Marketlend Academy: What Three Things do SMEs Need to Know about Lending?

Marketlend founder and CEO Leo Tyndall wants every SME to know three basic things before they take out a loan. Click on the video below or read the transcript to get a closer look at better lending.

Q: What three things do you think SME needs to know about lending?

A: Well, they need to know what the true cost is of their facilities. So, first thing they need to know is when they get pummelled with all these different plethora of lenders, they need to be very clear about what is getting, essentially, what is the true rates. The other thing that they need to know about is what is the benefit in the long term.

One of the difficulties with a lot of SME’s is that they’re not looking what the long-term advantage is, they’re just looking at the short term, and then the last thing would be is this that is this lending facility something that I could actually put as my balance sheet management tool going forward in the long term. Is it something that when I go public or do a trade sale, I’ll be able to say, “Look, yes, I’ve got this facility, and that facility allows me to buy stock every 90 days, and I’ll pay it back, and I’ve got a good cash flow from it.”

It’s those type of things. whereas, if they’ve got [a certain type of] loan, generally, most investors will look at it adversely and go, “Well, this looks very risky, why are you drawing down these urgent loans?”

Cause it’s a drain on their cash flow: the biggest problem is the drain on the cash flow itself. (Certain types of) loans have a place, and all the other loans have a place, but if their cash flow is having a direct debit [inaudible 00:13:17] on a daily or weekly basis, and it’s P and I, it’s essentially a significant drain on their cash flow, which causes them to have difficulties repaying other people.

So, it’s got to be very much a case that if someone’s got a million dollar turnover, they go and get a 50,000 dollar loan, and they look at their cash flow and go, “Yup, look, I can afford that.” Well, then fine. But not someone who’s turning over 150,000 and go and gets a 50K loan, and has to pay it back in six to 12 months, their cash flow isn’t going to sustain it.