Have you ever wondered what powers the financial engines of small businesses, or pondered the personal stories behind those who fuel that growth? Robert Jeter of 1st Capital Source joins us to unravel the mysteries of small business financing, drawing on a rich tapestry of experiences that include a family tradition in the industry and a storied journey from Europe to the heart of North Atlanta. As the patriarch of a family deeply rooted in finance, Robert shares the heartfelt narrative of 1st Capital Source's growth and the genuine family values that drive their operations.
This episode is saturated with wisdom, as Robert peels back the curtain on the misconceptions surrounding business funding and the integrity his company brings to the table. Listeners will be treated to an authentic conversation that's as informative as it is inspiring, highlighting the dedication of the Jeter family to empower local businesses. Grab your headphones and prepare for a session that is not only a lesson in finance but also a testament to the enduring spirit of family-run endeavors.
Have you ever wondered what powers the financial engines of small businesses, or pondered the personal stories behind those who fuel that growth? Robert Jeter of 1st Capital Source joins us to unravel the mysteries of small business financing, drawing on a rich tapestry of experiences that include a family tradition in the industry and a storied journey from Europe to the heart of North Atlanta. As the patriarch of a family deeply rooted in finance, Robert shares the heartfelt narrative of 1st Capital Source's growth and the genuine family values that drive their operations.
This episode is saturated with wisdom, as Robert peels back the curtain on the misconceptions surrounding business funding and the integrity his company brings to the table. Listeners will be treated to an authentic conversation that's as informative as it is inspiring, highlighting the dedication of the Jeter family to empower local businesses. Grab your headphones and prepare for a session that is not only a lesson in finance but also a testament to the enduring spirit of family-run endeavors.
Speaker 1:
This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Grizzly.
Speaker 2:
Hello friends and neighbors. Welcome to North Atlanta's Good Neighbor podcast. Today we're here with Robert Jeter with First Capital Source. So welcome to the show. We're happy to have you, thank you.
Speaker 3:
Stacey, thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:
I appreciate it. Yeah, we're excited to have you on and we're going to go ahead and get started and have you tell our listeners about your business. Tell us about First Capital Source.
Speaker 3:
Well, first, capital Source we do financing for small businesses, so we lend money to businesses. It's a family affair, more or less. It was actually started by my son about 15 years ago. I'm sort of the shadow partner, you might say, with the business. I'm here in Atlanta, georgia.
Speaker 2:
That's unique right there. I like that. Yeah, you like the family affair so?
Speaker 3:
we were very reputable. You know what I mean. We were honest and clean cut and red, white and blue Americans, all that kind of business.
Speaker 2:
Got to love that. And Atlantis on top of that yeah, actually my son is in Hollywood, florida, so okay okay. But that's a nice place too, yeah so you're here taking on Atlanta, which is great, exactly so I'm here in Atlanta and I've been in Atlanta for a while.
Speaker 3:
I've been in Atlanta since the 90s, since the early 90s, yeah, so yeah, almost a veteran then.
Speaker 2:
So that's.
Speaker 1:
I love it.
Speaker 2:
Veteran in Atlanta yeah, that your son started it and then you came on to help your son. I love that. That's not something we hear every day, so I like that a lot. Yeah Well, tell our listeners, if you will, Robert, about your journey into this. What led you down the path of first capital source?
Speaker 3:
Well, I mean I've been a lot of stuff in my life. I've been around a block a couple of times, but I mean I've been in finance for a long time. I worked in banks, I was in banking. I mean I've got a varied background. I lived in Europe for a while. I don't want to go through my whole story, but when I came back from Europe, I you know, I got a position in the bank and that was in Richmond Virginia, and on a transfer from Richmond Virginia I made it down to Atlanta and it was back in the 90s and anyway, I went through a big merger with all the banks and it finally came Nations Bank and it was a couple of banks involved.
Speaker 2:
I remember Nation's.
Speaker 3:
Bank. It was CNS sovereign, then Nations Bank, then Bank of America.
Speaker 3:
Anyway yeah, I went through all that. So I was in banking for a while and my wife is in finance as well. She does bond trading, she's a finance advisor as well, so we're sort of all in finance. And my other son I have in New York. He's out the same business we do. So it's sort of a natural you know thing to get into. And of course they started their own business. And both my kids started their own business when they got out of school and I sort of were interested. That's what I helped them out when they first got established and so I sort of stayed with it. You know, whenever I can help, I'm helping. I'm more or less helping my son right now at First Capital Source. So First Capital Source is, like I said, if you look us up on the Internet you'll see it's Hollywood Florida address. But I'm the representative here, but you are in Atlanta. Yeah, I'm in Atlanta.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's wonderful. I really like that journey. It truly is a family affair, then, both sons and as well, and I think that resonates with everyone. Everyone loves family run businesses, right. Sometimes it works out, and so hopefully it's working so good and how much you like your family right yeah, exactly Right Right. Oh, my goodness, that's funny. Well, so are there any myths or misconceptions about your industry, or you know, first Capital Source specifically, that you would like to clear up with our listeners today?
Speaker 3:
Well, I mean, often my clients come to me and they want, you know, funding capital for the business. I'm happy to, you know, try to provide them capital at the best rate in terms of kin, but of course they don't always like the rate rates in terms because the economics no-transcript. You know it's a lot going on in the background that the clients don't see. I mean, the companies themselves lend money, but they it's a risky game when you're lending money because a lot of people don't make it. You can see how the economy is today Don't really make it, you know. And then, if they got it, if you lend the people the money and they can't pay it back, and how are you going to get the money back? You got to take them to court, a whole rig of morose. So there's a risk involved that the customer doesn't always see from the lender's point of view, and we don't always lend money directly.
Speaker 3:
We broke a route a lot of depending on the depending on the deal pertaining on the situation, depending on the options. So we might do some stuff in-house, but we might also. I have a lot of connections in the business. So, for example, we don't do startups, but if somebody comes to me with a good idea, needs like an angel investor or somebody with capital who wants to invest in his business, then I know where I can send them. But we do our company itself does not loans like SPA loans, you know, or align to credit some commercial real estate factoring. So you know the standard sort of vanilla kind of deals we do with my company, with our company. I have other contacts too. If there's something sort of special, you know are unique.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, certain situations that you can't handle, that you can't handle.
Speaker 3:
I can't handle myself right.
Speaker 2:
Point them in the right direction, and I don't mind giving free advice.
Speaker 3:
You know what I mean. I'm available anytime for you know if anybody needs any advice. Advice you know about. You know the lending market.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and then maybe you know there's so many different types of business loans. You know that, so that's not I like that. You said that you don't mind giving free advice. You know that's not the case with everyone.
Speaker 3:
And I've even done mortgages, for in the past I've done a lot of stuff, but I was in mortgages as well too. I've done that kind of lending as well.
Speaker 2:
For residential. Yeah.
Speaker 3:
But yeah, but anyway, yeah so.
Speaker 2:
Well, having all these years in, you know finance, the experience that you have in finance, you know just a broad range of experience. And then the fact that your wife is in finance as well both sons so I bet you do have lots of connections in the industry.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, Quite a few.
Speaker 2:
So moving away from work for a minute, what do you do for fun, robert, when you're not working?
Speaker 3:
I'm sort of like a frustrated artist. I do, I do music. You know, I paint. Right now I'm doing a lot of music. I mean, I create music. I'm a singer-songwriter as well, so that's what I do.
Speaker 2:
Very interesting. Have you ever checked?
Speaker 3:
out Eddie's Attic. Oh yeah, I played there a couple of times.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, okay, my daughter is a musician singer-songwriter. She was a finalist not too long ago. Very nice At open mic night, yeah.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, that's a well-known place in town.
Speaker 2:
I've been around since I was a kid.
Speaker 3:
And.
Speaker 2:
I've been around. I've definitely been around for a while, but yeah, that's super neat and so you write your own music. That's not a lot of people have you know music as an interest, but it's not always that they are actually.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, I mean you could go. I mean, alright, I'll plug my music. Oh my God, yeah, go ahead, Go on Spotify and look up my Bob name, Bob Jeter, and you'll see some of my music.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's very cool. I love it. We'll have to do that for sure, so.
Speaker 3:
I can. Maybe I should write more songs about finance. Right there you go.
Speaker 2:
That's right, a little jingle.
Speaker 3:
A little jingle. Yeah, my own jingle. I could do that.
Speaker 2:
You should. That's your personal branding.
Speaker 1:
Yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:
You can incorporate the both, yeah yeah. Yeah. Well so shifting gears again into something a little more serious. Have you faced a, you know, a challenge or a hardship in life that you can say now, for having been through that experience and come out on the other side, that you're stronger or better for that today?
Speaker 3:
Well, I mean I guess a lot of people would say the same thing today. It's COVID. A lot of people had difficulty going through COVID. Of course a lot of people got free money which we didn't mind facilitating with the PPP programs which you know the government put out doing that period, but unfortunately we didn't get really paid much for that, if anything. I mean you know we did more or less pro bono but you know we build up our clientele doing that and we got a lot of good you know reviews and stuff for helping people with that program. But it hurt, it hurt our business and we're just getting to come out of it right now. I mean the economy is still bad but it's picking up some now. So hopefully you know we've turned the corner.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I hope that, I hope that stuff.
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 2:
I definitely hope the trend continues and we it continues to improve. That would be really nice and a big relief to a lot of us. But yeah, I imagine in the finance industry I didn't even really think about that before. You know the yeah the. You know the the government.
Speaker 3:
So there are certain certain companies that did make agreements with the government and I think they made it okay. But if you're a sort of independent company like we are, yeah, we had difficulty doing that period.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yeah, I imagine so. Well, is there anything else about your business that you would like our listeners to know?
Speaker 3:
Uh well, the rates are not going up anymore. I don't think.
Speaker 2:
They stabilized.
Speaker 3:
They slowly stabilized so hopefully they'll slowly start to go down again. Um, because even the SBA loan is, and a lot of people like the SBA loan because it has pretty good rates in terms. You know you can go out for 10 years with that and um, and you were getting back. Before COVID you were getting rates like four or five percent on the SBA, just to tell you the difference between then and now. But now it's like 10% on it. That's a SBA loan, okay. Now if you're doing, if you're doing uh, you know, like a commercial real estate or equipment financing where you got collateral uh on the table, then you know you get better uh rates. But for uh, but even for SBA loan, I mean, you have to realize prime is 8%. So you know the banks are paying 8% right now.
Speaker 3:
So and and that's why it's leaving it hard to get to get certain banks to lend, um, because they have to keep certain amount of deposits. The economy is sort of shaky. So, um, it's a little, uh, things are picking up, things are improving, but it's still.
Speaker 2:
we still have some uh, uh, you know, some rough patches, uh, because the economy basically, yeah, yeah, to overcome, yeah Well, so, robert, if people want to reach out and learn more and, uh, maybe take you up on that offer of of free advice and pointing them in the right direction Um, what is the best way for them to get in touch with them with, with you?
Speaker 3:
Well, you can always email me directly, bob at uh, first capital source, and that's one ST CapitalSourcecom. So, bob at onestcapitalsourcecom, or call me directly. I'll give you my direct phone number right here uh 404-388-004. I'm glad to help you anywhere I can.
Speaker 2:
Great Well, thank you so much for being here. It's been a pleasure.
Speaker 3:
Thank you, stacey, thanks for helping me. I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:
Well, that's all for today's episode. At Lanta, I'm Stacey Risley with the Good Neighbor podcast. Thanks for listening and for supporting the local businesses and nonprofits of our great community.
Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast North Atlanta. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPNorthAtlantacom. That's GNPNorthAlanacom, or call 470-946-7007.
