What are your commercial clients talking to you about right now?

Pace of growth

There are businesses that are growing so fast that the lenders can’t keep up with them.

For example, if somebody has always run a $1 million turnover business, and then that suddenly ramps up to $4 or $5 million, the lending requirements won’t support it.

Then the banks go: “There’s no evidence that there’s enough income to show that they can service and maintain a facility to support a $5 million turnover business.”

Sustainability issues

The majority have a specific issue.

They see the finance problem they have in their business, whether it’s a specific secured or unsecured creditor like the ATO or some other creditor that’s pressing them for money. They could be trying to find the funds to purchase stock, pay wages, and just run their business on a daily basis, let alone, projecting forward. They come to me with those specific issues.

Often, the catalyst that they have or the reason for coming to talk to me through an accountant or lawyer or generally speaking is very specific. But when you look at their business holistically, you can see why they are where they are. They’ve often evolved the finance circumstances, being the lenders that they currently have, by just stacking one on top of another.

Sometimes they need to take a step back and think: “How do I manage my situation?”

Managing finances

Tax debt, especially in the medical space. Business loans for tax debt.

With not being able to claim the rate back – not only that, they put it over a two-year term – if a client has a large tax debt, those repayments can be quite high.

So, it’s about refinancing that and negotiating after 12 months – no early termination fees.

Your goal is then running through a strategy where you basically effectively want to have this paid out at month 13. And then you’re getting them into good financial habits, so we’re not revisiting this issue again down the track.

Unforeseen issues

A lot of acquisitions and a lot of ATO debt.

There is a lot of ATO debt out there that needs restructuring.

There are also a lot of people at the moment in business that are not getting paid unexpectedly.

We’re seeing businesses that have never had loans in 30 years coming to us and saying: “Can you help us with a loan? We’ve never had a loan. We don’t know how to do it. How does this all work?”