Why preparing an SME for a lender took time

Writing on 1 August 2014, shortly after the Stirling Chase acquisition, Björn Lindvall described the practical work that happened before an SME approached a lending platform. An online submission could be quick even when preparing a credible set of figures took much longer.

The difference between knowing a business and documenting it

An owner might know exactly which orders were late and which customers always paid on time. A lender needed to connect those facts to accounts, bank movements and future repayments. Lindvall contrasted a relatively straightforward refinancing with a buyout or expansion into a new market, where the future business could differ substantially from the one in the historical accounts.

He also distinguished loans supported by assets from lending based on future cash flows. A company with long contracts but few physical assets could look very different under those two approaches. The five-document checklist shows how to record the underlying evidence. For an existing facility nearing maturity, use the refinancing guide.