Top Business Tips from a Commercial Finance Broker

British Business Bank
6 hours ago
6 min read

Starting or running a business can feel like an exciting adventure, but it also comes with its fair share of challenges. From keeping track of finances to navigating legal rules and finding your first customers, there’s a lot to figure out.

The good news? No matter where you are in your business journey, there’s plenty of free support available to help you along the way. We spoke to Joseph Babalola, Head of Cash flow lending at Funding Bay, to understand some of the key aspects of the service commercial brokers can provide to smaller businesses.

Keep reading to find out his answers to questions posed by businesses.

What does a commercial broker do?

“In simple terms, we match people who have money with people who are looking to borrow money,” says Joseph. Brokers are finance professionals dedicated to helping businesses secure the best financial deals available. Acting as intermediaries, they connect businesses with lenders, saving you the time and effort required for extensive comparisons.

Their expertise lies not only in understanding the varied financial products on the market, but also in maintaining established relationships with a wide network of banks and lenders, as Joseph says: “The type of people that we work with on the lending side are your standard high street banks, challenger banks, alternative lenders and very specialist niche lenders.”

These connections enable brokers to negotiate better rates and terms, deals that might otherwise be out of reach for the average business owner and its worth remembering that some lenders only work through brokers.

With the vast array of financing options available, navigating this complexity can be daunting, especially when trying to find the one that best suits your business. A broker’s in-depth knowledge of financial products and their access to exclusive lenders could streamline this process, ensuring you not only save time but also secure a solution tailored to your specific needs.

Joseph says, “Our job is to make sure that people have access to the best possible finance that they need at the stage that they are at as a business.”

What are the most common financial products commercial brokers are approached to find?

Although brokers can support smaller businesses by helping them gain access to a large variety of different financial products, there are some products that, often due to their flexibility, could be a good solution for most business challenges, including:

secured and unsecured loans
Asset finance
balance sheet products like invoice finance.

Joseph says that brokers will always take a ‘holistic approach’, working with a business to identify the type of financial product that best suits them and their circumstances.