Velvet Hammer: Helma Mazon’s Trailblazing Journey in the Factoring Industry

Helma Mazon was one of the most influential members of the factoring community over the last half century, founding Mazon Associates out of her house in 1976 and building it into one of the longest-run factoring companies in the U.S. while charting the path forward for other women in the industry.

BY PHIL NEUFFER, MANAGING EDITOR, COMMERCIAL FACTOR

When Helma Mazon decided to launch her own factoring business in the mid-1970s, she sought out a line of credit. One of the first loan officers she met with told her not to waste her husband’s money and to stay home with her children. Such antiquated and sexist thinking did not deter Mazon, however, as she ignored the loan officer and continued on her path to founding Mazon Associates, which has been fixture in the factoring industry for more than 45 years.

Tragically, Mazon, who was a pillar of the industry for nearly half a century, passed away this past March at the age of 77 after a heroic battle with cancer, but thanks to her lifetime dedication to her family, her business and the factoring industry, her impact will continue to be felt for years to come.

“She definitely was a pioneer,” Lisa Hultz, Mazon’s daughter and a current co-president of Mazon Associates, says.

Small Beginnings

Mazon’s path to factoring started when she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Marshall University in 1966. After graduating, Mazon moved to Dallas with her husband, John, who was a pilot in the Army before flying for Braniff International Airways. In Dallas, Mazon first worked for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service in the human resources department, but when John Mazon was furloughed in the early-1970s, the Mazons began looking for a new way to put food on the table. After short but unsuccessful stints in real estate and consumer marketing, Helma Mazon was introduced to the factoring business by a business consultant friend from church. The prospects intrigued her.

“She came home and she told my dad, ‘We can make $1 million doing this. I know we can do this. This is a business that it just fits,” Hultz says.

To help get herself acquainted with the industry, Mazon reached out to Harold Goodman, the founder of Goodman Factors, which is now Goodman Capital Finance. Goodman launched his business in 1972, so Mazon sourced him for knowledge on how to set up and launch a business in the factoring industry.

“He was a wonderful mentor to my mom,” Hultz says.

Mazon officially launched her business, Mazon Associates, in 1976, running it out of her family’s home for the first five or six years while her husband returned to Braniff to fly. However, when Braniff eventually went bankrupt in 1982, John Mazon came onboard to help Helma Mazon run Mazon Associates. The timing worked out fortuitously for the Mazons, as Helma Mazon had built a sustainable and successful business by the time Braniff went under. In fact, Mazon Associates moved out of the Mazon’s house and into an office building in the early 1980s. 

Launching a factoring business, much less sustaining one, was a challenging endeavor for anyone in the 1970s. The industry had only a handful of participants at the time and factoring was seen as a loan of last resort, according to Bret Schuch, executive vice president and division manager for Goodman Capital Finance. On top of those challenges, Mazon faced the same kind of regressive thinking she encountered when seeking a line of credit to run the business. Despite these potential roadblocks, she pushed forward, using her strong business sense and creativity to keep Mazon Associates on a positive growth trajectory throughout the early years of the company and beyond.

Velvet Hammer

Mazon’s creativity was particularly vital for the business during the late 1980s. At that time, larger lines of credit were harder to come by for Mazon Associates, so Mazon had the company shift gears and manage receivable lines for banks. According to Hultz, this was fortuitous for two reasons, as it not only kept the business going but allowed Mazon Associates to develop tight relationships with many banks in the Dallas area.

Creativity was just one of the many arrows in Mazon’s quiver, as her strong leadership skills, sharp business mind and detail-oriented approach were key to her business success as well.

When it came to her leadership, in particular, Mazon built strong connections with her employees by remaining tough but fair while emphasizing the need to have a balance between work and life.

“She was so motherly and kind that I was a bit surprised to see that she could also be hard as nails when she needed to be,” Debra Zukonik, co-founder and CCO of Dare Capital, says. “[She was a] velvet hammer. She taught me that and it has served me well.”

From Schuch’s perspective, Mazon set herself apart through her integrity and incredible generosity.

“Helma demonstrated as well as anyone what perseverance and hard work in the face of adversity can do for an individual and a business,” Schuch says. “She had a compelling way of inspiring trust among those she served, trust which was founded in integrity and fairness, and trust that was never misplaced. For all that I’ve heard and observed, Helma had a unique ability to tell a client ‘no’ and make them feel good about it at the same time.”

According to Hultz, Mazon was not only interested in but exceptionally skilled in all the finer points of factoring, including structuring deals and loan documentation. Hultz says that her mother also loved the legal side of the factoring business, going so far as to apply for law school. She was even accepted at SMU before ultimately deciding against the pursuit.

“She was always really good at doing crossword puzzles and she was good at needlepoint. She always had to just be doing something,” Hultz says, noting that even after Mazon retired in 2018, she still had a keen interest in the business and plenty of advice to dole out.

Family and Legacy

Although she liked to be as involved as possible, Mazon was also skilled at delegating, which served her well in passing the business on to her daughters, who both serve as co-presidents of the company, with Hultz heading up the sales side and her sister, Shelley Liegl, leading the operations team. Both began lower in the corporate structure after graduating from Baylor University in the 1990s before rising to their current leadership roles, which they officially took over from their parents in 2018.

“We heard a lot of things going on with the business even when we were at the bottom. So, we learned a lot just by hearing a lot of what was going on,” Hultz says. “I think my parents really enjoyed building the business … We've enjoyed sustaining the business but then also taking things to the next level and improving things.”

Hultz and Liegl are not the only members of the factoring industry that can call Mazon a mentor, however, as by blazing a trail for women in the industry and by imparting wisdom upon new and old members of the industry alike, she helped spark the careers of many.

“I met Helma when I worked at Vertex for Craig Canon in 1995,” Janette Merritt, vice president of asset-based lending and factoring at Goodman Capital Finance, says. “Craig took me to a NFA (National Factoring Association) meeting and Helma and I were the only two women at the luncheon. I remember being impressed by her composure and her knowledge of the industry. I was still learning, so she was a tremendous mentor to me early in my career.”

“I think her example to the ladies who came behind her was her greatest gift to our industry.  You can look around a typical IFA convention to see her influence. There are many more successful women in this industry because of her example,” Zukonik says. “Her very presence in the industry encouraged me to work very hard towards the goal of owning a factoring company.  Her willingness to provide very good advice to a young upstart made a real impact on me and her advice was always spot on.”

“My mother really was kind of an inspiration to a lot of women that wanted to get into business and definitely encouraged the importance of education and then to go after whatever dreams you have,” Hultz says. “No matter how big they are, go for it.”

Mazon also provided leadership in her own community, as she was actively involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors in Irving, TX, where Mazon Associates is based, including serving as the founding treasurer of the Irving Schools Foundation and a long-time board member and supporter of the Irving Symphony Orchestra Association, along with her proudest role as the chairman of the Baylor Scott & White Irving’s Authority Board. Through it all, Mazon always emphasized the importance of family, which is evident in how Mazon Associates has been run to this day.

“So many people in our industry don't have family members to be able to pass their business on and so they've had to sell them to banks or to other competitors,” Hultz says. “I know a lot of them have told us over the years, ‘Y'all are very fortunate that you were able to work with your family.’”

In many ways, the entire factoring industry is fortunate that they got to work with Helma Mazon.