Adventures at Fifth Third Bank

On Thursday, I met with a banker at a branch of Fifth Third Bank. I needed to do this for a number of reasons. I needed to open an "operating account" for my law practice, and also an "IOLTA account" (this is the "trust account" where I will keep money that doesn't belong to me. Legally and ethically I must keep this distinct from the operating account (or my personal accounts!)). I also needed to set it up so that I could accept payment from clients by credit card. And I was hoping to get either a loan or a line of credit. This last is because as a one-person law firm, I expect the income to come in irregularly, maybe one week I will have no revenue, but the next I might be in court every day earning high fees. Also I expect for the first month or two (hopefully not much more) that my expenses may well be higher then my income. Having a line of credit or loan will make it possible for me to get through these brief periods.

Fifth Third Bank was willing to work with me on all of these, except this last one. Their loans and lines of credit are only for established businesses, that have been in business two years or more. They are not interested in working with new businesses, like mine. But because I have been their customer for so long (The first three digits of my account number are 000), they allowed me to apply for a credit card for my business with a limit of only $1,000.00. If I hadn't been their customer for so long they would not have even allowed me to apply for this.

Clearly Fifth Third is not the bank to choose if you are starting a new business. In the afternoon on Thursday I stopped by a credit union, and I also have some leads with other banks in the area. I will let you all know where I end up getting my line of credit or loan.

I am still going to be moving into my new office on July 7th, however I will not be able to take clients immediately, because I still have not been sworn in (The main reason of this is that the last week in June I was out of town at a church conference). But swearing in seems to be routine, and I think I should be sworn in sometime next week. In the meantime, I can finish getting all the little things I need for my practice, and can even start taking contract work from other lawyers, such as research and brief writing.