Alternative Finance: Why should you consider it?

No matter your size, sector or niche, every business’ needs to capital to grow, operate and maintain a reliable supply chain. So as a business owner, it’s up to you to ensure there is a sufficient amount of capital available to achieve your goals at any given time. However, this isn’t always easy to achieve and can even be a frustrating endeavour for established businesses too. Fortunately, the Alternative Finance Industry is opening up doors to the UK lending landscape, providing access to more finance solutions than ever before. But in order to take advantage of the UK’s Alternative Finance industry, it helps to understand what Alternative Finance is and what opportunities are available.

Why should I apply for Alternative Finance?

Due to a lack of awareness and understanding, many business owners still approach traditional institutions for financial support. However, on account of tighter regulations and stricter application requirements, choosing this path may not always grant you the funds that your business requires - especially if you’re an SME with a limited trading history. But rather than let rejection knock you back, you could achieve your goals by investigating what the UK Alternative Finance industry has to offer instead.

Granting you access to a new generation of business finance products and lenders, the Alternative Finance industry expands upon the offering of traditional financial institutions, offering SMEs greater flexibility, especially when you factor in that many alternative finance products possess no usage restrictions and borrowing limits. So whether you’re hoping to acquire new equipment, purchase supplies, release equity, carry out renovations, refinance existing agreements, support payment demands or gain a cash injection, you can still achieve the same goals as you would with a traditional financial institution, but you have the ability to go one step further and find a range of funding for your specific industry - from Technology & IT Finance to medical, media or agriculture.

Need help raising capital support growth and maintain day-to-day operations? Unsure of what finance solutions are on offer to you? Apply for Alternative Finance or learn more about how your business could benefit.

What is Alternative Finance?

Simply put, the UK Alternative Finance industry provides access to a wide range of finance agreements from anyone other than a traditional institution such as a bank. As a result, you could gain a finance agreement from anyone from Specialist lenders, Peer-to-Peer Lenders, Boutique banks and Crowdfunding Platforms to Private Individuals. In essence, the Alternative Finance industry actually increases what’s on offer to your business, giving you more ways than ever before to achieve your goals. All you need to do is source an agreement that’s appropriate for your particular needs.

What products are available through Alternative Finance?

Although traditional financial institutions still provide an invaluable service to support British businesses, the Alternative Finance Industry goes even further. As well as the products on offer from traditional financial institutions such as your local high street bank, you stand to benefit from having access to an even wider range of products, some of which you might not be aware of. Therefore, in order to support your business and pursue a brighter tomorrow, you could apply for anything from Secured and Unsecured Business Loans, Factoring, Discounting, Hire Purchase, Leasing, Asset Refinance, Refinance, Commercial Mortgages and Merchant Cash Advance to Overdraft Replacement. However, to make an informed decision which benefits the whole of your business, understanding how each of these products operates is vital - which is where speaking with a qualified business finance professional could help.

Thinking about applying for Alternative Finance?

Although it’s important to have a credible vision for the future of your business, passion and determination can only take you so far. Without the necessary capital to back you up, achieving your goals will quickly become a struggle, and could even lead to insolvency. But at a time when traditional financial institutions are closing their doors to small business in favour of large corporations, pursuing the funds your business needs to succeed can be a frustrating endeavour. Fortunately, the Alternative Finance Industry is stepping up to provide businesses of all shapes and sizes with the support they need to succeed. All you need to do source a suitable business finance agreement from a lender you can trust - which is where we can help.

At Rangewell, we’re an Access to Finance specialist who’s mapped over 400 lenders to offer you a comprehensive overview of more than 23,000 business finance products. Our services are free to use and we’ll also guide you through the application process. So if you’re looking to raise capital in support of your business’ development, apply for Alternative Finance today or find out more with Rangewell.