We have been told since we first started watching television, listening to the radio and reading the papers, that, if you want a business loan then go to your bank, the marketing men have come up with some wonderful ideas over the years, to show us how easy it is.

Pigs running through fields or was it horses, slogans like the hard of hearing bank or something similar.

Hence it is quite understandable that we think all our banks and finance companies are the same and they all lend money to businesses, what’s the difference?

Or if the Bank you have been too, have turned down your proposal, who could blame you for thinking, well if it has been turned down here, it will be turned down elsewhere.

Well there are 100’s, yes 100’s of finance companies out there and the vast majority all have different sweet spots.

The Banks tend to offer the best headline rates, but for the smaller businesses turning over less than £20m.

They look very closely at, credit rating, past performance and then the security backing up their loan.

There will also be certain business sectors that they are uncomfortable with and these can vary during the year depending on computer algorithms predicting uncertain business sectors.

So imagine you are in a busy market place in Cairo, there are 100’s of stalls all offering business finance, where would you go, to get the best possible business finance to suit your business?

Things are not so different over here, what you need is a good guide or Satnav to take you the quickest way with the minimum amount of fuss.

The first thing I ask someone is…

What would you like in an ideal world, for business finance?

I then find out what business sector they are in, normally the hardest is construction/building related, I did my first construction case in 1990, it’s pretty simple if you know where to go.

Then we need to ask, whether there have been any past or present issues. Previous insolvencies, county court judgements, adverse personal credit history, or it might be a temporary cash shortage now or just some funds to pay HMRC.

A pretty perfect company, I would take to someone very senior at one of the main high street banks, they will have a reputation of getting deals done and will know exactly how credit (the decision-makers) operate and the chances of getting a successful result rises dramatically, but again it is knowing who to approach.

A company that has some current or past issues, I will take direct to a company that is used to dealing with this type of issue.

Their main focus is on, does this pass the common sense test and will we get our money back? They will actually look at the business as opposed to a form.

Likewise, certain finance houses are set up to deal with the construction/building related industry. Why would you want to go to a finance house that did not understand your business?

Let me ask you a question, do you think your chances of success are going to increase or decrease, by going to someone who knows the marketplace and where to go?

My job in business is to try and provide the quickest easiest and stress-free solution for my client’s request.

If your business is looking for any type of finance, that’s what we do and have been for over 25 years, there are so many different types of finance available.

In fact a new take on an old offering came out on Friday.

Quite simply an overdraft based on the assets of the company, the finance house felt the banks were being too cautious using form fillers as opposed to experienced decision-makers.

Please feel free to pick up the phone and discuss whatever you wish to, time wasters are welcome, I happen to be a very lucky man, I love what I do.

You are welcome to call me on my mobile if you wish to 07710 466166, it has been the same number since mobile phones came out or look me up on Google, Mark Smillie finance.