As a business owner, you may be a sole trader, a partnership, or a limited company. And of course, you could be operating in any one of a myriad of industry sectors.
Hotels and guest houses, restaurants and fast food takeaways, pubs and wine bars, newsagents and supermarkets, scaffolding companies, hauliers, nursing and care homes, engineering and manufacturing businesses, software and IT companies, solicitors, dentists. I could go on, but you get the idea.
An unsecured business loan is a loan to a business where no asset or collateral is required to secure the loan (unlike a commercial mortgage, asset finance or invoice finance).
However, it is worth pointing out that whilst the business loan may be unsecured in the sense that the lender doesn’t take security over any of the assets of the business, the lender is likely to require a personal guarantee (PG) from you as the business owner.
What can an unsecured business loan be used for?
As part of its ongoing day-to-day operations, a business usually requires some form of asset in order to trade. These assets are often large capital items such as:
Invoice finance has become an increasingly popular way of financing a business. And here’s why.
Research by UK Finance, a trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, found that “small and medium sized businesses in the UK were on average, having to wait 55 days to get paid on an invoice.
Property investment finance is available for one of two reasons.
Either to assist you with the acquisition of an investment property or alternatively, if you already own the investment, to help you raise funds against it.
Should this be the case, then the funds being raised are usually to refinance an existing loan, perhaps for a better rate or a longer term. Alternatively, funds are often raised against an existing property as a way of releasing capital to assist with the acquisition of another investment property.
Property development is a crucial area for the UK economy. And whilst we are all familiar with the large house builders, much of the property development in the UK is carried out by small and medium sized developers and housebuilders.
Property development falls into several different categories including:
In recent years, bridging loans have become an increasingly popular funding option that can assist you in a myriad of different ways.
In the past, bridging loans were most commonly used by property professionals such as investors, landlords and property developers who needed to “bridge” between one property and another.
However today, bridging loans are used by many business owners for a variety of reasons
Development exit finance is a form of bridging finance, the difference being that exit finance is aimed specifically at property developers.
When is exit finance used?
Development exit finance is used by developers who have finished off a project, but the completed property has not yet been sold.