[SCFunding]

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[MCNetwork]

As long as you don't have a criminal record, it's pretty easy to get accepted as an ISO.

[ridextreme]

What are the main qualifications funders look for in inking an ISO agreement?

clean criminal background, good credit and time and business, knowledge and experience in submitting/closing deals.

fwiw signing up as an ISO is the easy part. Staying in business past the 6th month is the hard part :O

Good luck!! (your going to need it)

[SCFunding]

As long as you don't have a criminal record, it's pretty easy to get accepted as an ISO.

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[SCFunding]

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[MCNetwork]

Was curious, since I am starting small, if there are number of submission requirements etc?

There are no submission requirements (as far as volume). However, as you increase the amount of submissions and can close a healthy percentage of them, you'll find out that your ISO rep will be returning your calls more quickly. In the beginning, you're treated as a red-headed stepchild until you prove your worth. Good luck!

[ridextreme]

Thank you for the feedback, appreciate that. I am aware how difficult it can be to make it in this, but I am willing to give it everything. I do not have the time in business as we are just starting. I fear the startup factor will hurt me in getting relations set.

This has become the most competitive industry I've ever been involved in. The startup factor won't be the main issue. The knowledge of how to originate and sell deals is what's going to make or break you.

You have to understand, depending on how you generate your leads, a lot of your customers are shopping for 2, 3 or more offers at the same time and if you don't sound like you know what your doing and know how to price the deals accordingly, you will lose the customer. Your avatar name of "full boat" isn't the way you're going to make money. Those days have been gone over 5 years.

[SCFunding]

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[dpFund]

Best of luck to you. So far the forum has been kind to you. Hopefully it stays that way. There are a lot of good people here.

Your clients are the type that are making lots of bad funding decisions. It's awfully tempting to help them make more bad decisions, lining your pockets along the way. If you are brutally honest, doing what is right for them rather than just trying to earn the "mostest the fastest", you can enjoy staying power. Easier said than done. But it will set you apart from the lower echelons of this industry.

[Karen37a]

What they all said is true. As far as competition is concerend...this makes wall st look like Main st.There are other factors they are not telling you about..there is an untheical side to the business ( as with all busines's )

I am of the opinion that if you didnt start off in a reputable Iso shop and "make your bones" , (and make mistakes on someone elses dime), learn, grow...its almost impossible to make it.You need a mentor.( and watch who mentors you, it isnt the one with the deepest pockets all the time thats the best)The questions you are asking shows me that you are not 100% ready yet...you have the eye of the tiger though...and the will to win , positive attitude.

You will have to have enough money to "float" you for 90 days while you build a pipeline, buy leads ( and not get ripped off) not waste your time on non fundable deals and time wasters/ lookie loos..and make sure you hold on to your deal thru the close...not get backdoored. There are some nice people on here..I came out the gate with a big bang

A direct competitor of mine with a 40 million budget against my $1.50 and free leads, just went out in a body bag..after funding 10 deals in 10 months lol And I did that personally in 1 month, not including team #s. So you can do it.I am like road kill now though.

I read an article a while back...someone did 70 million for the year..I think personally. And Some of these companies fund those 10 in an hour. So I am at the kiddies table acting like a nut half the time.

If you needed something basic/simple answered for you, I would answer and many other will from this community.

Gl

[LJH365]

Advice-
1. Vet your lead sources very carefully before you spend a bundle on them.

2.Don't grow too quickly.

3. Find 6-8 lenders that will cover most of the deals you will try to fund (top deals, middle of the road, and bottom feeders). Don't go ISO happy and sign up with every funder who solicits your business.

Feel free to PM me any questions you may have, I would be glad to offer you some guidance.

[HDF]

For what it's worth, I'd have an honest discussion with someone like Arty Bujan at Cardinal Equity for your needs. Otherwise, it is not as pretty or easy as you'd imagine. (I don't know Arty personally, but likely will very soon.) He posts this as contact info:

Arty Bujan
Cardinal Equity, LLC
Managing Member
30 Wall Street 8Th FL
New York, NY 10005
Phone: 212-804-5757
Email: abujan@cardeqgroup.com
Web: www.cardeqgroup.com

[TStein]

Feel free to message me for my contact info for any questions about high risk deals (C-F Paper). If you go through my past posts you'll see that I was always against putting money into high risk deals, but in the past few months I've actually been funding them more than better tier paper(Isaac is not lying when he says that is the market to be in!)

Also talk to Karen, she knows this industry like a book.

[jotucker1983]

What are the main qualifications funders look for in inking an ISO agreement?

There are none, all you need is a heartbeat/pulse and most funders/lenders will shoot you over an Broker/ISO Agreement. As I've written before on deBanked, the reason is because they build up a "Mom and Pop" network of hundreds of independent brokers across the country that collective produce a lot of volume for the funder/lender, but individually, most of them can barely pay rent with the amount of money they make from this.

So if you want my advice, don't come into this industry unless you have a real, structured, business plan on how to achieve X in new deals, within Y time, at Z operating/marketing costs. Then from those new deals, you get X in renewals within Y time. Finally, when all costs are considered and all revenues are calculated, you are profitable in such a manner to make some sort of living at this, even if the living is just a bit of profitable side income to another job you might have.

Don't post your business plan on this forum because once you develop that, it's what's known as your "secret sauce". But I'm going to tell you, if you don't have a business plan, if you don't have a "secret sauce", if you don't have a way to profitably generate new apps, that convert to new deals, that produce a certain amount of revenue..........you are wasting your time.

[WestCoastFunding]

1) Trust no one (not funders, not brokers, not merchants)
2) Stick with the ethical route. It pays off in the end.
3) Add traditional financing resources (bank, SBA).
4) Stay lean. No need adding additional resources until you prove your model effective.
5) Save your money. You don't know when you'll close the next deal.
6) Be prepared to be disappointed. Just when you think you're closing a fantastic deal, it dies.
7) Most of these merchants are shopping around and have multiple brokers bringing the merchant offers from the same company. Cut your commission and close the deal.
8) Don't submit deals to CAN Capital until January.
9) If your merchant has a bunch of advances and owns real estate....

[MCNetwork]

So if you want my advice, don't come into this industry unless you have a real, structured, business plan on how to achieve X in new deals, within Y time, at Z operating/marketing costs. Then from those new deals, you get X in renewals within Y time. Finally, when all costs are considered and all revenues are calculated, you are profitable in such a manner to make some sort of living at this, even if the living is just a bit of profitable side income to another job you might have.

You don't even have to go this far. When you're starting out, your first goal is "how can I make a six figure income?" Assuming that you're home based at first and your overhead is low, this is not that difficult (in theory). Here are some metrics to chew on:

1. Your goal is to fund at least $120,000 per month. This will put you on pace to earning six figures and that's without counting any renewals. This translates to about 7-8 deals per month (on average) of new business.

2. In order to close 8 deals per month, your pipeline should have at least 25 approvals per month (assuming a 30% closing rate).

3. In order to have 25 approvals per month, you need to submit around 40 completed applications per month (assuming a 60% approval rate).

4. Your goal is to submit 10 applications per week, or about 2 per day.

5. From my experience, if you send out 10 applications to merchants who you've had a good conversation with and pre-qualified them properly, you'll get about 3 back. The others will just go dark on you or change their minds. It's a fact of life.

6. At the top of the funnel, if you make 100 outbound dials, you'll have conversations with about 20 decision makers. The rest will be gatekeepers, voicemails, bad numbers, etc.

7. Out of the 20 decision makers, you'll probably send out 1 to 2 qualified applications. The rest will either hang up on you, tell you to go screw yourself or politely say they're not interested.

8. The bottom line is that you will need to make at least 100 outbound calls every day, rain or shine, in order to build your pipeline to the point where the apps start coming in at a pace of 2 per day. That generally takes about 60 days of hard work. For the first 30 days, you'll be lucky to get 10 apps back but as your pipeline grows, you'll find that you can reach the metrics above. Keep in mind that the 100 prospecting calls is SEPARATE from the other hundred calls you'll be doing to work your pipeline and chase applications, stips, close deals, etc.

9. The key is to NEVER stop the daily prospecting of 100 calls a day. Once you take your foot off the gas, you'll find your pipeline starts to shrivel up fast and you end up losing momentum. It's almost like starting from scratch. I'd advise you to religiously set a time block each day to prospect for at least 2 hours. You can schedule the block in 2 straight hours or break it up into increments. As long as you honor it. That means you turn off your cell phone, shut down Facebook and email, log off of Daily Funder and just cold call.

10. If you can follow this formula for six straight months, you'll reach a low six figure salary. Then your renewals will kick in and bump you up even further.

11. If you decide to start spending money on office space, extensive marketing and sales/Admin staff, then you'll open a new can of worms. As your overhead increases, you'll quickly find yourself on a treadmill from hell to keep the lights on. That's exactly why a lot of big ISOs and funders have been faltering. Believe me, I've been there and it isn't pleasant. I had a fancy office with six workers and I worked solo at home and I was more profitable doing the latter. Feeding an elephant takes a hell of a lot more food than feeding a squirrel. I'd advise you to start small and once you've mastered the basics, then you can scale it up (if you even need to).

Good luck! You'll need it!

[Michael I]

Hi everyone, I have spent a lot of time looking at the site, and reading posts. I find this site extremely valuable, and finally decided to get an account up to post.

I am looking to start a small ISO shop, and understand the industry very well and what goes into MCA deals. I am starting small with just a couple of us, and am curious what kind of advice can be given on a start up. I am sure most are tired of hearing or seeing these kinds of posts, but I have been huge on ethics and integrity and look forward to applying that in this business.

What are the main qualifications funders look for in inking an ISO agreement?

funders like high closing ratio . learn where to place a deal and not waste funders time . You can become one of the good iso without heavy volume .
next figure out your lead sources and the cost involved . Pay your reps based on that . dont throw money away stupidly . dont listen or trust anyone . get yourself a good crm and keep track of what everyone is doing . do not become desperate and making bad decisions on lenders or good for merchant because you need to pay rent . Most important is never stop smiling and treat your reps with respect

[jotucker1983]

You don't even have to go this far. When you're starting out, your first goal is "how can I make a six figure income?" Assuming that you're home based at first and your overhead is low, this is not that difficult (in theory). Here are some metrics to chew on:

Archie,

That's a nice detailed plan, but I disagree with various portions of it lol.

- You mentioned funding $120,000 a month is about 8 deals, which would mean the average deal is $15,000 in this case. My average deal has been around $40,000 but the industry average is about $30,000 give or take.

- Funding $120k a month is $1,440,000 a year and the only way to generate $100,000 in commissions off of this volume is to charge 7 points on average on every single deal. I personally don't think that's competitive, unless, your entire strategy is to sell stack deals? But how far is that going to take you?

- I agree with your completed application to approval rate, and approval rate to funding/boarding rate.

- But when you mention making 100 outbound calls a day, the million dollar "secret sauce" question becomes, to who? If he calls out of the Yellow Pages, his chances are slim to none, he would make more money at the Burger King drive-thru.

[cardinalequity]

Hi everyone, I have spent a lot of time looking at the site, and reading posts. I find this site extremely valuable, and finally decided to get an account up to post.

I am looking to start a small ISO shop, and understand the industry very well and what goes into MCA deals. I am starting small with just a couple of us, and am curious what kind of advice can be given on a start up. I am sure most are tired of hearing or seeing these kinds of posts, but I have been huge on ethics and integrity and look forward to applying that in this business.

What are the main qualifications funders look for in inking an ISO agreement?

I'd love to chat with you and give you advice on how to grow your ISO. PM me if you're interested in chatting.

[MCNetwork]

John

If your average deal size is $40K then more power to you! I've seen it hover around $17,500 based on my sample size of about 500 deals I personally funded (as an ISO and a sales closer for a large firm). I've closed deals ranging from 5K up to 400K.

7 points commission on average is pretty reasonable. Especially given that some funders pay up to 15 points. My estimate is pretty conservative IMHO. If my blended commission rates go below 5 points, then I'm just not a good salesperson.

As far as the outbound calls, I'm just talking about UCCs or aged leads for now. Obviously, if you have the luxury to call pre-qualified inbound leads AKA The Holy Grail, your closing ratios will be much higher. Most people starting out will only be calling UCCs and aged leads.

[RickyR3712]

Hi everyone, I have spent a lot of time looking at the site, and reading posts. I find this site extremely valuable, and finally decided to get an account up to post.

I am looking to start a small ISO shop, and understand the industry very well and what goes into MCA deals. I am starting small with just a couple of us, and am curious what kind of advice can be given on a start up. I am sure most are tired of hearing or seeing these kinds of posts, but I have been huge on ethics and integrity and look forward to applying that in this business.

What are the main qualifications funders look for in inking an ISO agreement?

do not buy any leads whats so ever . they are all scams . from aged leads to live transfers. Call on ucc and do your own marketing. Also hit up local business , you will be surprised to learn your morning bagel guy has 2 positions already.

[jotucker1983]

John

If your average deal size is $40K then more power to you! I've seen it hover around $17,500 based on my sample size of about 500 deals I personally funded (as an ISO and a sales closer for a large firm). I've closed deals ranging from 5K up to 400K.

Archie,

Yes, I understand. My market was mainly different though during the time I sold the product (full-time at least, I'm moving onto another full-time gig here shortly, so I'm no longer selling the product full-time).

I mainly targeted the A/B Paper guys, they were the bulk of the portfolio and I would have a couple C Paper guys in there but not many. I also did some case-by-case 2nd position deals for guys that otherwise would be classified as A/B Paper as well.

Based on this, they were more price sensitive, so I wanted to price them within their Paper Grade. This had me making a range of 3 - 5 points on average per deal, but having a much longer renewal/reload duration, with some clients still renewing to this day that I first boarded way back in 2010.

The average funding amount was also bigger, came out to about $40,000 per deal once my portfolio was said and done from full-time work. 100% of this was done as a Broker/ISO in my own one man shop, without any help externally.

I still think that any guy coming into the space right now needs an actual business plan that's unique, targets unmet demand that's not being served, and with a product suite that can address said unmet demand. A guy coming in here doing what everybody else is doing, isn't going to go far. Everybody else is already calling UCCs and Aged Leads, they also have been doing it longer and know how to scale their operations to get to said data "faster".

[cardinalequity]

For what it's worth, I'd have an honest discussion with someone like Arty Bujan at Cardinal Equity for your needs. Otherwise, it is not as pretty or easy as you'd imagine. (I don't know Arty personally, but likely will very soon.) He posts this as contact info:

Arty Bujan
Cardinal Equity, LLC
Managing Member
30 Wall Street 8Th FL
New York, NY 10005
Phone: 212-804-5757
Email: abujan@cardeqgroup.com
Web: www.cardeqgroup.com

Thank you HDF

[Lmonus]

.... Essay after Essay.

If you are looking for a Funder who actually delivers, contact me.

Thank you,

Lior Monus
CFG Merchant Solutions
Direct:516-319-5826
Lmonus@cfgms.com

[anonymous]

Your goal is to fund at least $120,000 per month....This translates to about 7-8 deals per month (on average) of new business....

so you're saying average deal size (generally speaking, industry-wide) is around $20k? not debating, just curious. that figure sounds low from what I'd expect... really low...

nvm, tucker answered on following post.