BANKING / FINANCE

‘Test the Market’: Gary Naumann figures that running a company is much like riding a bicycle: “Once you stop moving forward, you fall off.”

Naumann, a partner at the Costa Mesa office of Deloitte & Touche, one of the nation’s largest accounting firms, recently told small-business executives at a seminar in Irvine that they have to develop detailed financial plans and find new funding sources to enhance their operations throughout the 1990s.

“Treat your lenders as one of your most valued suppliers,” he said, but “keep in touch with other lenders.”

Naumann, who heads his firm’s efforts to attract capital for growing firms, generally recommends that executives strengthen existing ties with banks and other lenders.

“However, if you sense uneasiness or concern or unresponsiveness, you owe it to yourself to test the market,” he said.