crumbles.

[shamwam]

@doingthedeal While working/spending time with your friend what did you learn from m that motivated you to open up your own shop?
Did you see what kind of leads they call every day? ucc, live transfers?

[ridextreme]

So you're staying with your "friend" for 3 weeks, and now you're gonna create your own ISO in direct competition to him? That might be a relationship breaker, and if you have to ask all those questions you'd be much better off just getting a job you'll make a lot more money. Good luck.

[fundinggrasshopper]

if you have to ask all those questions you'd be much better off just getting a job you'll make a lot more money. Good luck.

My point exactly. @DoingtheDeal, you're asking the right questions and clearly have the right intentions; to make money in the industry. However, in my opinion, your questions show that you have a lot to learn before starting your own ISO. Jumping in too quickly may not be the best idea. Instead, like ridextreme, I suggest joining an established ISO or your friend's ISO as an employee to learn the answers to your questions and the reasons for them.
Some of your questions, such the ones about leads and different states' disclosure laws, have complex answers.
It's not as simple as just saying, "leads get shopped around so learn to generate your own leads."
Or saying, "funders need to register with the state to be able to fund in certain states, so some funders can't fund in specific states."
Yes, those answer your questions, but they don't come close to giving you the right foundation to start your own Iso & be successful.

I wish you the best and encourage you to learn all you can, and would be happy to get on a brief call with you and give you more in depth answers & reasoning for any of your questions.

[DoingTheDeal]

Okay, let me play catchup. And if I have the wrong forum can an admin move this to everything else board?

@ectorro: totally get it - I'm sure no one will want to give up the golden goose . My general purpose for asking is I see leads advertising all the time, but I am asking for about the quality of the data, like current numbers, cell phone, correct names not the amount of positive outcomes.

@FCF Fund: I really appreciate it, rule #3 is the one that concerns me the most. I know certain funders have their own requirements on what types of businesses they will fund, plus the credit requirements, monthly rev ect, I'm looking for a few that would be interested in working with a new ISO.

@JasonBishop: Understood

@fundinggrasshopper: Thanks, I don't mind swimming in the deep end for a little bit

@shamwam We've discussed live transfers but the fees on that... yikes. I'd only like to do that if I was going to fund the deal myself.


@ridextreme: Do you know how many ISO's there actually are? Besides, sometimes friends want to see friends succeed, also maybe he doesn't want to hire anymore? Not everyone is malicious.

[BIG]

Hey everyone!

I have a friend who has been doing an MCA/ISO now on his own for around 3 years and thought I would be good at it. I got the chance to spend a few weeks with him and seeing what he does and I've decided to dig in a little more. I've been in the small business loans with a local credit union and then got into judgment enforcement, so if you have a debtor and a judgment please let me know I've collected in 20 different States.

I have a few questions if anybody can help me out, and I apologize if this isn't the best forum but nothing else made sense to me.

Lenders

• What exactly is a lender called? I've seen a few lenders on this board but my question is there an exact term? For example I am starting an ISO.
• Are there any lenders who are new ISO friendly?
• When singing up with a lender, is there NDA or no contact agreement with the merchant? I only ask because my friend is always worried about the lender going around them for the deal.

Merchant

• I've heard there are a few states which you don't really want to do business in, is this just a rule of thumb or is there actual legislation?

Leads

• I've read that paying for leads with bank statements is just a waste of money, I feel like this probably isn't 100% true, but just very expensive.
• Can anybody recommend a leads source they trust?

Debots

• I really don't have any questions here, I'd actually like to purchase some of the debt or if someone has some judgments I'd work them as well. I feel like this could be a benefit in terms of a relationship with me and the lender.

When you're up and running, apply to get on our platform so we can fund some of your deals !

[goldenhippo80]

When you're up and running, apply to get on our platform so we can fund some of your deals !

This is a good place to go if you want your deals stolen from you

[TheFortunesLeads]

give us a call we will definity help you