MASTERING THE ART OF LEASING:

A Finely-Tuned Expansion for Treelady Studios

BY VICTOR RIVERO

“They were the most responsive finance company that I dealt with at all levels of communication,” says Haines, “from initial query to returning phone calls within hours versus days or at all. Prompt e-mail replies; they were very attentive the whole way through the process.”

Unfortunately, that’s not standard operating procedure for so many financial service institutions these days, says Haines. “A lot of people are cookie-cutter factories that just want to process you and move your paperwork to the next person’s desk. At GCR Capital, I could talk to individual people at any given time and know my status and where my application was.”

FINDING THE RIGHT GROOVE

Haines recalls some initial paperwork snags on the equipment supply side. “GCR Capital gave me personal attention until it was resolved, going above and beyond what would be expected from a capital group to make sure that the supplier had received their payment.”

To ensure Haines was properly serviced, GCR Capital talked directly with the CFO of the supplier to make sure that they were comfortable. “Really, that was beyond what they needed to do,” says Haines. The CFO was unfamiliar with leasing as a smart business move and the process began to slow, a potential disappointment for Haines. “GCR Capital had a lot of patience to resolve my issue and not let it drag on,” Haines says.

In the music recording and mastering industry, equipment is a very real and formidable barrier to entry for any professional. “There is a lot of specialized, handmade equipment and waiting lists to get it,” says Haines. “Having the ability to obtain that equipment is one of the main reasons I am able to fully participate in my industry now. GCR Capital was able to make that happen.”

TURNING UP THE VOLUME

Before GCR Capital, Haines was already a competent professional with high goals, but “I was at a certain lower level. There was no way to reach past that level without the assistance of GCR Capital on acquiring the equipment.”

Once reaching just locally, business for Treelady Studios is booming. “Before, I would have been able to pull from clients 30 miles around. Now, I’m able to pull them from across continental U.S.”

When it was apparent Haines could use even further assistance, GCR Capital turned it up a notch and assessed other needs in his financial spectrum – even recommending other specialized expertise. “They didn’t just say, ‘thank you for your business, get out of here’. Even though it was something they didn’t do and they don’t necessarily stand to gain anything by helping me, they helped me – and that was beyond what you would receive from 99 percent of the other companies out there.”

EXCELLENT LISTENING SKILLS

In deciding on GCR Capital, Haines had interviewed but hadn’t entered into any kind of agreements with other financial service companies. “I have a certain way that I do business. I value and put a premium on: communication, professionalism and timely responses, and then finally, even though I am small today, treating me like I am the biggest client you have. I’m not asking for tickets to the Super Bowl, but I’m asking for you to return my phone call and to take my application seriously.”

Haines felt that GCR Capital treated his company with “a very kinetic” business process. “They were able to keep up with my needs and my rapid pace, and never left me hanging, in the dark, or wondering what they were doing.”

In today’s market, there is a need for all businesses to respond to their constituents and customers’ needs as they change, says Haines. “We’re in the 21st century of ‘business at the speed of thought’,” he says. “You can’t run things the way we ran them in 1930s, ’40s and ’50s” just because that’s the traditional way of doing things. When I say to GCR Capital, ‘I need you to break up this order, span it across three suppliers, do this, this and this’ – 90 percent of most people would see that that is non-traditional, that’s not how we do it.”

GCR Capital didn’t question that, says Haines. “They said, if that’s how it has to be because your equipment is not available from a turnkey vendor, then we will help you and structure the deal to meet your needs.

NOTES WORTH HEARING

Asked if he would refer GCR Capital to others, Haines smiles, “Actually, I just had someone come up to me in the last three days, who is in a similar line of work.” In reviewing financing options, Haines said he strongly recommended them to GCR Capital for the following reasons:

1. “GCR Capital is responsive.

2. “Whether you are a million dollar customer or a $10,000 customer – they treat you the same and that’s with respect for your business.

3. “The customer service and the level of detail are genuine. It isn’t a scripted / call-center / someone answering the phone and eating a bag of Doritos at four in the morning in New Mexico and doesn’t even know who I am.”

Haines says he could call on GCR Capital’s executives – John, Tim or anyone else on the GCR Capital team at any time. “They would take my call, they wouldn’t push me off. Even if they didn’t know anything, they would call back to say, ‘Right now I don’t know anything and I expect to know something.’ When you are dealing with this kind of money and your livelihood – you need someone to treat you as serious as it is to you, and GCR Capital did that.”

TRACKING WITH SUCCESS

With laid-back language that betrays his keen business sense, Haines says that “GCR Capital was flexible with my bizarre-o needs. Most people only want to work with you if you are $100,000 to $500,000,” he says.

At the time he approached GCR Capital, Haines had adopted a very risk-averse attitude. “I only wanted to bite off, say $50,000 or $30,000. A lot of people didn’t want to return my calls or treated me like I was a hack. GCR Capital didn’t treat me that way.

And when you actually start to get your gear, bring it online and commission it? “Then it starts to hit you – getting to touch it with your hands; the heft of it,” Haines describes. “But it really starts to hit you when you compare your finished product before and after, and you see how you’ve stepped up your competitiveness by an order of magnitude. You now have the access to the latest, most appropriate tools that your business needs – because of GCR Capital being there to support you.

“Without reservation, I would highly recommend GCR Capital to anyone in the music industry,” Haines says. With fixed equipment costs, the difficulty posed by a time-consuming acquisition process and the specialized and limited-edition nature of the machines – “you’re talking very expensive, elaborate gear. People don’t just generally have the funds up front,” he says. “From an accounting as well as a competition perspective, going to GCR Capital is a very wise move.”

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Treelady Studios
Garrett Haines, Executive Director
(412) 298-3157
www.treelady.com
info@treelady.com