Business Loans for Reopening Retail Businesses in Ireland

There are a number of loan options on the market for businesses that are reopening after lockdowns. You can potentially get loan quotes from pillar banks or alternative business lenders under the Credit Guarantee Scheme for working capital, stock or other needs. But what if your business accounts and bank statements are now imperfect after all these lockdowns and you don’t qualify? The good news is there are business finance options if you’re currently transacting on your card machine.

BENEFITS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

• Fast decision based on your volume of sales by card

• Easy application process

• Flexible repayments that work with your cash flow

KEY CRITERIA TO ACCESS FUNDING

• Your business is transacting from €4000 a month by card

• You have at least 6 months merchant statement history

• Your business passes the credit check

If you’re in retail or any shop, hairdresser, barber, hardware store or takeaway restaurant talk to us about organising a finance quote today. Even if the bank has said no and you don’t feel confident, we can often assist. So long as you’re currently trading, the partner credit team are understanding & can even top up your facility as your cash flow improves. We’re here for you 7 days on 01 55 636 55 or email us on hello@businessloans.ie.

BusinessLoans.ie April 12th Hospitality Grants and Loans Update

As of Monday April 12th it’s okay for bars & restaurants to serve takeaway alcohol to customers. While takeaway pints were never against the law most businesses complied with the government request. As Micheál Martin poetically said “forget about takeaway pints”. However, now that people can travel freely within their county, or 20km from home if crossing county borders restaurateurs & publicans will see increased trade. Under licensing laws, there is a requirement for the sale of takeaway alcohol that it must be consumed a minimum of 100 metres from the premises where the drink was originally purchased.

The Outdoor Dining Enhancement Scheme

To combat the effects of Ireland’s mixed weather on your business, you could benefit from a grant up to €4000. It is for shelter & outdoor dining infrastructure and you can be prepared for full reopening & ending of the 100 metre rule. You can get this government grant only if you have a business that serves food. The scheme gives you 75% ex VAT of the cost of equipment purchased / installed, up to €4,000 per applicant. Only items purchased after June 1st, 2020 & up to September 30th, 2021 are eligible. Local Authorities administer it so you would need to reach out to them to claim this, or get more information from your Local Enterprise Office.

Loans

BusinessLoans.ie will be able to assist businesses with loan quotes as your trade improves. We are monitoring the situation with alternative lenders and their appetite for lending. The rule of thumb has been if the business is not currently trading they’re reluctant to quote. The first finance option likely to be available is based on your card machine. The partner credit teams will see how you were trading before the pandemic and look at the trade you’re doing when you reopen and hopefully make an offer. Then all going well, will top up the finance facility as turnover increases as lockdowns further ease.

There are other loans that will become more available as trade increases, from simple unsecured loans to asset finance for perhaps a food truck. We’re hearing Local Authorities are more open to offering places to pitch and this could be an important revenue stream to pivoting hospitality businesses this summer.

Talk to us about your situation. We’re here for you to organise loan quotes on hello@businessloans.ie or call 01 55 636 55.

Low Paperwork Business Loans

If you’re a business owner who has had to deal with the bank for loans you may have seen nice advertisements about loans for brave people, help from friendly bank managers who have excess time to go through your application and make sure it’s done right, while benefiting from quick turnaround times. In my experience this utopia doesn’t exist. Sure, fast turnaround times are possible but that’s the exception rather than the rule. We deal with many business owners who have been getting the “slow no” or the runaround in some shape, way or form and they decide to see what other options are out there.

Alternative lenders are generally not going to make you go to the expense of doing up business plans and medium and long-term projections. Now that many have access to the government’s Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme in some cases rates are on par or lower than banks. Mostly though, like anything in life if you want speed & convenience the trade off is a higher rate. But paradoxically, if you pay 1% or so higher, the cost per month in interest is minimal for short-term loans; and when you factor in all the hassle, time & expense you could have gone through for the bank loan application, all-in alternative finance can be cheaper even when you pay a higher interest rate.

Talk to us today about organising your next loan quote on 01 55 636 55. We’re here for you 7 days.

BusinessLoans.ie - Intern Wanted

BusinessLoans.ie needs a student intern.

• This role is for someone seeking experience & you will work closely with the MD and learn about alternative finance in Ireland.

• Remote, flexible hours & full training provided - but ideally you're a marketing student with an interest in fintechs & startups in Ireland.

• You will learn about marketing finance to SMEs & using marketing tools such as HubSpot CRM

• Use multiple social media platforms, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Google Business and more.

• Apply with your CV and a note to hello@businessloans.ie

• Or call 7 days on 015563655 to speak with Rupert

BusinessLoans.ie - Recent Retail Client Spotlight

We wanted to share the finance journey we’re having with one of our clients, a rural agri-retailer. They began as a startup loan enquiry & our contact in Bank of Ireland was initially able to help them out to get going. Then after six months in business; and transacting a lot using a card machine they had access to another loan based on the volume of sales they were doing. In the next year they got a top-up facility on that. More recently they had filed their second year of accounts with the Companies Registration Office. This milestone with profitable history gave access to a simple unsecured loan at a better rate and they took €50k to develop the business further. We expect to help them with loan quotes again later in 2021.

No matter what stage you’re at, pre-trading, early-stage trading or in business many years, we are happy to assist you with fast finance quotes. The rule of thumb is that rates can be higher when you’re early stage but in time, as you develop the business risk decreases. Depending on your industry there are niche loan quote options that can work too. Talk to us today on 01 55 636 55 or email hello@businessloans.ie

Working Capital Loans for Wholesalers

BusinessLoans.ie recently assisted a wholesale business who needed working capital for their business to take advantage of seasonally low rates. They had plenty of warehouse space that they were not taking using due to lack of funds. If they could buy and hold they could sell at the right price later in the year. Their bank was unable to lend them the amount they needed so they engaged with us. We work with the best alternative finance companies in Ireland and got them a simple unsecured loan quote in 24 hours. They got low rates and boosted their margins. Later in the year they intend to get a top-up loan for their next trade.

If your business needs finance talk to us on 01 55 636 55 or email hello@businessloans.ie

Security Token Offering - A Way to Finance Irish Business?

How much do you know about blockchain? We can barely go a day without hearing about fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price so if you know a bit about that, you get the idea that digital assets are out there in various forms. What’s evolved is that there is more acceptance of blockchain as an efficient & reliable way to keep tabs on ownership, transfers and more.

Security Token Offering

These days, in the EU you can choose to do a Security Token Offering (STO) instead of a traditional share offering. This journey has been largely led by the German regulator BaFin, who back in 2011 classified crypto assets as units of account & financial instruments. Then more recently additional regulatory work was done to define tokens. They must be transferable, have rights like a security & have the ability to be traded on the market.

Can Irish Businesses Benefit?

Irish businesses can use the passportable EU rules to access STOs until the Central Bank regulates them in Ireland. STOs can be used by startups & SMEs to raise capital, as well as for commodities, funds & real estate to have fractional, easily transferable ownership. If this still sounds like gobbledygook; to make it real & get a glimpse of the future, see this article about how $12 million of German real estate was tokenized.

If you are interested in an STO we have partners who can assist. Talk to us on 01 55 636 55 or email hello@businessloans.ie

Irish State Bank has billions available for Irish businesses

The Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland (SBCI) has done more lending in 2020 than any other year since its foundation. It has allocated over €2 billion in loans through various partners during the Coronavirus Crisis. A lot of this has been on the Future Growth Loan Scheme, as well as smaller schemes for Brexit. However, much of the €2 billion allocated to help Irish SMEs under the Credit Guarantee Scheme is still available. Why is this? The SBCI says "we are aware of some public commentary asking why SMEs have not taken up more of the capacity available under this scheme…the answer to this is that the €2bn capacity is an important statement of intent, that the capacity is there if needed.”

The BusinessLoans.ie View

It’s better to be over-capitalised than under-capitalised. If you don’t have a cushion of working capital and you wait until missed payments start stacking up in the bank statements before applying for loans you can find yourself in a position where you are getting declines and may only have higher interest rate loan options available or none at all.

There are a number of great free supports & mentoring from the Local Enterprise Office to set out a plan and see if debt funding is part of the solution. Enterprise Ireland has a financial planning grant worth €5000 for bigger companies. Finally, nobody knows your finances better than your accountant & they can help you assess your situation.

If debt funding is the right option we’re here to organise business loan quotes fast. Many of the loan options don’t have an early repayment penalty. That means, when the pandemic eases and your business doesn’t need as much working capital, you can settle the loan early and save money on what the remaining interest would have been if you let the loan run for the full term.

We’re here to help. Call us today on 01 55 636 55 for fast Credit Guarantee Scheme loan quotes.

Reference: https://www.independent.ie/business/state-bank-has-biggest-year-for-lending-since-its-founding-in-2014-40177516.html

Business Loans in Ireland for Office Renovations or Garden Offices

Have you been considering doing alternations to your business premises? This could be to get ready for the Great Return to the Office. Or maybe you don’t want to go back at all; and you prefer to get yourself a garden office. If you need finance to make this happen BusinessLoans.ie can help with loan quotes. The easiest of which is a simple unsecured 5 year term business loan up to €250k. Or if it’s more of a modular & easily movable unit perhaps asset finance could work. Talk to us today on 01 55 636 55

VIDEO: How Irish businesses can use credit insurance & collections

A conversation about help for Irish SMEs during the pandemic; with Sinead Wolfe of Atradius Credit Insurance, Michael Weir of Atradius Collections & Rupert Hogan of BusinessLoans.ie