NH’s Top Women-Led Businesses: (#45) Lamont, Hanley & Associates

For more than 30 years, Lamont, Hanley & Associates has built its business by helping other businesses get the money they are owed.

“When we started the agency in 1991 things were changing, laws were changing and [those changes] were needed. Collection agencies had reputations, somewhat justified, as not being professional. We decided at that time to start our own agency where customer service was first,” says Rhonda Sargent, president and one of the three founders of the company. “We’re very conscious of how we’re dealing with people and are respectful.”

Lamont, Hanley & Associates, based in Manchester, now has 57 employees and serves clients across the country. Sargent has spent her entire career in the collections industry after landing a full-time job as a bill collector at age 19 during what she intended to be a gap year from college. “I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and I didn’t want to waste money. The opportunity was there to be successful,” she says.

Within four years she joined two experienced industry experts to launch Lamont, Hanley and says her partners provided her with valuable mentoring. “I love being an entrepreneur,” says Sargent, who found herself as the sole owner when her partners passed away in 2016 and 2017. Sargent says she wants to provide opportunities to succeed for others who may lack a college education but have a strong work ethic. “We can open up the world for them,” she says.

Most of Lamont, Hanley’s clients are focused in three verticals—insurance, manufacturing and communications. However, Sargent and her team are focused on diversifying their client base, which she expects will drive further growth. While business slowed during the initial stages of the pandemic, “it’s been a whirlwind the past couple of years. There’s always a need for a collection agency,” she says, adding the firm is expanding its sales team.

Sargent says different economic cycles bring their own challenges and opportunities. “In a good economy there is less debt, but people have money to pay those bills. In a bad economy there will be more debt, but it’s harder for people to find the funds,” she says.