Buying a Business - Leasehold vs Freehold

You’ve got two options when it comes to buying a business. You can buy the leasehold, where you’re purchasing the right to use the land for a set period of time, but don’t have the same property ownership rights. On the other hand, you can buy the freehold, where you’re outright purchasing the property itself,...

What do lenders want to see? Experience.

In past blogs, we’ve talked about a number of different things lenders will look at in any application for finance. But there’s one that we haven’t covered just yet – the importance of experience. When a lender offers you a loan, they want to be as certain as possible that they’re going to get their...

50 Not Out!

Bringing in the New Year was especially sweet for ASC Finance for Business. Having begun raising finance for small businesses in 1969, the end of 2019 marked the end of our 50th year in providing a valuable service to the UK SME community. So, the beginning of 2020 marks the start of the next 50...

Our article published in Teach Early Years discusses raising finance for a nursery business

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from ASC!

We’ve just about reached that time of year again when the whole world shuts down for a few weeks. Christmas is a time to relax, kick back and enjoy time with your loved ones, and we’re no exception. This will be our last blog until the new year – so it’s time to take a...

We’ve got long-term and short term already – now we have long-term-short-term?

In the “traditional” world of looking for a loan, you’ve got two sets of timeframes when you’re looking at payment schedules. The option known to most is long-term mortgages or unsecured loans. These are normally aimed to take around 15-20 years to pay off, and most businesses looking at major projects will be pursuing them....

What will 2020 bring for you? The ASC Winter Newsletter

We’re on the home stretch. We can all nearly let out that breath we’ve been holding. That’s right, the impossible has finally arrived – 2019 is nearly over. It’s been an undoubtedly tense year for businesses across the UK – we’ve gone from one dramatic twist to the next with nary a clue of what’s...

An Interesting Proposition – Are we seeing falling rates?

We recently came across possible the lowest residential mortgage rate we’ve ever seen. A leading high-street bank had a mortgage available at 60% or lower LTV at just .98%! Even when you consider the impact that recent politics and the financial crises of the last few years have had on interest rates, that’s still an...

Bank Managers are people too – never forget that!

We’re going to open this article up with a story straight from the archives. Once upon a time, we knew a bank manager who would never finance a baker. A middling pub with decent financials? He’d consider it. A leasehold manufacturer looking to buy its freehold? He’d make an informed decision. A freehold bakery, with...

“No”. “Maybe”. “If…”. “But”. Will you ever just get a “Yes” from a Bank?

Business banks are masters of unclear language. If you ever want to find someone who’s saying “no” at the exact same time as they’re saying “yes”, talk to a business loan underwriter. There’s a saying in finance that you’ll get one of three answers from a bank if you’re looking for finance on your own...