Ten years of Able – what’s really changed?
This month Able Commercial Finance celebrates its tenth anniversary. It doesn’t feel like ten years have passed, but looking back, both the commercial finance market and the way businesses operate have changed enormously.
When I started as an independent commercial finance broker in 2016, there were already signs that the market was evolving. Alternative lenders were beginning to challenge the banks, cloud accounting software was becoming more widely adopted and digital signatures were still something many businesses weren’t entirely comfortable with. Fast forward to today and the landscape looks completely different.
There are hundreds more lenders, specialist finance providers have become firmly established, Open Banking has transformed the speed at which information can be shared and artificial intelligence is now starting to change how businesses operate on a daily basis.
For business owners, that’s largely been a good thing because funding is quicker to arrange, there’s far more choice than there used to be and much of the paperwork that once slowed everything down has disappeared. Applications that used to involve printing documents, signing forms, scanning paperwork and waiting for the post can now often be completed electronically within a few hours. Technology has undoubtedly made commercial finance faster.
But that’s only half the story, because while finding finance has become easier, choosing the right finance has become considerably harder. Ten years ago, businesses often had relatively few places to turn. If their own bank said no, the options quickly became limited. Today the opposite is true – there are lenders specialising in almost every type of business, every sector and almost every circumstance imaginable, which is fantastic for competition but also creates a different problem. More choice doesn’t automatically make better decisions. In many cases, it simply makes those decisions more complicated.
That’s probably the biggest change I’ve seen over the last decade. Much of my role used to be helping businesses find funding, but increasingly, it’s about helping them understand which funding they shouldn’t take. Just because money is available doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right solution. The fastest option isn’t always the best, the cheapest headline rate doesn’t always produce the lowest overall cost and the facility that solves today’s cash flow problem can quite easily create a bigger one twelve months later if it isn’t structured properly.
Being independent means we’re not trying to make a business fit a particular lender or a particular product. Instead, we can look across the market, understand what’s happening within the business and recommend the solution that genuinely fits. Sometimes that’s exactly what the client expected, but sometimes it isn’t – occasionally the best advice is to do nothing at all, because taking on additional borrowing would simply make matters worse.
That approach has served us well over the last ten years, although it hasn’t exactly been the easiest decade to be advising businesses.
Since Able was established, we’ve seen Brexit, a global pandemic, supply chain disruption, rapidly rising inflation, significant increases in interest rates, labour shortages and now businesses adapting to artificial intelligence and another wave of technological change. It sometimes feels as though every year brings a new challenge for business owners to navigate.
What’s interesting is that despite all of that, the conversations themselves haven’t really changed. Business owners still want to grow – the still need to manage cash flow, invest in equipment, recruit people, buy premises, support larger contracts or simply create a little more breathing space. The external pressures evolve, but the fundamentals of running a successful business remain remarkably consistent.
The same applies to commercial finance. For all the advances in technology, lending is still built around confidence, trust and understanding. Every lender has different criteria, every business has its own story, and every funding requirement has its own set of circumstances. Understanding how those pieces fit together still relies on experience, asking the right questions and sometimes challenging assumptions before an application is ever submitted.
Artificial intelligence will undoubtedly continue to improve our industry by removing administration, speeding up underwriting, analysing data more quickly and probably automating many of the repetitive tasks that currently slow things down. That’s something to embrace rather than fear. What I don’t believe it will replace is judgement.
It won’t replace the conversation with a business owner who’s trying to work out whether now is the right time to invest. It won’t replace understanding why one lender is likely to view a situation differently from another or recognising when a business has asked for one type of funding but would be better served by something completely different.
Technology can process information incredibly quickly, but experience still provides context.
Looking back over the last ten years, I’m proud of what Able has achieved, but not simply because we’ve reached a milestone. I’m proud that we’ve stayed true to the principles the business was built on from day one. Independent advice, honest conversations, finding the right funding rather than the easiest funding, and remembering that every application represents someone’s business, not just another transaction.
I’d like to thank every client, accountant, introducer and lender who has trusted Able over the last decade. Your support has helped us reach this milestone, and I genuinely appreciate every relationship we’ve built along the way.
Here’s to the next ten years.
