The credit union went from bringing in $1.3 million per month in revenue to $6 million per month. Commercial loan originations at Sun Community are up 100% and its yield on investments is 1.80%.

Johnson stressed that a credit union needs to make a profit to survive.

“Profits are the only way to grow capital,” he said. “No company can stay in business without making a profit.”

To make a profit, Johnson said his credit union had to make major changes.

“If you want good talent, you have to pay for it,” he said. “We changed the management at the consumer loan department. We cut the turnaround time on loans from four days to 15 minutes.”

Johnson also decided to cut out indirect lending.

“The car dealers got paid to overcharge our members,” he said.

Sun Community was paying its broker $30,000 per month to manage investments.

“We now have an investment advisor who is paid $10,000 per month,” he said.

The credit union also began charging a checking account fee, resulting in 1,000 closed accounts. However, deposits increased $6 million.

“Don't be afraid of your members. You have to look out for their interests but you can't give them everything for free,” he said.

“We cut our overall expenses by $2 million and what was our profit? $2.4 million.”

As a way to reduce expenses, Johnson recommended that all credit unions form an expense committee to examine every dollar, particularly the funds being spent on vendors.

“We reduced our employee headcount by 10% and outsourced HR/payroll and information technology,” he said.

“You can't be everybody's friend as CEO,” he added.