They say that beach bodies are made during the winter, and most fitness centers DO experience higher membership growth right after the winter holidays as people make their New Year’s resolutions to lose weight or exercise more. But despite the seasonality of the industry, fitness centers are thriving in the U.S.

Americans have a lot of STUFF. For many people, they have more than can be contained within the confines of their home, which is why the self-storage industry has been booming. Yet a recent article (firewall-protected) in American Banker explores whether the storage industry remains secure or is headed for a downturn.

School may be out for the next few months, but thankfully for America’s working parents, most of the nation’s 60,000 child care centers will still be providing year-round care for infants and children.

As the founder and owner of several businesses, I get my fair share of calls from bankers looking to discuss (or even acquire) my personal and/or business banking relationship. I wanted to share the experiences I recently had with business bankers from two different banks. As a former banker myself, I have some pretty strong feelings...

Given recent industry growth and their relatively safe credit risk, optometry practices are a solid niche for business bankers to pursue. Here’s why. There are nearly 20,000 optometry practices with about 37,000 optometrists providing vision care in the United States; together, they earn $14.7 billion in annual revenue.

It wasn’t so long ago that a business banker could get by based on their personality, some basic knowledge of the local economy, and maybe one or two unique bank product offerings. But those days are now in the rearview mirror as clients and prospects have come to expect more from their banker. This is why we decided to write our latest...

Your bank leadership is telling you that you need to be using Vertical IQ to prepare for every client or prospect call. And…maybe you’ve even popped into it to see what the big deal is.

Now that we are in full swing with the new year, it’s a perfect time to think about your sales approach and ways to increase your performance for 2018.

We all remember the ghostly voice from Field of Dreams telling Ray (Kevin Costner), “If you build it, they will come” as he walked through his Iowa cornfield. This same encouraging message applies to your bank’s use of the Vertical IQ tool. If management supports and encourages business bankers to incorporate industry research using...

There’s no doubt about it: Americans LOVE to eat! And we have the restaurants to prove it. There are approximately 364,000 restaurants in the U.S., which include everything from full-service restaurants, to quick-service restaurants (fast food, snack, and non-alcoholic beverage bars), fast-casual restaurants, grills, buffets, and...