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Interesting perspectives, but I think some of this depends on what your market is. I agree that for the 30k jobs on up, it may be a big red flag. In our case, however, we do mainly 5k-20k jobs and we ARE going to start offering financing. I have found that an ever increasing number of my perspective clients have been younger professionals and the ability to finance projects is important to this demographic. Many of them don't necessarily have the cash up front but won't have problems making the payments.
I agree that rampant and reckless financing has been a problem in our economy, but the availability of credit in general is absolutely essential to it. It's not our job to police how creditors hand out cash, and from everything that I'm reading that industry has had a wake-up call and is tightening its standards.
Where I disagree with the previous posts is that by offering financing you're somehow entering into the commodity market. It all depends on how financing options are presented. Sure, they can look at banks, etc. to find financing if you don't offer it, but I look at it as making our operation more of a one-stop shop. People pay extra to have you subcontract irrigation, lighting, site work, etc. for the convenience of having one person as a contact. Having financing available can make the process less of a hassle for some.
Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that everyone run out and sign up with GE or another financing group, but I don't think that it's necessarily a bad thing, either.
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Jesse
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