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One year ago, Gene Valdez left Citizens Business Bank to start his own consulting business. Any regrets? Not one, he says.
One year ago, Gene Valdez ended a successful banking career to start his own business.
Today, despite a few bumps in the road, Valdez says he made the correct decision when he left Ontario-based Citizens Business Bank.
“I don’t regret it at all,” said Valdez, who started The CEO Teachers, an Upland consulting firm that helps established business – generally small to medium-sized ones – arrange financing and become more competitive. “I love what I’m doing now.”
Valdez was senior vice president and business center manager when he left Citizens Business Bank. He’d been in banking for 30 years, having also worked for Community Bank in Ontario and Pacific Mercantile Bank in Costa Mesa.
But the Lynwood native who earned degrees at UCLA and USC decided it was time to run his own company, one that would provide some of the services he specialized while he was a banker.
It was not an unprecedented career move: a lot of bankers believe they’re entrepreneurs at heart and start their own business, Valdez said.
“I enjoyed working for Citizens Business Bank, I liked working with the people there and we had an amicable parting,” Valdez said last June. “But I knew I didn’t want to be a banker for the rest my career. It just wasn’t fulfilling enough.”
Valdez spoke recently with IE Business Daily about The CEO Teachers’ first year, his hopes for the business’ future and why banking was no longer a rewarding profession for him.
Q: Most people don’t walk away from a 30-year career. What made you decide to make such a move?
A: Banking just wasn’t fun anymore. What I did was arrange business loans, which is one of the most important things any bank does. It’s also very rewarding, because you’re helping someone get their business started, or you’re helping them expand and improve. But there is so much regulation now, especially at the federal level, that it’s a lot more difficult to get people loans.
Q: Which made the job more difficult…
A: And not nearly as rewarding. When you are constantly telling people who have worked very hard putting together a business model, and who want very much to start their own business, that you can’t arrange a loan for them, it gets draining. The problem of too much regulation has gotten worse over the past two or three years. So I decided to go out on my own.
Q: What’s been your biggest obstacle so far?
A: Finding leads for possible clients. I think the typical chief executive officer these days gets inundated with information from people like me who want to help them. It gets to be overkill, and if you’re in my position it can be hard to break through that.
Q: Any major surprises?
A: No, not really. I knew going in that it would be difficult, and it has been. Starting any new business is difficult. But we’re going to be fine.
Q: How has your banking background helped you? Has it made it any easier getting a new business off the ground?
A: It helps because you know people. I also think it can make it a little easier to identify the businesses you can help. Because you can’t help all of them.
Q: Is there much competition?
A: There are all kinds of people out there, middle men, who clam they have money and can arrange financing. There are also part-time lenders. The whole thing is extremely competitive.
Q: What has been your biggest success so far?
A: Recently I’ve been able to line up financing for about six mid-sized businesses. I can’t say who they are, but they’re all local, all based in the Inland Empire.
Q: Would you recommend your career move to other people, maybe to someone who had been in banking for as long as you were and was looking to make a switch?
A: Only if they had the background I had. I was in banking for a long time and knew a lot of people through my clients. But I probably wouldn’t recommend to most people.
Q: What does the future hold? What do you expect to see happen with The CEO Teachers over the next year or so?
A: I expect to be in a position to hire a few people. And I expect to sign more clients.
