Providing finance to customers

[Andre78]

I'm finding i'm losing a lot of work due to price increases. The work is not necessarily going anywhere else. People are just holding off from doing it entirely.

Looking down the route of financing. Finding a company that will take the financial risk for their interest percentage.

Ideally become FCA approved myself and taking that risk personally for low interest percentage. This is of course not my area of knowledge so it's merely a notion running around my brain that could be totally non viable of course.

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

Mate, your a tradie. I think you know that if they can’t afford it now, then they can’t afford it.
If they really wanted it, they’d just remortgage.
As for taking on the risk yourself and all the paperwork that entails- personally I think you must be mad!

 

[Mark T Jones]

Mate, your a tradie. I think you know that if they can’t afford it now, then they can’t afford it.
If they really wanted it, they’d just remortgage.
As for taking on the risk yourself and all the paperwork that entails- personally I think you must be mad!

This pretty much covers it

Offering finance can help to smooth a deal - it will never turn a bad customer into a good customer
..if you really think it will work, team up with a broker or provider
.
As a former collector, it's tough!

 

[Andre78]

Thanks guys. I'm just throwing ideas out there. No, I don't want the hassle of course but things are getting tough.

I'm getting a lot of customers just simply not having the work carried out at all, by anyone and I'm getting a lot of wow's. OK mate yeah we still want it done but can you hold the quote for 3 months. Which I can't.

 

[Mark T Jones]

We are in a period of uncertainty, so discretionary spend is largely on hold (paradoxically, some items of luxury spend are doing well)

Lots of suppliers are coming to me with 'leads', which boil down to 'please persuade this person to buy with finance'. The reality is that an unwilling customer won't com up with the information needed to get decent finance (A few sharks out there will manipulate the situation whilst not worrying about the future)

If you use your own money to finance, you will find that customers use every excuse in the book not to pay you.

It's a tough call, it probably boils down to either raise the bar - look for customers with enough cash or income to not be concerned about the currently climate, or lower the bar to offer cheap & affordable solutions.

 

[Andre78]

I've upped my marketing budget. I'm going to need to get in more gardens and work harder.

I've simplified my quote format to provide informal quotes via email which upon confirmation get converted to formal pdf quotes with all the trimmings.

I'm also going to have to start covering the city. We only cover the new forest generally. Partly due to city gardens being a nightmare and parking massive vans and trailers etc. Going to be tough year ahead....

 

[Chris Ashdown]

House prices are rising and to sell they need good gardens etc maybe your marketing could be improved in this area

 

[chickenlady]

Can you offer something like Klarna?