This past weekend, a close friend celebrated his birthday with a mafia-themed party.
My wife spent most of the week stressing about what to wear.
About an hour before we left, she turned to me and said — “aren’t you going to get ready? Have you even thought about what you’re wearing? You have no time to go out and get anything.”
I looked her in the eyes, completely calm.
“Dear… do you forget I’m Italian? I got this.”
Coppola hat. Already in the closet. Never had a doubt.
Some things you just don’t need to overthink — when you’re prepared, you’re prepared. The conversation I had this week was a reminder of what happens when you’re not.
A trucking company came to see me in a panic.
Good business. Long-standing relationship with their bank. Always paid down their operating line when they used it. Never missed a payment on any loan.
Clean history. By any reasonable measure — a good customer.
They hadn’t been drawing on their line recently. No need to. Things were manageable without it.
Until they needed it.
They went to draw on the line and discovered the bank had cancelled it.
No warning. No phone call. No letter ahead of time.
Just — gone.
Here’s what makes this one stick with me.
I’ve been on the other side of this conversation.
When I worked in commercial banking during the 2008 financial crisis, I was involved in situations where we had to pull back on credit facilities. It was painful. But there was always a process — a conversation, a notice, some attempt to work through it with the client first.
In 15+ years working in and around commercial lending, this is the first time I’ve seen a bank cancel a secured commercial facility — held by a client with a clean payment record — without any advance warning. The client found out when they tried to use it.
What I think happened has less to do with this specific company’s behavior, and more to do with how their bank currently views the trucking industry and the broader economic environment it operates in.
Banks quietly adjust their risk appetite. Whole sectors fall out of favour. And sometimes the first time a client finds out is when they actually need something.
The lesson isn’t that banks are villains.
They’re not. They’re managing risk across enormous portfolios, and they have every legal right to adjust credit facilities.
The lesson is that a revolving line of credit is available on the bank’s terms — not yours.
It feels like dry powder. It’s sitting there, ready. But it’s only there until it isn’t.
The businesses I see navigate uncertainty best aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest credit facilities.
They’re the ones who treat their bank line as one tool — not their only tool.
They keep something in reserve. They maintain relationships with more than one source of capital. They don’t discover what their options are while they’re already in a panic.
If your business relies heavily on a revolving credit facility to manage working capital, it’s worth asking yourself one question:
What happens if that facility changes?
Not because it will. But because knowing the answer ahead of time is a fundamentally different position than finding out when you need it most.
That’s the difference between being prepared and being dependent.
One is a strategy. The other is a hope.
If your business relies heavily on a revolving credit facility to manage working capital, it’s worth asking yourself one question:
What happens if that facility changes?
Not because it will. But because knowing the answer ahead of time is a fundamentally different position than finding out when you need it most.
At UCC Mortgage Co., based in Windsor, Ontario, we work with business owners across Canada to review financing structures, identify alternative sources of capital, and help ensure they’re not relying on a single lender — especially in uncertain market conditions.
That’s the difference between being prepared and being dependent.
Until next time,
Vince
P.S. This company isn’t in special loans. Their business isn’t in crisis. This is a story about a good business that got caught without options — and that’s exactly what makes it worth paying attention to.
