"Our Nicolet Bank contact has personally come in to understand our business. If we need money for something like a new laser on short notice, he's prepared our business. The immediate,to wire the check with a phone call.

They've tailored a program for us that utilizes sweep accounts to reduce our debt at a much faster pace than other banks with traditional debt-reduction programs.

Nicolet put a non-traditional plan in place that benefits  personal service we receive makes it very easy to do our business banking with Nicolet."

Pro Fab co-owner Bill Hoffmann 

When mid-sized manufacturers invest in high-capital assets such as technologically advanced equipment, it's important to have a banking partner who understands the benefits behind this investment.

Professional Fabrications (Pro Fab) purchases additional equipment on an annual basis for its more than 45 employees to make production components from sheet steel. We're not talking mere saw blades and hammers here, either. Try a $600,000 laser to fashion high-precision tolerance products.

Effectively paying down debt is the next part of the business equation. Nicolet's industry-leading strategies and technologies help companies like Pro Fab save money over the long term. Among the tools available are sweep accounts, in which miscellaneous funds are automatically "swept" into a separate account and used to pay down debt.

"At most larger institutions, I'd be talking to a junior lending officer with five layers of management above them. The Nicolet team allowed me in that initial meeting to flesh out my idea and show them that I knew what I was talking about. It wasn't just filling out a bunch of forms and, 'We'll get back to you.'

Shortly after walking into the bank that day, I was talking to people empowered to make decisions. That made me feel good, and I don't know if that would have happened at almost any other bank.

I'm greeted by name every time I walk in the door – which always amazes me – and I receive great service even though we're a very small customer."

The Business News Publisher Jerry Mader

Bankers, by nature, are a relatively conservative group. They're understandably cautious with money, and can be hesitant to jump on board with the next great thing.

Yet, when Jerry Mader walked into Nicolet's Green Bay office with an innovative idea for a regional business newspaper with no building, no printing press and one employee, he had the ear of Nicolet's senior leadership within minutes.

Today, Mader publishes three separate editions of The Business News across Wisconsin. The newspapers are staffed by independent writers, photographers and designers, and the printing function is outsourced as well. There are no employee benefits to pay, no building or equipment to maintain – virtually none of the capital expenses normally associated with the publication business.