Cruising Isn’t One of the 5 Cs of Credit. Maybe It Should Be.

Cruising Isn’t One of the 5 Cs of Credit. Maybe It Should Be.

If you’ve read Approved or followed along here, you know the 5 Cs bankers use to evaluate a loan: Character, Capacity, Capital, Collateral, and Conditions. Cruising isn’t one of them. But I’m on a ship right now, away from the business, and I’m starting to think it should get an honorable mention.

I know — as a small business owner, you’re grinding every single day. That relentlessness is exactly what makes entrepreneurs succeed. But every so often, you need to work on yourself, not just the business. Recharge the batteries. And believe it or not, that downtime actually touches a couple of the real Cs.

Character. You’ll come back in a better mood, and that shows up in how you treat customers, employees, and yes, your banker.

Capacity. You’re rested. You’re sharper. You’re ready to go generate more sales, which is what actually drives cash flow.

Credit. You might even put the trip on a card — and if you pay it off right away, you’re not creating debt, you’re building credit.

Are these a bit of a stretch? Sure. I’ll own that. And I’ve said before: sometimes growing a business means doing things that suck. It sucks to hold off on the car of your dreams so you can put more capital back into the business. Like everything else in business and in life, it’s about finding the right balance.

The Real Test

You’ve probably heard you should be working on your business, not in it. A trip like this is a good litmus test for whether you’re actually doing that.

If you can step away for a few days and the business keeps operating — keeps thriving, even — you’re doing something right. If it grinds to a halt because you’re not there 24/7, that’s not a badge of honor. That’s a sign your systems need work.

Train your team to handle what comes up. Give your managers real authority — enough that they’re comfortable making decisions without calling you for every little thing. That’s not you being less essential. That’s you building a business that doesn’t depend entirely on you being physically present to survive.

So no, cruising isn’t one of the 5 Cs. But if it’s showing you whether your business can run without you standing over it, it might be telling you more about your Capacity and Conditions than you think.

Kevin Franzese is an SVP Relationship Manager and former Bank Market President with over 30 years of commercial banking experience, specializing in small business lending.