Access to funding is an integral part of any business strategy, and there are many ways to gain access to the liquidity that can make the difference between a struggling business and a successful one, although not all options may be the right one for every business: with varying risk factors, eligibility criteria and costs, it can be difficult for business owners to understand what the right type of funding for their business is, a factor often cited as a barrier to accessing financial support. That is where introducers such as brokers, financial advisers and accountants have a pivotal role to play to help guide them with their expertise of the lending market.
At Ultimate Finance, we have developed a relationship-based approach to funding by working closely with introducers and their clients to provide businesses with tailored and flexible asset-based lending solutions that help keep their business moving.
What is asset-based finance?
Asset-based finance is a flexible and accessible form of business funding that allows for cash to be secured against a variety of assets on a balance sheet, such as receivables (invoices from a sales ledger), hard assets (equipment, vehicles, plant, and machinery) and property. Facilities tend to be more flexible than loans and overdrafts as they provide a vast range of ways to be used, and repayments are easy to manage and based on the type of solution. Asset-based solutions can also lead to potentially more capital being raised depending on the nature of the existing asset, with facilities often reaching the multi-million-pound mark.
Why are introducers key to helping businesses keep moving?
Access to funding can make the difference between a failing business and success, but many owners do not get to benefit from the best solutions for their business due to many barriers. Sourcing funding can be time consuming and difficult to navigate due to the range of solutions and lenders on the market, and often owners believe their existing bank is still the easiest and quickest route to additional cashflow.
However, many business loans and overdrafts provided by high street banks are unfortunately too constrictive in nature to provide the flexible access to the liquidity a business seeks. With so many options to choose from, many businesses turn to introducers who can independently source and refer products, solutions and lenders to help narrow the field whilst also expanding funding potential.
Introducers can provide a whole-market point of view and offer a snapshot of what funding is available, but also give an understanding of additional factors for owners to consider such as what the biggest strength of each lender may be, their ways of working and what documents may be required to get an application through.
How we work with introducers
At Ultimate Finance we take a different approach to lending: we’re solution-led, which means we look to solve the challenges for businesses rather than provide them with rigid products that may not be right for them in the long term. To do this, we pair our funding expertise with our 5-star rated relationship-based approach to work in partnership with introducers across the country.
Relationships help keep businesses moving
We see ourselves as not just a lender but as a true partner to each introducer and business we work with. We know that when it comes to meeting business ambitions one size doesn’t fit all, and so we work closely with all parties to find the right funding solution and tailor it to directly address the pain-point and / or opportunity at stake.
To do so, we rely on excellent Regional Director teams placed around the country, which are a dedicated point of contact and ongoing support for introducers based on funding requirements and geographical locations. Group Sales Director, Andrew Ribbins, explains, “Relationships are at the core of everything that we do, and we believe that to provide the best service to our introducers and their clients we must be able to get to know them and understand how they like to do business. In the same way that we tailor our funding solutions to business owners, we tailor our service approach to introducers so that we make the most of each partnership every time”.
This relationship-based approach has seen us be awarded an industry-leading score of 4.9 out of 5 on independent review website Trustpilot and the feedback received by owners and introducers alike comments on the value there is to be found in partnering with a lender that is personable and prepared to listen.
How to register as an Introducer
Introducers take many forms: brokers (independent or part of a wider network), accountants, insolvency practitioners, business advisors, solicitors, lawyers – the list goes on. New introducers can register quickly and easily on the Ultimate Finance website by filling in a simple form so that our Partnership team can get in touch to set them up on our system and pass them onto their dedicated Regional Director based on their needs.
Registering as an Introducer not only provides access to our funding experts for any of their clients’ needs but also offers many advantages such as access to our 24/7 introducer portal, newsletters packed with opinion pieces, recent deals, success stories and the latest news, but also invitations to regular events and exclusive competitions to win coveted prizes.
