Five minutes with

Five Minutes with: Steve Smith

Steve Smith National Sales Manager Roma Finance

How do you make a difference?

Share my experience and knowledge with my sales team; I have been both a successful BDM and a broker so understand what is required on both sides for a successful and fruitful relationship.

In your view what are the key elements to a successful deal?

It’s all about the borrower for me; are they credible? Are the numbers viable? Location is key. Exit is crucial.

If you were to start your own small business, what would it sell?

Positivity. If I could bottle it and sell it, I would be a billionaire.

What advice do you have for the modern commercial finance broker?

Know your borrower and tell the funder everything, good and bad.

What is your favourite piece of management/leadership advice?

Employ people better at the job than yourself!

What changes do you hope to see in the ‘new normal’?

I like to think we will learn from the past; be inspired by the good we saw amongst the issues and care a little more in the ‘new normal’. On a more prosaic level, I hope people use technology to stay in touch with each other more often. I have actually built on relationships with family members overseas or miles away during the pandemic.

Which person has inspired you the most?

My grandfather. He taught me many things but manners, my work ethic and if you have the will to succeed, you invariably will. From humble beginnings, through hard work and determination, he built something substantial in this world.

What is the best live music experience you’ve ever had?

Probably Richard Ashcroft’s acoustic set in a small club in Birmingham although Pink on her Circus world tour was also incredible as an experience.

If you could have dinner with anyone from history, who would it be and why?

Leonardo Da Vinci – so talented in art and creativity – this man developed a submarine, a helicopter and such things hundreds of years before they were made. Oh, and he painted the Mona Lisa. Genius. I would want to know how he was so far advanced for his time and where he got his concepts?

If there was an Olympics for everyday activities, in what activity would you have a good chance of winning a medal?

Talking on the phone, I spend quite literally hours every day doing exactly that.

What’s happening now, that in 20 years people will look back on and laugh about?

So many things, technology is advancing so rapidly. My sons laugh at me for still having a DVD and CD player! In 20 years’ time, people will find it incredible that we were still putting fossil fuels into our cars.