Ask An Expert: Robert from G&H Financial Talks Finance Options for SME’s
I caught up with Robert Grul National Broker Manager from G&H Financial today to ask him a few questions about finance options for SMEs.
G&H Financial is a finance solutions specialist. They are committed to helping organisations and individuals with their financing requirements. G&H Financial provides government, corporate and small to medium enterprise (SME) customers, health industries and education with innovative products and excellent service.
What do you think is the biggest struggle SMEs are faced with in their first year of business?
The biggest struggle would generally be poor advice given when it comes to the set up of their company’s financial structure. For example investing all their money into the business first up when they could have borrowed, resulting in no money in reserve for cash flow!
Can you give us an example of a client you have helped recently?
There are millions! But for one, there is a café in Melbourne by the name of Auction Room – Winner of Best Café at The Age Good Cafe Guide Awards 2011. Auction Room approached G&H to arrange finance for their café. After gaining approval and settling a tailored equipment finance loan, G&H also identified a cash flow problem. This was due to the business importing coffee and carrying an import cost. As a result of this early detection G&H has entered into discussions with AR Cash Flow to provide an import product that will alleviate the cash flow problem.
Why do you think more SMEs are starting to use Debtor finance as a solution for their cash flow?
When the market is buoyant liquidity is not a problem within almost any business. As the market constricts during economic downturn, most businesses use their cash reserve to trade through – as a result of this cash flow in the business is significantly weakened. Injecting working capital into a business when little or no security is on offer for the financier, often the only security available is the client’s debtor ledger- as such debtor finance offers a competitive, convenient and workable solution to any SME with commercial debtors.
[divider_top] About Robert: Robert Grul works with G&H Financial‘s broker and introducer division. This involves founding new Broker and Vendor relationships as well as working with the existing brokers in the group sharing his networking experience. He brings a wealth of credit experience to the team and works with an extensive number of companies to help build their financial core and funding streams. Over the last 10 years Robert has worked for Allianz, Toshiba Finance and Automotive Global Insurance in their risk assessment team. Robert has transitioned to G&H from ViewPoint, (where he still holds the position as the Director), a specialist catering and equipment funder within the hospitality industry.
