2023 Year in Review: Essex Financial
At Essex Lease, we’re all about celebrating our wins, and 2023 was a year of victories for us and our clients, thanks to the dedication and hard work we put into every service we offer.
To round off 2023, we decided to take a look at all of these victories, as well as some of the business trends we watched grow in 2023. Read on and celebrate the year along with us.
Social Corporate Responsibility at Essex Lease in 2023
For the past three years, we’ve been hosting a charity golf tournament for our charity of choice, Kids Cancer Care, and ensuring we fulfill our social corporate responsibility. This year, we held our Third Annual Essex Lease Golf Classic, where we were able to raise $140,280.00 for this incredible charity. We’d like to extend a heartfelt and resounding thank you to our sponsors, event supporters, volunteers, and participants.
The money we donate will make a huge difference and help families attend Camp Kindle, a year-round camp for children and their families who are facing childhood cancer.
Learn more about Camp Kindle and the brilliant work that Kids Cancer Care does.
Community giving is a tremendous aspect of our approach to business. We’re proud to serve our local community and give back to a region that has supported us since our inception. We work with a number of other charities and social initiatives, which you can learn about here.
What Our Clients Had to Say About 2023
This past year has been another one in which we pulled out all the stops for our clients. At Essex, we’re committed to going above and beyond for every client who comes through our doors. We know just how important small businesses are to the economy, and we’re here to support you.
In 2023, we continued our mission of matching businesses with the tools and equipment they need, fuelling ambitious new projects and business growth for our clients, and even helping clients who have had a challenging few years to get back into the black.
In fact, our clients were so pleased with the work we did that we even received a few personally written testimonials, including the one below from Ascent Transport:
“Our company made a lot of transitions in a short period of time. Essex had a huge impact on us, enabling us to move quickly and fluidly with what we were doing. We’ve been able to adapt as times have changed.” - Steve Bruneski, Ascent Transport.
We’re so thankful to all of the businesses and entrepreneurs who gave us the opportunity to work with them and watch as their businesses grew in 2023.
Essex Business & Transportation Park: A New Service Offering for Clients in Calgary
In addition to the work we did to give back to the community, we also grew as a business in 2023. And a huge part of that growth was the opening of our very own Business & Transportation Park.
Located just west of Stoney Trail SE, between 114th Avenue and Glenmore Trail, Calgary, our Business & Transportation Park is the perfect hub for any businesses in the area that want to consolidate their offices, shop, equipment yard, and more into one easy to access location.
We’re incredibly excited about this new addition to our services. It means that we can offer small businesses and local entrepreneurs a space to call their own, a space to flourish. We offer flexible payment options and have spaces of various sizes to suit a whole range of operations.
There are still spaces available for Q1 in 2024, so if you’re interested, contact us ASAP! This new step toward a physical location for Essex Lease has been in the works for a long time, and we’re so proud to see it come to fruition!
Business Trends We Loved in 2023
2023 was a fantastic year for independent and flexible lending solutions. A number of business trends meant that more and more people were choosing to work with non-traditional lenders, like Essex, to get access to working capital and grow their businesses.
Character-Focused Lending
A business trend that had a tremendous impact on our services in 2023 was a move toward more character-focused lending services. As a flexible lending partner, we’ve always preferred to do things this way. We believe that clients are more than just the numbers on their financial records and credit scores, so much of our approval process comes from taking a look at a client's character and business relationships.
At Essex, we want to build lasting relationships with each of our clients. We’re here to support you as your business bolsters the economy, and you achieve your goals. Your successes are our successes, too, which is why we look more closely at the client as an individual.
In 2023, more and more business owners and entrepreneurs turned to this kind of flexible lending to access capital in a stress-free way. Small business owners no longer need to bite their nails waiting for the outcome of an application based on credit scores and cash flow. Instead, they can turn to finance companies, like Essex, to access the working capital that they need for business growth with a lender that looks at their character rather than just the numbers on a page.
Custom Financing
At Essex, we know that one-size-fits-all financing is outdated. It just doesn’t work, nor does it meet the needs of small business owners and entrepreneurs dealing with rising interest rates and a challenging couple of years.
In 2023, we heard customers give a resounding ‘NO’ to boilerplate financing and the options offered by traditional banks and lenders. Instead, more and more clients turned to tailored financial solutions provided by companies like Essex.
Our services mean that small businesses and entrepreneurs can access the capital they need and pay it back in a way that suits them. One-size-fits-all lending rarely takes into account the cash flow of small businesses, but we do!
Custom financing is in, traditional lending is out, and Essex is ready to help you access the financing you need in 2024. Find out all about our equipment financing today.
Busting Myths About Independent Lending
We’re aware that independent lending gets a bad rep, but as is usually the case, bad actors are the outliers. In 2023, many, many small businesses made the decision to trust non-traditional lenders and access capital in a new way that suited them. This increase in the use of our services means that we could bust myths about independent lenders and cement our reputation as the lender of choice in the area.
The difference between the independent lending industry and that of traditional banks and lenders is that we, as independent lenders, know just how crucial capital is. While large corporations and banks might not understand how small businesses and entrepreneurs work, we do because we have been there.
For us, it’s personal. Helping clients to grow and achieve success means that we have achieved success, too. So, why not put your faith in an independent lender in 2024, too and see what all the fuss is about?
Making Plans for 2024
So, what does 2024 look like for Essex Lease?
To begin with, our Business & Transportation Park still has spaces available for rent and offers an all-in-one solution for businesses looking to consolidate every aspect of their business into one handy location. We’ll be continuing to grow this aspect of our services so that we can meet the needs of the local community and give clients the chance to expand and benefit from the Business Park.
On top of this, we’re already making plans to hold our Fourth Annual Charity Golf Tournament, and the 2024 event promises to be the absolute best yet. We’re looking to raise even more money for Kids Cancer Care in Alberta, and we’re going to need your help to do it! So, if you’re a golfing enthusiast looking for a day on the green that involves giving to a brilliant cause, keep an eye out for more information to come.
The coming year will also see us keep up with our commitment to give back to the community in which we live and work. We’re proud to work with a number of amazing local charities and initiatives, and we’re going to continue that work and expand where we can.
Lastly, we’re going to continue to serve all of our clients with passion and determination. Our mission is to help you succeed, and that won’t change in 2024!
Final Thoughts
2023 was an incredible year here at Essex Lease, and we’ve got many people to thank for that. First and foremost, our incredible clients not only put their faith in us but achieved resounding success with the help we gave them. We couldn’t exist without our clients, and for that, we’re eternally grateful.
We also want to say a huge thank you to the Essex team, who are committed to doing their best each and every day to serve the community and ensure that businesses across Alberta get the help and support that they need from us.
Here’s to a restful holiday period and a running start to a successful and happy new year.