Wow! We’re already halfway through the year and like many, I’ve been taking time to review H1 progress and importantly what needs to happen over the next 6 months and beyond to guarantee continued success.
We’ve all read the plethora of articles on COVID 19 and how it may, is or will impact the economy and environment in which we operate in the long term. All worthy of a read, and I have also contributed to them, but being frank, and I expect many would agree, I’m just a little fed up with the negative commentary about the impact on the way we function in life and business. I’m certainly not one for soap boxes, but something that is increasingly resonating within me is the need for us all ‘to get back on the bus’ with haste.
Rewind the clock 18 months when we were entering this pandemic and I was just ordering a new identity tag bracelet for cycling and there was an option to add a short quotation for inspiration to which I added one from Winston Churchill; “If you’re going through hell, keep going!” At the time it resonated with me as very apt based on the expectation of what we were potentially about to go through as a community at the start of the pandemic. When applying it purely to the business environment and specifically to Ultimate Finance, it was without doubt a little too ‘hardcore’ but at the time it helped focus my mind on simply getting the job done. Indeed, when I look back at what the business has achieved despite the downturn, I am very proud, and rightly so when taking into account our recently published record new business levels and reaching overall funds in use of over £270m for the first time.
So, where do we go from here? As a sector of specialist lenders, collectively we have perhaps got out of the habit of doing things we did so well before the pandemic struck – meeting people and building relationships – be that with brokers and introducers; be that meeting prospective clients to learn about their business and how the funding will help them to grow their business; meeting existing clients to help them use their facilities in full.
At Ultimate Finance we certainly haven’t lost sight of all the things that make up our core values, and have continued to support our brokers, clients and prospective clients with much needed funding, recording some of our biggest months of lending this year. Now with the build-up in economic momentum and the relaxing of restrictions starting to resemble something similar to pre-pandemic, we should equally accelerate our transition back to being our very best, by getting out and about to build those face-to-face relationships.
Therefore, my primary H2 objective is promoting a full return to one of our core values that gives us a key point of difference, which is our ability to operate as ‘Deal Teams’ so that prospects, introducers and clients all have exposure to key individuals within our business to facilitate an understanding of what they want and need whilst allowing us opportunity to gain an understanding of their business. Working this way ensures we meet everyone’s expectations swiftly and are able to make decisions at pace. Even now I believe we are one of the few lenders that encourages our Underwriting team to go out and meet with prospects rather than assess a business by what is put forward to them electronically. I for one love nothing more than to go visiting a business and giving them an answer to their needs……. there and then!
So let’s all get our respective bands back together and get business moving again…. oh and bonus marks for anyone that can name the film!
