Running your own business isn’t for everyone, but for those with the passion and skills to take on the challenge and strike out on their own, it can be a rewarding experience.
Being your own boss gives you full control, and that means being responsible for funding your business.
You need funds to buy the raw materials, equipment or stock that your business needs. You need to pay suppliers, employees or contractors. Energy, rent, tax and a plethora of other bills need to be paid.
Help with finance is available – but accessing it can often be a daunting prospect.
After all, as the House of Commons Treasury Committee noted in its SME Finance report: “It is naive to expect all business owners to possess a detailed understanding of the various financing options available to them. For many, the demands of running a business will leave little time for building financial expertise and searching the market.”
The government-owned British Business Bank has pointed out that SMEs need better awareness of the “increasingly diverse range of products and providers that exist in the small business finance market”.
Awareness of alternatives to traditional finance – such as marketplace or peer-to-peer lending – is growing, the British Business Bank said in its Small Business Finance Markets 2018/19 report.
“This increased awareness of options will be important in ensuring smaller businesses are better placed to make the right finance choices,” it added.
Fast and flexible
Marketplace lenders such as LendingCrowd offer a fast and flexible alternative to the high street banks by using financial technology (fintech) platforms to connect borrowers directly with lenders, speeding up the financing process.
Once we have all the documents we need, the funds could be in the borrower’s account the same working day.
At LendingCrowd, we stand ready and able to support the growth of SMEs the length and breadth of the country.
We have agreed a transformational funding partnership that will see the government-backed Scottish Investment Bank and Dutch entrepreneurial bank NIBC provide a combined £18.75 million of funding to be lent to SMEs via the LendingCrowd platform.
Since LendingCrowd launched in late 2014, we’ve delivered more than 830 business loans totalling over £74 million – including £16 million in Scotland – to businesses from Wick to Weymouth. Loan terms range from six months to five years, and borrowers can repay their loan early without any penalties.
To apply for a LendingCrowd loan, the first step is to register as a borrower. Then prepare the information you’ll need to support your application, including accounts, bank statements, and how you plan to use the loan funds. Our team of experts will help at every step of the process, so call us on 0345 564 1600 if you have any questions.
As a responsible lender, we base our lending decisions on affordability. We may be a fintech business, but we believe that the personal approach is still important, so a human always makes the final lending decision. To find out how LendingCrowd can help you to take your business further, Think Outside The Bank and get in touch today.
As a borrower, it’s important to remember that defaulting might lead to the debt being passed to an agency for collection. LendingCrowd and its products are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
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