Independent Banker - August 2024 - 19

Potts identifies a perverse outcome
of annual budgets when it comes to
marketing: Often, the most successful
projects for generating new, profitable
business cease to be funded at some
point during the calendar year.
The problem, he says, is that
" too often, you run out of marketing
dollars and your project ends.
And yet you may be generating
massively profitable gains
from the project. " He therefore
urges community bankers to
ask themselves: " What are you
doing with the gains [from a new
initiative]? Are you plowing the
gains back into continuously
feeding the program? "
The solution lies in planning to
reinvest in aspects of a marketing
strategy even if that reinvestment
falls outside the tidy annual schedule
of the budgeting cycle, says Potts.
6
View branch budgeting
more creatively
Sometimes, executives kill a
branch simply because they can't
work out a budget that makes that
branch profitable. Pieniazek urges
executives to task branch staff with
coming up with their own strategies
for generating loan activity and/or
cutting costs.
" Identify a desired outcome-and
then let people in the branch come
up with a strategy, " he says. Once
the desired outcome is known, " Let
them decide how they can make
it happen. "
Remember to budget for
building-block technologies
Potts reminds community bankers
to invest in middleware or API
connectivity for their data systems.
Only then, he says, are you " putting in
place the right tools so you can grab
new business and onboard it more
efficiently and effectively-and in a
more timely fashion-than before. "
7
NOW ON DEMAND
Driving Growth
in Community
8
Put paid to a rinse-andrepeat
mindset
" A lot of organizations don't think of
their budgets as being strategic. They
think of them as being tactical, " says
Potts, who notes that such thinking
is limiting.
" It's important that the bank has
a very good strategic plan and a
good roadmap for what it's trying
to do, and budgeting has to dovetail
with that very closely and very
specifically, " he says.
Potts also suggests that the
budgeting process can help
community banks reevaluate all the
initiatives they've committed to.
During this time, bank leadership
can kill old projects that haven't
panned out.
Above all, community bankers
must make sure the budgeting
process is thoughtful. " Don't go into
the process with a rinse-and-repeat
mindset, " says Potts. " Have a north
star, have a strategy, have goals and
objectives in mind. "
More from ICBA
Listen to episode 18 of
the Independent Banker
podcast, " How to Budget
for Innovation, " for moneysaving
tips. icba.org/podcast
In the end, Schaus agrees.
Budgeting, he says, is a matter
of choosing a strategy and then
executing it with focus. He says, " I
tell bankers, 'There's really no bad
strategy. But when you do have a
strategy, do it right.' "
Elizabeth Judd is a writer in Maryland.
Banks: Improving
Customer
Financial Health
and Boosting
Deposits Using
Transaction Data
Featuring:
Corey Horr
Account Executive
Bud Financial
Strategies for
community banks to
stimulate growth and
better serve their
communities.
REGISTER TODAY!
To register and view our full
library of free on-demand
webinars, visit the Independent
Banker Webinar Center at
Independentbanker.org
http://www.icba.org/podcast http://www.Independentbanker.org
Independent Banker - August 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - August 2024
