Are you executing the right strategies to market your products and services? Are you planning to buy or sell a business? In this episode, guest Cameron Kolb, senior broker at Raincatcher, speaks with host Bob Roark on how business owners spend their money, time, and effort in growing their businesses. Cameron explains his company's professional process so you can start analyzing yours. He helps and guides people to get the maximum value when buying or selling their businesses. He values being true and honest to the people who are asking for their help while getting the job done. Stay tuned to know more to scale your business up!

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The Essentials Of Buying And Selling A Business With Cameron Kolb

The big questions are how do business owners like us spending our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our businesses and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products services in our community while being smart about our growth profits culture and still create a lasting value in our business? Those are the questions in this show. We'll share some of those answers. Our guest is Cameron Kolb. He's a Senior Broker with Raincatcher. Welcome to the show.

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Our guest is Cameron Kolb. He's the Senior Broker at Raincatcher. Cameron, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time. Tell us a little bit about your background and bring us up on where you are now. I started my professional career at Northwestern Mutual doing financial planning. We initially started with insurance and worked in the niche of business owners because we thought that was a good need there. As we expanded the team investments or more licenses they got, I started to specialize in exit planning. I worked with a lot of physicians and business owners. I did that for about six years and then, the debt in the family caused me to have to rethink things then, ultimately decided that based on what I've experienced with all these business owners and how difficult of a time they've had trying to sell their business, I thought there might be some opportunity to help essentially do business brokerage. My path after that was that I went out on my own, learned how to do business brokering, did it on my own for about five years and then was asked to join Raincatcher back in May 2021, which has just been great. I essentially went from being a solo practitioner to doing everything that there is to do with now. Now, I get to focus on what I'm great at, which is bringing buyers and sellers to the table and getting deals done. I think about the compare and contrast between the team approach to a business sale versus the sole practitioner approach to bring it to a sale. What it reminds me of is the difference between having a job and a business. For the sole practitioner, they might've been expertise that you didn't have, it might be franchising or one type of specialist event, whereas at RainCatcher, you have a depth of field. [bctt tweet="Continue learning. When you start working with people, you will realize that there’s a lot you don’t know yet." username=""] I thought I was smart then I started working with some smart people and realized there's a lot that I didn't even know I didn't know. It'll bring 4 or 5 months together on a deal we're working in. It's just made a huge difference in the execution and the progress that I've made as a business professional. I feel that one of the lots about what you can do to add a lot more value than I’m previously doing....

  If you want to grow as a company, you have to do it organically, not by following trends. Ask your customers what they want and then build from that. Stop anticipating the next trend and just work on your core business. Be creative and original. Join your host Bob Roark and his guest Dr. Angus Fletcher as they break down how you can lead your business to grow organically. Angus is a Professor of Story Science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative. Discover Angus's love for both neuroscience and storytelling. Come and join the conversation on how you can grow your company in a world that's so different from before. Be open to change and anomalies so that you can grow. Feed your creative brain so that you can grow. Grow organically today!

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How To Grow Your Company Organically In This New World With Dr. Angus Fletcher

Our guest is Dr. Angus Fletcher. He is a professor at Ohio State University's Project Narrative. He is a polymath with dual degrees in Neuroscience and Literature. He received his PhD from Yale, taught Shakespeare at Stanford, and published two books and numerous peer-reviewed articles. He has consulted with Sony, Disney, Amazon, and the Army Command and General Staff College. He is the author and presenter of the Audible Great Course Guide to Screenwriting. He was awarded the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring 2020. Welcome to the show.

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Angus Fletcher, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. Thanks for inviting me. I'm honored and excited. In the pre-interview here, I was doing homework. The more homework I did, the more I knew I was lacking. I talked to another good friend of yours, Ken Long. He had some input too and he says, "Maybe he has this." We will narrow down the discussion as to how it might apply to the business community and narrative. What I was fascinated with is you have literature and neuroscience. It's like chicken and egg. Which one came first? I started in neuroscience and that continues to be the bedrock of everything that I do as a young neuroscience researcher. I was in the lab where, like every other lab in America, everyone thought the brain was a computer. They thought that the brain is operated by taking on data, storing it into memory, and then processing that data to make decisions logically and that the brain program has this thing called emotion. That was how everyone was working on the brain. I started to notice the human brain didn't work as a computer at all. First of all, human brains are much worse at doing logic than most computers. Human brains can't take on the same amount of data. Even when we do, we are much more irregular in how we process it. Humans are a lot smarter than computers in certain situations. Humans are much better at low-data decision-making. We are much better at figuring out what to do when there's not a lot of information. That's a situation where AI goes completely haywire. Humans are also better at being creative. Even though AI can be better at predicting the future, humans can be better at making the future and making it in ways that AI can't...

Your hiring process should not just start with stacking up resumes. If you want the right fit for the job and for your company, you need to be thorough. Joining Bob Roark today are Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis, co-founders of Riderflex, a generalist boutique recruiting firm servicing all industries, all functions, nationwide, C-level to associates. The two recruitment experts share how you can optimize your recruitment process. It’s not just about credentials on paper but also the character and personality. It all comes down to a human element. Learn more about their process and how they’ve helped build successful companies through their work by tuning in.

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Optimizing Your Hiring Process With Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis

The big questions are, “How do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our business and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services in our community while being smart about our growth, profits, and culture, and still creating lasting value in our business?” Those are the questions in this show. We will share some of those answers. Our guests are Steve Urban, CEO and Cofounder, and Scott Kegerreis, CRO and Cofounder of Riderflex, a global recruiting and consulting firm. Welcome to the show.

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Thank you so much for being on the show. It has been a long time. The last time we talked was in February of 2018 on one of the episodes of the show. You have been hitting it out of the park. You have amazing five-star reviews counting over 200. What is it that you offer to your customers? What is it that you do? For the readers, I'm glad to be back on the show. We are a recruiting firm and what we're here to talk about is our recruiting business. If it wasn't for you, I don't think Riderflex Podcast that we would do would not exist if it wasn’t for you because you gave us that suggestion way back a long time ago. I always think to myself, “The podcast we have would not exist without Bob.” Thank you for the mentoring and advice you gave us way back then. You have a wonderful show and all the guests that you have had on. I try to mimic that a little bit and follow your lead, especially early on when I was first getting started. Thank you for the advice and the relationship that we have. With Bob Roark is appreciated. For the readers, Riderflex is a generalist boutique recruiting firm for all industries and functions nationwide from C-level to associates. We are having great success building the company. Scott and I started it in late 2016. We both came from executive backgrounds. I was an operations guy and Scott was a sales guy. We had met each other working at a horticulture outfit. We bonded and had a lot of similarities. We enjoyed being around each other so we stayed in touch. I called him and said, “I want to turn Riderflex into a recruiting firm.” He's like, “There are 20,000 recruiters. Why do we want to do that?” I said, “Most of them suck. We can do a lot better.” I’ve got some ideas on how to do it the right way because I had dealt with and hired recruiters, and recruiters had worked for me...

For many business owners and entrepreneurs, the time comes when they have to move on. When this happens selling your business becomes a priority. What can you do to ensure that you get the most out of it? In this episode, Bob Roark discusses business exit strategies with senior business broker Gary Wofford of Raincatcher LLC. Gary helps businesses buy and sell their companies and here, he gives you what you need to know with how to sell your company. Curious? Then learn more by tuning in to Bob and Gary.

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How To Sell Your Business With Gary Wofford

The big questions are how do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our businesses and jump the line? That lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services in our community while being smart about our growth and profit culture and still creating lasting value in our business. Those are the questions in this show and we will share some of those answers. Our guest is Gary Wofford. He's the Senior Business Broker at Raincatcher. Welcome to the show.

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Gary Wofford, thank you so much for taking your time to be a guest on the show. Welcome. Thank you, Bob. I'm glad to be here with you. I have been looking forward to this. You started talking about your experience in the franchise space. It seems like there isn't anything you haven't done. If you would tell us a little bit about how you got here. I have been reflecting on my background and experiences. I do cover a lot of bases. I first was on the corporate side of the franchising world. It was with a company based down in Dallas that decided to franchise all of their company-owned restaurants. That was Bonanza International. I was VP of Operations over about 250 stores. They allowed me to become a franchise owner as a little bit of a stay bonus. My franchise fee was waived and I was able to pick 1 of 2 or 3 stores that would be mine. That's when I first got involved in the ownership side of franchising. It was a wonderful experience. I was able to develop two additional Bonanza Family Steakhouses as a franchise owner in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma. I go back to that as a grassroots learning experience because with the adage, “You learn where the buck stops.” When it's snowing outside, you got a payroll on Monday and the business is down, you learn what you have to do as a business owner to take care of that. From that very early beginning, I started gaining a strong appreciation for business owners, knowing their world and what they were faced with on a day-to-day basis. That later led to an opportunity to sell those stores to a larger franchise owner after about 6 or 7 years because the town that I was in built another highway. The cows cut the traffic patterns down quite a bit. I could see the handwriting on the wall that it was time to consider moving on to something else. I did sell those three locations to another franchise owner and that system. I got affiliated with another franchise as the operating partner back in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Luther's BBQ. We built over 6 or 10 years of AAA locations. This was back in the day. We were selling barbecue sandwiches for $1.99 but we had $2 million on average with a lot of drive-throughs, takeouts and catering. Each of these restaurants would sit 200 people. We were very successful in the...

  Most entrepreneurs’ exit strategy is selling their business. But how do you sell your business at the best price? Mark Woodbury is the Managing Director at Raincatcher, helping entrepreneurs buy and sell remarkable companies. Today, he joins Bob Roark to break down the process behind how they help clients get maximum value for their businesses. He shares mistakes to avoid and things to prepare when you’re planning to exit and sell your business. Tune in for valuable insight on how to make your life’s work sellable!

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How To Sell Your Online Or SaaS Business At Maximum Value With Mark Woodbury

The big questions are, “How do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our business and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services while being smart about our growth, profits, culture, instilling increased value in our business?” Those are the questions in this episode. We will share some of the answers.

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Our guest is Mark Woodbury. He's a Managing Director of Raincatcher. Mark, welcome to the show. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate your time. Tell us a bit of you and what got you from there to here? My background was in finance and I have worked in finance as my first job out of school. I always had an itch for a little bit more independence and less rigidity than I had. Since this is my first job, there is supposed to be some rigidity and you have to earn your stripes a little bit. I learned a ton. I liked what I was doing but I had an itch towards self-employment. They say, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” meaning if you want to start a business and you don't have any money, you better figure out how to start a business with no money. For me, that was learning the digital space. It was a very low barrier to entry to do business online, to build websites as a service. At that point, start a website, get into eCommerce with very low customer acquisition costs. That's what I did. I dabbled around online and figured things out the hard way. Initially, I taught myself a lot of hard lessons. I stumbled and fell many times but this was nights and weekends for a while and I ended up having some success. I was at the right place and at the right time. That was an easier time to get into eCommerce. It's much more competitive now. There are a lot of software that has decreased the barrier to entry even further. There are probably 10, 20 times as many merchants online competing for the same ad space as when I’ve got into it. I’ve got in and got my feet wet into self-employment. I learned the hard way about keeping your books and quarterly estimated taxes. I learned that lesson the hard way. Plenty of stumbles, as you have seen with yourself or potentially your clients. I ultimately ended up selling that. I didn't know what my next venture would be until I sold that company. Throughout the sales process, that's where I learned, “This is what I want to do.” I have done consulting at other firms before. I wanted to do consulting and eCommerce. I wanted to do consulting for some supply chains and logistics. It didn't ring a bell but when I sold my company, I realized this is what this person does. They understand the M&A process and know who all the key players are. It's a lucrative space to be. It provides value. It's fun. It's very goal-oriented. I'm not racking up hours on somebody else's bill. I'm working for free most of the time until I close something. That's how I’ve got into the business brokerage space. I started at my own company with a partner and we had a couple of employees. After a few...

  It’s not just what you say that matters, but also how you say it. Everyone communicates differently, and knowing how to approach different people at different times can make or break you.  Ethan Becker is the President and second-generation senior coach and trainer from The Speech Improvement Company. In this episode, he chats with host Bob Roark and shares some tips from his book, Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence. Ethan talks about the impact of communicating effectively and how that translates in different business situations. He also discusses the science behind speech and communication to give a better understanding of how it works.

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Dr. Ethan Becker On The Impact Of Mastering Communication In Business

How To Lead, Manage And Influence

This is going to be quite the episode. We have Dr. Ethan Becker. He's the President and second generation senior coach and trainer for The Speech Improvement Company. It’s the oldest communication coaching and training firm in America. More importantly, he's created what I would consider a tool case, a set of tools for Mastering Communication at Work. That's the name of his book with the co-author, Jon Wortmann. It's how to lead, manage, and influence. It's the second edition. He was kind enough to provide me a copy, which I promptly read. It resides on my desk as a go-to resource and how-to in the speech side of the house. Dr. Becker, thank you so much for taking the time. If you would, maybe starting out with a story about your company and your mom and how this all came to pass. It's good to be here. I get asked that question about the company because we were founded in 1964. My mom and my dad were both at Emerson College, which for a long time is where you would go for communication. She was studying Speech Pathology and he was studying Rhetoric and Public Address, that was the vocation. They met, and dated, and they got together. They had this idea that if you could coach an executive, a businessperson, the same way an athlete was coached, you could help that person. Their specialty was in communication, so they did that through the lens of communication and the company name, they started right away. They said, “Let's name it what we do, The Speech Improvement Company.” Between the two of them, they found something that could focus on, in some cases, mechanics of speaking, and in other cases, psychology, persuasion, and rhetoric. Naturally, that grew into the business world. That's how it originally started a long time ago. Was there a recognition or a pushback when they started the company? Good speakers are born not made. You get some of that stuff. They also had other challenges. They were out of the norm. My mother, a blind Jewish woman who married a Catholic boy. In the 1960s, that didn't go over well. Your dad must have needed a lot of work for her to marry him and to try to improve. An Irish Catholic boy from Pennsylvania hitchhiked his way up to Boston and did what he couldn't to get through school. She came from a long line. Her grandfather was one of the founding members of Brandeis University. She came from a different place. These two were not from the...

  Interestingly, many banks receive customer complaints not about their services but their standard procedure of asking for ID all the time. Regulars often see this as annoying and repetitive, which sometimes leads to arguments with bank tellers and staff. Setting the record straight regarding this particular policy with Bob Roark is Robin Roberts, CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She explains why confirming one's identification is critical in securing one's money and financial information. Robin emphasizes why this simple action promotes better relationships between you and your bank. 

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Robin Roberts: The Reason Behind Banks Asking For ID All The Time

  Negotiating with banks when getting a loan is not only about getting the most rewarding end of the deal. There are a lot of regulations and policies to be considered here after all, and you must be aware of each one to ensure a smooth process. Bob Roark talks with the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts, to delve into the right approach to bank negotiations. She explains why you can't argue with banks about submitting tax returns and financial statements, delving into why it is not an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, Robin talks about loan covenants - which are negotiable - detailing how you should discuss its specifics with the bank to come up with a satisfying agreement for both parties.

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Robin Roberts: What You Must Know When Negotiating With Banks

Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s here to demystify some of the things that might be bothering you. One of the things that we talked about at length is how to negotiate with your bank. There are so many people that miss this one particular component and it is not the 1/8 of the quarter that you negotiate on the loan. Oddly enough, it might be the covenants that you might want to spend some time on. Take care, enjoy, and I hope you learn something from this episode.

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What can you negotiate with your bank? If you’ve finished negotiating with your bank and you’ve got an extra 1/8 off on my five-year fixed 30-year amortization note, don’t necessarily pat yourself on the back. You may have missed basically the entire positive things that you can do. In this episode, we have Robin Roberts. She is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank to illuminate and demystify what you can negotiate with your bank in the commercial loan for your business. The first thing that business owners who have not borrowed before, they equate commercial loans with getting a residential mortgage on their house or getting a car loan. That’s a consumer purpose loan and those types of loans have their purpose. They are very different. They’re regulated differently. They have different laws that cover them than commercial lending. Commercial lending is its own animal. It’s important for business owners to understand commercial lending, how it is different than getting their residential mortgage, and how the process was. Not just now when you get the loan, but over the course of the loan because the bank is much more involved with you on an annual basis with your loan than when you get your residential mortgage for 30 years. You make your payment every month and no one ever bothers you again from the mortgage company or the servicer. You make your payment and you’re good. Commercial lending is not that way and business owners can, if they understand the whole process of the loan, negotiate things at the beginning of the loan that will help them 2 and 3 years down the road. For a lot of them, when you do your home mortgage and you do it through a bank, most don’t realize or don’t realize until they get a notice that the note’s been sold. It’s not on the bank’s balance sheet and their responsibility and concern about your note is now gone. Whereas the commercial loan is the banks are intimately interested in making sure of the quality of your note because it resides at the bank that you have the note from it and it’s not sold. [bctt tweet="Most small business loans are not sold....

  It is often believed that bank lending is only accessible to those with money. But if that's the case, then it conflicts with the entire idea of getting a loan. Breaking this misconception with Bob Roark is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts. She explains how banks determine the qualified persons for bank lending. She enumerates the most important factors that come into play in such transactions, from the required cash of 10% to your overall credit/FICO score.

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Robin Roberts: Is Bank Lending Only Available To Those With Money?

Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s going to talk about who banks lend to and why. I thought that might be interesting to the business owners out there so they might be a little more prepared. Enjoy.

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Robin, you and I talk a lot about some of the misconceptions and things that we hear on a regular basis. You’ve heard more times than you would like to count, “Banks only lend to people that have money.” That strikes me weird because what do you think they’re going to do. Let’s dive into that and talk about why that is. We have another in the series with Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, talking about questions she gets asked and some of the answers that people don’t know. Here we go. [bctt tweet="Banks lend based on your cashflow, not on the amount of money in your bank account." via="no"] The comment that is made frequently is that, “Banks only lend to people who have money. It’s when you need money that banks won’t lend and if you have money, then you don’t need to borrow.” Both of those are not true. Banks lend to people who can pay it back. Banks lend based on your cashflow not on the amount of money that you have in your bank account. We certainly look at that. That’s a measure of liquidity for you as a borrower but we’re looking at what cashflow is being generated either from whatever it is that you’re purchasing or generated through your activities. You have a job, so you get paid every month. That’s cashflow. Earnings after expenses are your cashflow and what is left over to make the payment on the loan. From a business perspective, what are your earnings? Were the revenues from your business after expenses you have profit? What is the cashflow available to take on this additional payment? We’re looking at what sources of repayment are there to pay the loan payment. You don’t have to have $200,000 in the bank in order for the bank to make a loan to you. They do look at also after cashflow then what happens if the business, for some reason, can’t make the payment. Is there cash in the bank? Is there cash in you, the business owner’s accounts where you have some liquidity and can make payments? When you’re looking at any business loan, particularly purchasing real estate, you’re going to need 10% of whatever. You’re going to need cash of 10%. There are government programs that can make up that difference, the down payment. You’re going to have to have 10% in. If you don’t have 10%, then there’s a problem. You need to think about it in that way. Otherwise, banks don’t make loans only to people who already have the same amount. If you want a $300,000 loan, you don’t have to have $300,000 in the bank in order for us to make a loan. [caption id="attachment_5897" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

  Since a bank is still a business, it has to follow specific rules and regulations. So when it comes to loan approvals, one must be prepared to abide by the required loan package. Bob Roark is joined by Robin Roberts, CEO Of Pikes Peak National Bank, to discuss what constitutes such a package and how business plans differ depending on your scope and reach. They also talk about why banks favor those mitigating risks and how banking changed a lot over the years because of politics and culture.

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Robin Roberts On Putting Together A Loan Package

Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, we have Robin Roberts. She is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s here to demystify some of those things. We’re going to talk a little bit in this short episode on the best practices to improve your odds and getting that loan that you’ve lived with for loan success. Enjoy it.

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I’m the business owner and I’ve done a good job. I have a reasonably good relationship with my bank. We have talked about this in some other series of things not to do. In the things of to, I want to take it and do a strategic acquisition for my business. I want to put together a loan package, present it to the bank, and do everything that’s within common practices to increase the out-of-the-bank gone. I understand what you are trying to do. I can see the numbers, we are willing to take in, and be a business partner with you in this note. What can they do? I have with me, Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. More of our series of things you didn’t know about banking but wish you did. [caption id="attachment_5877" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Loan Package: The better prepared you are with this information, the faster the loan decision will be made, and you can get to whatever goal you’re after.[/caption]   It depends on the type of loan that you are wanting. There are some things in your loan package. They are always going to have to be there. The better prepared you are with all of this information, the faster the loan decision is going to be made and the faster you can get to whatever goal it is that you are after. If you are doing anything new, starting a new business, adding a second product line, buying someone else’s business, or expanding and opening another location, you need to have a business plan. Now, it doesn’t have to be 500 pages. The bank is not looking for you to do something that is 500 pages. If you are an existing business, you are opening a second location or you are adding to an existing product line, the business plan is a validation of your business model. If you are a startup, you are writing a business plan to validate that the product or service that you are going to provide is needed. If you are already in business and you are generating revenue, that question is already answered. Somebody needs your product or service and you are generating revenue so you already exist. Less work has to be done on validating your business model and more work has to be done on, “Here’s how we are going to pay for the second location.” More financial projections, more talk about who the management team is going

  Banks has always been a secretive establishment, heightened even more so by The Bank Secrecy Act. This makes most, if not all transactions with them a bit unclear and complicated. Bob Roark sits down with Robin Roberts, CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, to delve into this law and how the 9/11 incident strengthened it through the Patriot Act. She explains why it is better to simply go on with your usual bank transactions instead of structuring it. Robin also talks about the penalties that come with breaking the Bank Secrecy Act both on the side of the customer as well as the banks.

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The Bank Secrecy Act, What It Is And Why Business Owners Should Be Aware With Robin Roberts, CEO Pikes Peak National Bank

Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s going to be talking about the Bank Secrecy Act and how that might apply to you as a business owner. Enjoy. Thank you.

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How many times you have said, “I’ve got a secret and I’m not telling.” The banks have secrets too, but it’s not because they want to have secrets. It’s because they have a Bank Secrecy Act. We thought we would take in, pull the cover off of the secrets in the Bank Secrecy Act. You talk about them and how they might affect you as the business owner and a client of a bank. Robin, thank you. This is Robin Roberts the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. We are in the demystifying stage of talking about lending, banking and business owners. I always felt like I need to talk about the Bank Secrecy Act because it’s a law. First of all, it was created in 1971 or 1972 to at least find racketeering, drug rings and money laundering being done through the banking system. After 9/11, with the Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act was strengthened. Several things were added to the Bank Secrecy Act that banks have been doing since 2001. The Patriot Act continues to be renewed by Congress so they stay in place. I’m not telling any secrets. You can look up the Bank Secrecy Act and the regulations, it’s publicly available but I don’t think it’s public knowledge. [bctt tweet="Any business dealing in money is going to have to follow the Bank Secrecy Act." username=""] Most people do not understand how much the bank is reporting about you and not under penalty of law for the bank but under penalty of law for individual employees who do not follow the Bank Secrecy Act. This is a particular law where the employee themselves can be assessed that is called a Civil Money Penalty or assessment where they have to pay a fine because they didn’t follow the Bank Secrecy Act. There are severe penalties for not following it. That’s how seriously the Bank Secrecy Act is looked at by bank regulators and by bankers in general. [caption id="attachment_5889" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bank Secrecy Act: Most people do not understand how much the bank is reporting about you and not under penalty of law for the bank, but under penalty of law for individual employees who do not follow the Bank Secrecy Act.[/caption]   With that being said, one must not cross the Bank Secrecy Act. Our favorite discussion is the one about if I deposit X dollars at this bank and X dollars at this branch, is that a reportable thing? Please don’t ask...