Finding working capital clients doesn’t require new marketing or credit expertise. A specialist’s guide to spotting when non-bank facilities are the better solution
The market case for working capital finance is now well established: Payday Super has removed the quarterly cash buffer, customer payments are running at their slowest in six years, and the RBA confirms the non-bank share of business lending has grown strongly since 2022. The question brokers ask next is more practical: where do I find these clients, and how do I know when a non-bank working capital facility is genuinely the better solution for them?
The answer to the first question is closer than most brokers think. More than 500,000 new ABNs were generated between April 2023 and October 2025, and August 2025 set a record with almost 105,000 new business registrations. An increase of 21% year on year.
Business owners are everywhere in a typical broker book: the self-employed home loan client, the director with an investment property, the tradie who financed a ute last year. Every one of them runs a business navigating the FY27 squeeze. You probably don’t need a new marketing channel. The opportunity is sitting in the database you already own.
A specialist’s lens: what makes a business fundable
From where we sit as working capital specialists, the most useful question to ask about a business under cash flow pressure isn’t “can they service more debt?” It’s “what kind of gap is this?” A business that is fundamentally sound but perpetually short of cash has a timing gap. Aand timing gaps respond better to facilities built around the trading cycle than to term debt or an overdraft with a fixed ceiling. When we assess whether a working capital facility will genuinely help, we look at three things; and brokers are well placed to notice all of them in ordinary client contact.
The shape of the business. How long has it been trading, what’s the turnover, what industry is it in? Is it profitable, asset backed, and what do its credit history and ATO position look like? Above all: does it sell B2B on payment terms? A receivables ledger is an asset that can be funded — it’s the single strongest signal that a working capital structure is available.
The trading cycle. When does the business buy stock, pay suppliers, invoice customers, and when does the cash actually land? Somewhere between those dates sits the gap, and its character matters: seasonal, growth related or stress related. A client who buys inventory in August, pays suppliers in September and collects in December has described a working capital finance scenario without either of you using the words.
The funding purpose and the facility it points to. Supplier payments, import cycles and bulk-purchase opportunities point to trade finance, which pays suppliers upfront and extends the payment runway. Stretching debtor days, payroll and payday-cycle super pressure, or ATO arrears point to invoice finance, which releases the cash tied up in unpaid receivables — with a limit that grows as invoicing grows, something a property-secured overdraft cannot do. Established businesses wanting to extend their own payment terms while suppliers are paid early point to supply chain finance. The common test across all three: if the funding need rises and falls with revenue, a revolving facility that scales with turnover will generally serve the client better than a fixed limit assessed against last year’s financials and a property valuation.
Where the working capital specialist takes over
Recognising these signals is where a broker’s involvement naturally ends and ours begins. The full assessment covers:
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reviewing financial performance such as revenue trends, margins, balance sheet strength, liquidity, existing liabilities, directors’ loans, serviceability
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assessing conduct, from bank account behaviour and dishonours to ATO payment history and debtor collection patterns.
That analysis belongs with the funder, not the broker. A specialist working capital funder’s BDM team, like Octet, does this every day: they take the opportunity you’ve identified, run the assessment, structure the facility and manage the workshop with the client alongside you. Think of our BDM as an extension of your business — you own the relationship and the referral; we carry the credit work. “Spot and refer” means exactly that: recognise the gap, make the introduction, stay the trusted adviser.
Diversification without the fear
The brokers moving into commercial aren’t waiting until they feel like experts. Aggregator results showing 37–43% commercial settlement growth in 2025 tell you the shift is already underway. The skill worth building this year isn’t credit assessment, it’s recognising a timing problem from a solvency problem. Every business client in your database is having a working capital moment this year; when the signals point to a facility that moves with the trading cycle, bring the scenario to experts like Octet who structure them for a living.
Octet is a specialist working capital finance provider supporting Australian brokers and their SME clients. To workshop a client scenario or connect with an Octet BDM, contact the Octet broker team.
Promoted by Octet.
