Mike Hales, former president of venerable consulting firm Counter Intelligence Associates, partner with The Rochdale Group, president of CUSO Small Business America and 15-year member of the board of directors of the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations (NACUSO) has spent the last two decades promoting credit union Member Business Lending and CUSO development. As lead consultant, Hales helped launch 16 multiple credit union-owned CUSOs while encouraging Credit Unions to provide business services to small businesses within their field of membership.

Many credit unions have successfully jumped on the MBL band wagon over the last 20 years. However, community and regional banks continue to dominate the market when it comes to the delivery of financial services to small and medium size business such as deposit accounts, vehicle financing, equipment financing, working capital loans/lines of credit, accounts receivable factoring, SBA lending, payroll processing, insurance, investments…and the list goes on. America’s 33.3 million small businesses employ 62 million employees, making up approximately 46% of the U.S. workforce. However, a majority of credit unions and a majority of small businesses are like ships passing in the night.

“Maybe”, Mike thought recently, “we’ve been going about this the wrong way. Maybe, instead of relying solely on Credit Union employees to reach out to small business, we should be encouraging business owners to reach out to Credit Unions. Opening the doors to small businesses also opens the doors to their employees.”

Enter CUinfluentialsm, an online platform designed to foster collaboration between Credit Unions and small businesses. CUinfluentialsm reaches out to select small business owners and operators who might provide attractive solutions to operational and growth issues facing credit unions. CUinfluentialsm researches each company and provides and publishes whitepapers, social media posts and email blasts to introduce qualified small businesses to the credit union industry. CUinfluentialsm also encourages those small business owners who provide products and services that are pre-approved under NCUA Rule 712 to join the National Association of Credit Union Service Organizations as an Associate Member or to partner with a local credit union to form a CUSO and become a primary member.