Tammy Haug has been financing cars, construction equipment, trucks and trailers for the best part of 20 years. She and her eCARZ team are turning their attention to the crane industry, Tammy explains more.
“Up until 2018, I had spent 12 years working in automotive finance for car dealerships where I worked my way up to the role of General Manager of multiple dealerships. I’ve run large teams in very large complex businesses, and I’ve also managed large finance teams.
“In 2018, I left that industry and joined the ‘finance broker world’. I started off writing small consumer loans and after a while I started to work my way into the transport industry, financing trucks and associated equipment.
“I took to the industry immediately and slowly built a network of transport related clients. I can relate to those business owners a lot more than someone who’s had a pathway through the finance industry, who knows how to read numbers and put a deal together.
“Having started my working life on the ‘wrong side of the tracks’, I understand what it takes to build a successful business. It comes down to the motivation of the business owner and how they encourage their employees to give blood, sweat, and toil for the business. When it comes to finance, I believe they are happier talking to someone who has been through a similar process instead of ‘Mr. Bank Guy,’” said Tammy.
eCARZ was started by Tammy’s business partner with whom she had worked during her time with car dealerships. He went on to work for a publicly listed company in a senior role before giving it away to start eCARZ.
“Jason could see a space in the market for a business that treats its employees like family, its lenders with the utmost professionalism and puts its customers first. I joined two years later,” said Tammy.
eCARZ started financing cars which connected them with people wanting to get into their own businesses.
“Even though we began with cars we quickly started to specialise in customers who wanted to start a business, but were having difficulties finding the finance. Essentially, they are good people and we needed to give them another go, and that’s why we extended our brands to include Queensland Truck Finance, Business and Equipment loans and Cashflow Funding,” said Tammy.
She said with a strong background in financing truck and transport-related products, it isn’t a huge step to be talking to crane hire businesses about their requirements.
“There’s a similar discipline between transport and cranes, obviously both require heavy duty capital equipment and significant investments by the organisations. I really like to sit with my customers and understand what they’re trying to do now, and what their goals are in the medium and long term. I’ll then sit down and plan cash flow projections which will help them reach these goals in the smoothest possible manner.
“Obviously I know what lenders are looking for and work on a long term model with my customers. Getting the best price is really important, but I don’t charge huge brokerage fees, and I like to work on a long-term relationship-based model. For me, it’s really about understanding the customers’ business, understanding the pain points and how I can best help them. At first glance, customers assume it’s just asset finance, but what we do can be the make or break of how that business performs now, and in the future,” said Tammy.
Having a really good working relationship with your finance broker is important and Tammy refers to the Beaumont Transport story as evidence of this.
“There’s a book about Richie Beaumont and Beaumont Transport called Whatever it takes: The Beaumont Transport story. For me it is a must read, because through all the good and hard times, Richie, who must be in his 80s now, still has lunch with his broker on a weekly basis. His broker was instrumental in the success of that business and ultimately it being sold to Qube,” said Tammy.
“If you understand your customer’s goals and what they are planning to purchase, you should have limits in place for the future so you can strategically advise when it’s OK to attend that auction and pick up a particular piece of equipment.
“I have a working case study of this nature at the moment, where I’m helping a gentleman build a business. We spoke in November of last year and he started his business in May, and through me, he’s had $3.5 million worth of finance at good rates with good lenders, and he’s working on sites where he’s being asked ‘How are you doing this?’
“It’s because we sat down, we understood each other and we had a plan. We put all the hard work in six or seven months before we even started with that company name.
“It’s about having a depth of relationship with your broker so that they’re on the same page as you. They can be honest with you, and advise what can and can’t happen and what the required timeframes might be,” said Tammy.
Tammy had her first experience with the crane industry and its ‘colourful characters’ when she attended the CICA QLD Branch meeting in November. She shares her first impressions and discusses her approach to businesses considering engaging her services.
“I loved it. I was first introduced to Smiley Williams, from Williams Cranes and Rigging and I could tell instantly it was an industry for me. Smiley was hilarious and everyone was so welcoming. Funnily enough, one of my customers who I’d helped set up a transport business emailed me a few days later saying, ‘I need to get a crane trailer financed straight away’,” she said.
“If you’re a decent broker, you’ve got access to most of the lenders that I have access to. It’s more about what kind of relationship I can build with the customer and how can I best understand their needs now and into the future. I am going to be honest and upfront about what it’s going to cost so a customer can claim it correctly. I am going to provide the customer with all of the documentation to make bookkeeping easy for their accountant, this includes amortization schedules,” said Tammy.
“I need to know if the customer is going to be able to communicate with me effectively no matter what time of the day it is, and if they are going to need a niche solution, am I able to find it? And one of the differences we have is we own our own credit licence which means if there’s a financier in Australia, I can connect directly with them to get the deal done. Meaning, if there are situations outside of the square, I’ll find them,” she said.
Tammy briefly examines the pitfalls that she will help a crane company avoid.
“One of the major issues I find in business, is you might have a contract for three years and a piece of equipment is required for that term. You engage a broker who says ‘Yep, great, you want that, and you want the lowest payment. We’ll do five years balloon or however you keep those payments nice and low’, and off you go.
“I’m going to ask what their plans are for this machine after the contract finishes. Are they going to sell it? Are they going to keep it? What happens if this contract finishes early? What are some contingencies that we need to put in place?’
“A lot of the time we’ll sit there and workshop different scenarios for that particular business. We might want to build in equity upfront so that if it gets to three years on that project, the owner is in a really good position with the lender and potentially there won’t be an excess interest charge on an early exit, or we can structure it in such a way that they can get out of the machine and get some money back, or we can refinance it or do a whole range of things that are going to suit hat business,” said Tammy.
“I place a strong focus on the medium and long term, that’s a three to five to 10-year period, especially when you’re talking these really big machines. If they’re sitting idle, that’s going to put a big hole in your cash flow. I don’t believe it’s just about the price, it’s about the value that you bring to that business.
“I’m always teaching my team to ask for full financials. I’ll be able to examine the financials, look through the commitment schedule, and identify areas where we can strategically restructure the business’s finances to get them through specific periods.
“If I understand their business and their pain points and seasonalities, I can provide bespoke solutions for that business. It’s my goal to understand the nuances of a customer’s business so I can structure their payments and their balance sheet in a way that helps them achieve their goals.”