SGL for banking teams

When a good client is not credit-ready yet.

Turn a “not yet” into a file you can book. SGL prepares owner-led Canadian companies for your credit process: numbers that tie out, a forecast that holds, and a package written for the credit committee. Readiness, not brokerage.

Who to refer

Four situations where a referral helps

  • A sound business with a file that is not ready: numbers don’t tie out, no credible forecast, shareholder balances cloud the balance sheet.
  • A declined request, where the owner wants to come back prepared.
  • Growth outrunning working capital or reporting: receivables, payables, margin by line not visible.
  • An existing client drifting toward a covenant breach, caught early, before it becomes a special-loans file.
How a referral works

Four steps, and you stay primary

  1. You introduce the owner

    By email or a call. Nothing from the bank’s file is shared; the owner shares their own information.

  2. A free first review

    A 30-minute review with the owner: what a credit team will question, and what it takes to fix it.

  3. A fixed-fee proposal

    For the first stage. Work starts only under a signed engagement letter.

  4. You receive the result

    With the owner’s consent, you are copied on a package ready for your credit process.

You stay primary: a referred client is prepared for your process; the file is not shopped.

What your credit team receives

A package written for the credit committee

  • Numbers that reconcileManagement accounts bridged to the financial statements; every figure traced to a source.
  • Weaknesses named firstEach known issue disclosed up front, with its mitigant.
  • An honest modelOperations linked to cash, with a sensitivity that shows where the case breaks.
  • An owner-confirmed askThe size of the request is confirmed by the owner in writing before you hear a number.

After funding, SGL can stay on as ongoing CFO support, with covenant reporting on a fixed cadence.

Ground rules
  • No referral fees. Fees are fixed per stage and never tied to the credit decision, so the package has no reason to oversell the file.
  • Client information is shared only with the client’s consent.
  • Professional liability insured; bound by the CMC Code of Conduct.
  • It works both ways: when an SGL client is ready for a credit conversation and asks for an introduction, SGL introduces bankers it knows and trusts. The client chooses; no fees change hands.

Oleg Kostyuchok, CMC

Certified Management Consultant
Former Group CFO, banking group
Credit Committee member, ALCO Chair
Former VP Finance, Bow Valley Credit Union

Has sat on both sides of the credit table, as lender and borrower.

oleg@strategicgrowthleadership.com
linkedin.com/in/oleg-kostyuchok

Have a client who is not credit-ready yet?

Introduce the owner by email

Free 30-minute first review for the owner