magine spending almost half of your life working for a financial management and advisory company with offices in 36 countries and territories, client assets of $1.6 trillion and more than 50,000 employees. You've grown accustomed to getting up in the dark at 4:05 a.m. so that you can arrive at work by 6:45 a.m. (Any later would mean a 2.5-hour commute.)

Then, you awaken one morning to sunlight streaming into your home, and you drive a short distance to the sole office of a start-up business.

No, it's not a new reality television series, "Job Swap." It's the true-life experience of Wendy Zucker. For 24 years, Zucker worked for the Fortune 500 company Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. Then, she traded the rigid structure and long commute to become National Sales Director for Barclay Square Leasing, a microticket leasing company that specializes in financing POS equipment.

Zucker still drives to the train station where she used to board for her morning commute to New York City. Only now, she simply parks her car and walks a short distance in the morning light to her office at Barclay, which just happens to be across from the station.

Zucker joined Barclay a year after her husband and brother-in-law founded the company. "Having worked for a Wall Street firm, I was used to working under pressure, not to mention long days and commutes," she said. "I knew that building a company from scratch would have its own challenges, but I was ready to try something new."

She signed on for a six-month trial; almost five years later, she's still with the company.

A period of adjustment

Zucker's time at Merrill Lynch provided her the skills and experience necessary to be an invaluable asset to Barclay. "I was able to leverage my background in cash management, operations and systems design, and to put proper controls in place to grow our customer base," she said. "I had a lot of experience at Merrill in building up new operations from scratch, so that certainly helped."

Despite her extensive skills, the transition wasn't without some bumps. She had to adjust to the change from working within a very structured, multinational, corporate culture to operating a young, small business. For starters, Zucker managed a staff of over 200 at Merrill; Barclay had no staff at the time she joined the company.

"Coming from a large company, one becomes used to a large staff to get things done and deep pockets for everything," she said. "I was used to Merrill Lynch being every bank's best global client. That is certainly a different mindset than when building a company."

At Barclay, Zucker enjoys more freedom and flexibility than she had at Merrill, but if she wants something done, she has to pitch in. This includes tasks such as clearing paper jams in the office copier or sending faxes. "Now, the big difference is, if we need to get something done right now, we all do it," she said. "In the old days, I asked a staff person to fix the jams."

But Zucker prefers the trade-off. She cites a more relaxed environment, having more hours in her day and coming home to her family when it's still daylight as just some of the benefits of her new career.

Clearing up misconceptions

Initially, Barclay purchased leases from other leasing companies. However, as the business grew, the company shifted to controlling its destiny by processing its own leases and establishing direct leasing relationships with reps and ISOs. "Our view was that we could grow faster and stronger by originating leases under our own identity," Zucker said.

"Additionally, since this business requires a keen focus on receivables for the life of the lease, we believed that nobody had more of a vested interest in managing this effort than us as guarantors."

So, the company started advertising and waited for the leads to roll in. "We thought that business would just come by answering the phone. We were wrong," Zucker said.

Zucker believed that building a business would be easy if she worked hard, was upfront and honest, and did the right thing. But she soon found out that reps and ISOs are not receptive to changing companies when they are happy with their current providers.

"It's not always about lower factors," she said. "Clients don't call when they are happy with their existing relationship."

Another lesson Zucker learned was the difference between how large organizations attract business versus how small organizations attract business.

"There are a lot of bright people and partners out there, but it takes a while to find those people who share your philosophies," Zucker said. "When you are a smaller company, the big companies don't flock to you first. Some come to us by the process of elimination.

"Many of our clients have come through referrals, and that continues to be the best way to grow our business. It takes a while to earn the respect and trust of these clients through great service."

Zucker also pointed out that small companies have to be more careful. She explained that many times the people looking to switch service providers are those who have some type of difficulty.

She mentioned that approximately 20% of Barclay's incoming calls are from companies that have a problem. "With Merrill Lynch that was not the case," she said.

However, there is an upside to being a smaller company. "Our business model supports flexibility," Zucker said. "Being a smaller company, we can change procedures specific to a certain rep if their business dictates it and controls are still in place. We are willing to adjust our programs and procedures."

A boutique lessor

Barclay is a niche provider, but it took hard work to attain that status. "It took a while to build up our reputation that we were not just another new company either owned by or being funded by a larger leasing company looking for more market share," she said.

But the effort and challenge inspire Zucker. She is motivated by building a company from scratch, providing excellent service to every client and growing a business while remaining independent of other leasing companies.

"It's not all about volume for us, but the quality of the paper that we take," she said. "Not everyone thinks like we do. We are OK being the small guy on the street. We really focus on service for all of our ISOs and reps."

Indeed, relationships with reps and ISOs are paramount to Zucker. "If anyone has a problem, they can call me and know that I will take the call and talk with them. I pride myself that I will get involved on every issue. We are a niche. We know all of our ISOs and reps by name, whether they process one lease a month with us or a hundred. We focus on relationships."

Greed is not good

Zucker's five years in the industry have shown her the ups and downs of the leasing business. She cited greed and lack of controls as the biggest problems facing leasing today. "The leasing industry needs to stop being greedy in the short run and be able to walk away from the leases where the individuals have extremely poor credit," she said.

She also believes that government regulation is not the answer and will not be necessary if leasing companies take responsibility for their actions.

"The industry needs to band together to stop making it so easy to lease," she said. "Instead of relaxing the controls each year to lure in reps and ISOs, let's try to better educate people and put controls in place to prevent fraud."

That is a large part of what Zucker does at Barclay. She works with ISOs either over the phone or in person to help them understand some of the scams Barclay has been able to prevent.

"I have been able to make positive headway in training our reps and ISOs to put stronger controls in place to protect against fraud," she said. "They now see the value in the information that we ask for upfront; at the end of the day, that information protects the rep, not just Barclay, in terms of recourse."

The real deal

Zucker is most proud of the relationships she has nurtured in her time at Barclay. "If a rep has a problem with anything here, they know that I am always approachable and, moreover, that I care about resolving issues immediately," she said.

Her goal is to keep growing the business while providing superior service to clients for the life of their leases. And she is well on her way.

"The best compliment that I got was from another leasing company that told me ... face to face at a trade show, that we are the 'real deal,'" she said. "That was the best compliment that a competitor could give me."

And she didn't have to get up at 4:05 a.m. to achieve it.