ASC Finance for Business

ASC Finance for Business ASC - Business Finance for Business People. We cover all areas of finance including: Business Finance

Timing can make all the difference in commercial finance. Our client had agreed to purchase their commercial unit from t...
03/06/2026

Timing can make all the difference in commercial finance.

Our client had agreed to purchase their commercial unit from their landlord, who was selling the entire industrial estate and needed all transactions to complete simultaneously.

Coordinating multiple parties and ensuring everything progressed to the right timescales created an added challenge. However, by working closely with everyone involved, we secured a £250,000 loan and helped ensure the transaction progressed smoothly and completed on time.

Commercial finance is often more than securing funding. It’s about helping complex transactions come together.

Another five-star review for our Devon team. 🌟 "I dealt with Anthony throughout the purchase process of a business premi...
02/06/2026

Another five-star review for our Devon team. 🌟

"I dealt with Anthony throughout the purchase process of a business premises, and he was exceptionally helpful and professional. I will be using him again in the future and would not hesitate to recommend him to anyone else."

Congratulations to Anthony Booker on this one.

If you're looking for finance to purchase business premises, we'd love to help.

One of the most common things we hear from new clients is that they weren't sure what working with a broker actually inv...
28/05/2026

One of the most common things we hear from new clients is that they weren't sure what working with a broker actually involved.

A good broker should take the whole process off your plate – from understanding what you need, to finding the right lender, managing the application, and staying involved right through to completion.

We've written a straightforward guide to how that process works at ASC. If you're a business owner considering finance for the first time, or an adviser who wants to understand what your clients can expect when you refer them to us, it's worth a read.

You can find it here: https://asc.co.uk/knowledge-hub/how-to-get-business-finance-with-asc/

A family business saved at the 11th hour. Haydens B&B in Rye, an eco-friendly, family-run guest house, had been tradin...
27/05/2026

A family business saved at the 11th hour.

Haydens B&B in Rye, an eco-friendly, family-run guest house, had been trading since 2005. Then COVID hit. With no income and a commercial loan to service, the family asked their bank for a payment holiday. The bank said no. So they did what many small business owners did and kept going on credit cards.

By the time they came to us, they had £114,000 on credit cards, the bank still wouldn't help, and the only advice they'd been given was to deliberately miss a loan repayment — a route that would have put the business at serious risk.

We secured a £300,000 facility to repay the original loan and clear all the credit card debt. However, the deal almost didn't go through. The property, comprising two connected buildings (one freehold and one leasehold), posed a legal complication when the freeholder refused to engage with the lender's solicitors. We returned to the original conveyancing file, got what was needed from the archives, and found a way through.

The loan completed hours before the offer expired.

John Luck, whose family owns the B&B, put it simply: "Without the successful completion of the loan, we were literally facing bankruptcy."

You can read the full story on our website: https://asc.co.uk/case-studies/family-business-saved-at-the-11th-hour-2/

Sometimes you have to show a lender what a business could be, not just what it has been. Our client wanted to purchase...
26/05/2026

Sometimes you have to show a lender what a business could be, not just what it has been.

Our client wanted to purchase a public house in Shropshire. The loan-to-value (LTV) was low, which is exactly what lenders want to see, but the vendor's accounts were loss-making, which is exactly what lenders don’t want to see! This is a situation we encounter more often than you might expect.

Businesses are often sold because they’re underperforming under the current owner, yet they have the potential to turn around with a new one. However, the historic accounts tell a story that puts lenders off.

In this case, we worked with the client to produce robust projections that demonstrated how the business would perform under new ownership. Presented alongside the low LTV security, these projections gave the lender the confidence to approve the loan 🍻

If you’re interested in acquiring a pub or hospitality business with a complicated trading history, it’s not necessarily a dead end.

The fundamentals of commercial lending haven't changed. But how lenders assess risk, structure deals, and make decisions...
21/05/2026

The fundamentals of commercial lending haven't changed. But how lenders assess risk, structure deals, and make decisions in 2026 is a different picture from even a year ago.

As brokers, we present applications and speak to lenders every day. A few things stand out right now:

• Lenders are scrutinising financials more closely - not just the numbers, but the story behind them.
• Fluctuations are fine - unexplained ones aren't.
• Exit strategies need to be credible and specific - not optimistic.
• Deal structure matters more than it used to - the wrong type of finance for the borrower's situation raises flags even when the underlying deal is sound.
• Presentation is still key - two identical opportunities can get very different outcomes depending on how they're put in front of a lender.

This means that going in without understanding the current landscape, or without someone who does, is a risk worth avoiding.

We've written a full guide on what commercial lenders are really looking for in 2026. If you're planning to apply for finance this year, or advising clients who are, it's worth a read before you make the first move.

You can read it here: https://asc.co.uk/knowledge-hub/what-commercial-lenders-are-really-looking-for-in-2026/

An employee saw the opportunity. We helped make it happen. We recently secured £200,000 for a management buyout of a c...
20/05/2026

An employee saw the opportunity. We helped make it happen.

We recently secured £200,000 for a management buyout of a catering machinery installation and repair business in Devon, enabling a team of employees to take ownership of the company they had helped to run.

A new limited company was set up to facilitate the transaction. This is a common and clean way to structure a management buyout, keeping the acquisition separate from the trading business and giving the incoming owners a clear foundation to build on.

Management buyouts make a lot of sense because the buyer knows the business inside out, while the seller gets a clean exit to someone they trust. However, financing for these deals needs careful handling. Lenders want to understand the business's ability to service the debt from its own cash flow, and they'll look closely at the track record and the incoming owner's experience. Fortunately, nothing was a concern here.

For accountants and IFAs advising business owners considering succession, or employees who've quietly wondered whether ownership might one day be possible, it's worth knowing that a well-trodden funding route exists.

Getting a no from a lender isn't the end. But how you respond to it matters a lot. The instinct is often to approach ...
19/05/2026

Getting a no from a lender isn't the end. But how you respond to it matters a lot.

The instinct is often to approach the next lender straight away. That can be a mistake.

A string of declines starts to look like a pattern, which is off-putting to other lenders, leading to ever-decreasing circles. So before applying again, it's worth understanding why the application was declined.

• Was it the lender's appetite for that sector right now?
• A structural issue with the application?
• A timing issue with the accounts?
• Something in the business's credit history?

The answer changes the strategy entirely, and often a deal that looks difficult is actually very placeable once you understand what happened and approach it correctly.

If you or a client has been declined finance and you’d like to turn things around, we're happy to talk it through.

www.asc.co.uk

29 days from first application to completion. For a property investor in Leicestershire, speed was everything. Our clien...
14/05/2026

29 days from first application to completion.

For a property investor in Leicestershire, speed was everything. Our client had identified higher-value residential investment properties they wanted to purchase, but needed to unlock capital from their existing portfolio first.

Our solution was a £578,056 refinance across their limited company portfolio, which also brought in a privately owned commercial investment property to maximise the capital raise. Getting the structure right across mixed ownership (limited company and personal) required careful thought as lenders assess these differently, and not all are set up to handle both in a single transaction.

For property investors, timing is everything. We got the deal done in 29 days.

The NACFB's Intermediary Market Outlook 2025/26 makes for interesting reading. 68% of SME lending value last year flowed...
13/05/2026

The NACFB's Intermediary Market Outlook 2025/26 makes for interesting reading.

68% of SME lending value last year flowed through the broker community. Almost £2 in every £3. And 59% of lenders now describe brokers as strategic partners and not just a distribution channel.

For accountants and IFAs, this matters. Your clients aren't simply walking into their bank and getting what they need. The lending market is broad, lenders' appetites shift constantly, and most of the best outcomes come from an experienced broker.

We've pulled out four findings from the survey worth knowing.

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