Most of us felt this and more as we headed into the credit crunch – with understandably more anxious apprehension than confident anticipation.
Those of us who have survived the credit crunch without too many scars are definitely feeling more confident as the market picks up again and we have the opportunity to look at a more positive future and what that might mean for us and our businesses.
‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ as the saying goes, and the necessity for funding small businesses; together with the inability of high street banks to meet this need; has spurred the bridging industry to rise up and fill the gap with innovative solutions.
Now it’s time to take stock, look at where we are now, how we build on that and how we ensure success in the future.
As a trade body, the ASTL feels that is it imperative to support firms in the bridging sector. One way to do this is to bring together people who are leaders in their field to give their perspective on where the market is headed; and to give bridging experts from every area of the market an opportunity to get together, to learn and to share their expertise.
Facing our very first bridging industry conference we have felt the similar range of emotions people do at something new: there was general optimism about what the conference could achieve with the industry moving into a new phase of growth; anxiety as to whether we could pull it off – get the right speakers, ones that attendees would get real value from – and whether enough professionals would want to come along; finally now, confidence, as with two weeks to go the conference is all but sold out.
The most important objectives of the ASTL as a trade body are to play our part in helping to move the bridging industry forward in a positive and responsible way; and to help our membership to be better prepared for whatever the future may bring.
Benson Hersch is CEO of the ASTL
