Small builder looking to offer finance

[servicebase]

I'm a director of a small building company. We undertake a lot of council work but also have lots of private work. This work consists of extensions and refurbishments, bathrooms, GRP flat roofs etc.

Some time ago we were approached by a firm that said they could offer our clients finance to fund home improvement work. I cant find the email from them and i'd like to look into this. It did not involve us having a CC license.

Has anyone any experience of this or could recommend a company that offers this service?

Many Thanks

 

[Homer J Simpson]

Personally, I'd avoid doing this at all regardless of if you need a CC license etc.

The risk to your reputation for trying to arrange/recommend/refer them to a finance company is not worth it.

On top of that, if the client either doesn't have the funds or the ability to raise the finance themselves without specialist help they may pose a potentially bigger risk of being a non payer than someone who can get a re-mortgage/secured loan etc to pay for work.

 

[TurricanII]

I have bought from a kitchen installer using Hitachi finance. A quick check on the computer and approved there and then. You or someone needs to be happy filling out the form for your clients. Other than it was win win - no big outlay for me, the credit risk is assessed and taken by the finance firm - you have nothing more to do with the money side. I wouldn't have spent 8k if I couldn't buy it on finance (i.e. you might obviously sell more). I wouldn't worry about your reputation being tarnished by customers who can not manage their own finances. Just make it clear that you offer finance through a third party. I have referred my business customers to finance firms for buying equipment from me - I have never been paid faster! The cheque arrived as soon as the invoice was sent.

 

[MBPH]

This is something I have looked into myself on the boiler side of things and I even went through a spell where I could offer it through a 3rd party when I was contracting to a big national company.

It is actually harder to sell finance than you might think. In the 6 month I was offering it I got 0 people wanting to go down the finance route. Don't get me wrong there are many people this would suite but you have to find them. I think to make it work you need a very big marketing budget to get the word out there (look at help-link)

Also as strange as it sounds it may do your business more harm than good. Finance is a dirty word to a lot of people so plugging finance may harm your brand.

I suppose it could be good for those customers who suggest they can't afford something outright but then again are these really the people you should be getting deeper into debt?

 

[Paul Brooke]

It is not really a question of selling finance but more like offering it in my opinion. If you went down the route such as " we have found in the past that some of our customers are happy to finance the boiler themselves upfront and some have taken advantage of our easy to repay finance package scheme. Tell me which one do you think would suit you best" That way you are still closing the deal because if they tell you they prefer one over the other it should be a sign to start completing the paperwork.
In your case with a boiler sale you could work the deal whereby the savings made against their gas bill by having a new boiler should pay a good part of the cost of the loan repayment. That's the line I would go anyway but always interested in others ways and views. Never too old to stop learning