Clearly, these businesses are the very lifeblood of our economy, on both a national and local level.

Supporting them, helping them to progress and expand, is therefore in everyone’s interests.

One thing that has become more apparent in recent years has been the difficulty some commercial borrowers have in obtaining more modest sized loans.

They have exciting plans in prospect, a clear idea of what they want to do, and the profits the project will deliver — yet obtaining the finance required in order to get on with that task is far from straightforward.

Unfortunately, the larger commercial finance lenders are not particularly interested in this area of the market.

From their perspective, there simply is not the margin in smaller commercial loans — they instead focus their efforts on the larger loans (the big players).

That simply results in those borrowers who are looking for a relatively small commercial loan being seemingly short on options.

Given most businesses are classed as SMEs, that’s a huge number of potential commercial borrowers who are left dissatisfied by the approach of the large name lenders.

Serving the underserved

Thankfully, not all lenders operate in this way.

While the big names may want to concentrate their time on the similarly sized borrowers, there are lenders, like JMT Finance, who take a different approach.

We know there is a large swath of would-be borrowers keen to access commercial finance, but who are locked out of working with the bigger firms, and so have set out to deliver for that underserved market.

After all, it’s undoubtedly the case that if a business is proven to be viable, and has the ambition to own its own premises, then it should be possible for them to access the funding they need.

Understanding borrowers

It’s not enough to simply declare that you’re open for business; brokers know full well that actions speak louder than words, particularly when it comes to the commercial market.

This is where a personal approach pays dividends.

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At JMT, for example, we have always prided ourselves on taking the time to get to know our clients, including meeting them in person to get a better sense of what they are looking to achieve with  funding.

That’s why we don’t have a set application form — forcing applicants to put their case forward in such a way can mean the lender has a distorted view of what’s actually going on.

We don’t want to miss out on the key details about why the borrower needs that funding and the difference it can make to their business through being wed to a particular application form.

Operating in this way means a lender can make a more informed decision about a case and assess each individual case on its own merits.

It means that lenders can operate free of the unnecessary shackles that can come from functioning at a distance.

Delivering for borrowers also means understanding what they expect from a lender.

As anyone who has run a business will know, time is often of the essence — opportunities need to be acted upon swiftly, or they may simply disappear.

Grasping those time pressures is crucial for any lender in this market; clients don’t have the luxury of time when it comes to hearing whether they will be able to obtain the commercial finance they need.

That’s why at JMT we look to respond to all enquiries within a single working day, while when a proposal is accepted, the case is passed through to legals within 24 hours of our site visit.

And then there is transparency — the last thing a commercial borrower needs is to be stung by unexpected fees and charges that were not clear from the outset.

If you want to truly support this sector, that means being open about the terms of a deal and what the client will need to repay throughout.

Finding a reason to say yes

As an industry, we need to be more passionate about helping smaller businesses access the funding they need to succeed, and not just the big names.

That will only come about through embracing a personal approach and focusing on finding solutions, not getting hung up on potential problems with a case.