Specialist lending: the low-hanging fruit for growth in 2016

The presents have been unwrapped, the leftovers have been cleared from your refrigerator, the Boxing Day Test has been played (hopefully taking longer than two days) and you’ve finally taken down the Christmas tree. It’s time for finance brokers to start thinking about two things:

• the usual “fitness kick” and accompanying diet
• plans for business growth in the year ahead.

I’d like to focus on the second point above, as apart from being more topical in this forum, it is the most likely to last longer than a month, is fun, and for finance brokers, can be much simpler with the help of a specialist lender.

When thinking of your business growth plans for 2016, specialist lenders are the low-hanging fruit.   

Specialist lenders are a little like specialists in the field of medicine – the majority of cases a GP can provide a suitable solution for your needs, but in certain circumstances, a specialist is better equipped to tailor a more specific solution for the individual case and required outcome, by enabling you to sit down and talk directly to the decision maker about your personal situation, ensuring the exact problem is diagnosed and an appropriate treatment plan created.

In addition to providing such a personalised, high-touch approach, specialist lenders can unlock a broad range of possibilities that could prime your business for growth in 2016. 

These possibilities extend much further than simply credit impairment, which is one of the most common misconceptions in the market – that specialist lending only means credit impairment – it doesn’t. Rather, specialist lenders cater for a variety of solutions including:

• Residential
• Commercial
• Construction/development
• Rural
• Self-employed
• Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF)
• Non-residents/new residents
• Short-term employed 

So as you can see, unless you are already providing all of the solutions listed above (and even if you are, the chances are that without a specialist you are likely to be missing opportunities when major banks say no), growth really is just a phone call away, and even if you only look to pursue one of these possible opportunities, you can obtain significant growth in your business not only in the form of new business, but from servicing, and importantly retaining, your existing clients. 

Some of the opportunities above experiencing phenomenal growth in their own right are:

• Commercial – commercial property has provided investors the best 12-month returns since the GFC.
• Non-resident – foreign purchasers accounted for up to 30 per cent of all property purchases in certain market segments throughout 2015.
• SMSF – borrowing through a self-managed super fund continues to be increasingly popular, particularly for business owners looking to purchase their own place of business, which can be a very tax-effective proposition.

If you are looking to grow your business and cater for more client needs in 2016, I would suggest you schedule some time in your shiny new 2016 diary now to call a specialist lender early in the New Year to discuss possible opportunities to help you.