Charles Sanders seizes opportunities to develop Urban Lending Solutions into a national competitor

Right now, Urban Lending is about 60 percent focused on the default and loan modification side. In order to stay fluid, however, the company uses temporary employees for certain customer projects, allowing it to scale up and down as needed — running the numbers to see when it makes sense.
Finding the right mix of permanent and temporary employees comes down to knowing your industry, Sanders says.
“Don’t be afraid to use temp services,” he says. “There are a lot of specialty temp services out here. We work with some that are specialized in the mortgage industry.

“It keeps us flexible. We can get teams and attack certain projects.”

 

Takeaways:

  • Don’t be afraid to take a new business direction when necessary.
  • Trust yourself to invest in the right intellectual capital.
  • Being profitable means correctly managing your workforce.

 

The Sanders File:

Name: Charles “Chuck” Sanders
Title: CEO and founder
Company: Urban Lending Solutions
Born: Pittsburgh
Education: Bachelor’s degree in marketing from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.
What was your first job and what did you learn from it? Throughout high school, I worked for my father. He had a trucking company, Sanders Trucking, in Pittsburgh. That’s where I got my entrepreneurial spirit. I watched my dad be that guy in the community who provided the jobs. He was a giant of a man to me. I always wanted to be like my dad.
What is the best business advice you ever received? You’ve got to feel special about yourself. One time, Mr. Murphy [my mentor] told me, ‘You know, only 5 percent of the people in the world really get it.’ And he said, ‘Chuck, you’re one of those 5 percent.’ That really changed my whole life. Not to sound cocky or anything, but it made me confident to go out there and just go for it.
You have to have confidence in yourself. That doesn’t mean you’ve got to be the smartest, or the slickest or the most inventive, but you’ve just got to have an overriding confidence in yourself that you’re going to make it happen.
You played in the NFL for three years — two years with the Pittsburgh Steelers and one year with the San Diego Chargers. Do you use anything you learned playing professional football in your corporate career now? Absolutely. Football teaches you teamwork. It teaches you how to be around successful people and be articulate. I would go to all the meet-and-greets and be around the owners and all those things.