How to find a broker for Small Business Finance

If your business is to succeed and achieve a sustainable future, making sure that it has access to plenty of funding is crucial. Yet, although is tempting to simply draw funds from your own reserves, it’s a risky strategy that’s also unnecessary. If you’re looking to take your business to the next stage in its development and take advantage of every available opportunity, you could consider applying for Small Business Finance. Small Business Finance covers a diverse range of specialist finance products which can be used for any number of purposes, thanks to the Alternative Finance Industry. However, although this is no doubt good news for your business, sourcing the most appropriate finance solution can prove difficult and frustrating, which is why you might to consider employing the services of a qualified business finance broker. So if you’re looking for an appropriate broker for your business, here’s what you need to consider before going forward:

• What sectors do they work with?
• How many Small Business Finance products do they cover?
• How many lenders do they work with?
• How close is their relationship?
• How do past customer rate their services?

How many sectors do they cover?

When approaching any Small Business Finance broker you must make sure that they’re familiar with your chosen sector, including how you operate and the specific challenges you can expect to encounter. Plus, by possessing in-depth knowledge of your sector, they’ll be in a much stronger to position to source an appropriate finance solution for your business and successfully pitch your application to lenders. Therefore, questioning them on their experience can help round your search down to a specific group of brokers and increase your chances of getting a finance solution that benefits the whole of your business.

Got a growth project that’s in need of some additional funds? Or does you need help settling your financial obligations? Apply for Small Business Finance or learn more about how your business could benefit.  

How many finance products do they cover?

In some cases, you may find brokers who work only with a small group of products or even a single product. But in order to ensure that you’re able to source an appropriate finance solution that can help you achieve your goals, you must ensure that you’re using the services of a broker can grant you an oversight of a wide range of Small Business Finance products. By choosing to apply for small business finance, some of the products and packages your chosen broker should cover includes the likes of Asset Finance, Secured and Unsecured Loans, Property Finance, Merchant Cash Advance and Invoice Financing. So in order to have confidence that you’re being presented with an appropriate finance solution, make sure that your chosen broker is able to work with as many of these business finance products as possible.

How many lenders do they work with?

Your chosen broker should also be able to source funding opportunities from a wide range of business lenders. This will help you to compare similar products from a number of different lenders, helping to obtain an appropriate finance solution at a competitive rate. Plus, since each lender can take a different approach when it comes to eligibility, having access to a wide range of lender could increase your chances of being accepted. Therefore, always ask to review how many lenders they work with before deciding to use their services.

How closely linked are they to their associated lenders?

In addition, you should also consider how close their relationship goes with their associated lenders. After all, the whole point of employing their services should be to provide you with impartial and unbiased recommendations of what finance solutions are appropriate for what you’re hoping to achieve and overall financial situation. If you find yourself in a situation where you’re being shown products from the same group of lenders repeatedly, it could be a sign that an arrangement exists between them which may not be to your business’ benefit. In some cases, it could be that broker earns more commision from those particular lenders, or that they, in fact, own that lender. Therefore, should you suspect yourself to be in the middle of such a situation, you should consider where you stand with regards to their services.

Are they recommended by past clients?

Before deciding on which brokerage to use, you should also take into account how their services stand with their past customers. This can be done by reading through their case studies, checking customer reviews and consulting online community forums. As well as looking the positives of their services, you should also check to see whether anyone had any issues. If there are, try to understand what these problems involved and how it could’ve been avoided or resolved. Should a consistent pattern of dissatisfaction exist, it may be a sign that there are issues regarding how they operate, meaning that you should continue your search for an appropriate finance broker.

Looking to apply for Small Business Finance?

Applying for finance is a vital aspect of running and developing any business. But ensuring that you’re acquiring a solution which can’t be beaten by looking elsewhere can prove difficult and frustrating. Yet if you’re an SME looking to grow and support your finances, sourcing an appropriate finance solution needn’t be as tricky as it may first seem. If you’re looking to apply for Small Business Finance, help is at hand. At Rangewell, we go above and beyond your typical finance broker. We’re an Access to Finance specialist working with over 300 lenders to offer you an overview of more than 23,000 business finance products - the entire lending market. Our services are free to use and we’ll also guide through the application process. So if you’re looking to expand, gain new equipment or support your working capital, apply for Small Business Finance today or find out more with Rangewell.