Category Archives: Success Stories

Marketlend Academy: What do Investors Look for in a New Business?

The thought of approaching a professional investor with access to millions makes you sweat, but if you’re like many startups, you need money to get your new business off the ground. What is it that makes investors reach for their wallets?  

 

Businesses who bring in money do several things right. Here are key points you want to present to any potential partner.

 

   1.  Do Extensive Research

 

A lot of entrepreneurs skip this step as they develop their product or service. But market research is crucial and it needs to cover each angle.

 

Start with your industry. Look at how new developments in tech affect your field and be an advantage. Make note of trends and patterns, what aspects are in decline and where the market may expand. Approach customers and ask them how they use the product or service and take notes.

 

Next, tackle demand. What do customers in your area of expertise want? Real estate firms may see a need for more rental properties. If you have a chain of gyms, ask your members what products or services they wish you had.

 

The creators of Instacart are a great example. They studied the food industry and saw the move towards deliverables. They put together a plan to expand delivery service to groceries. Today their industry is worth 2 billion USD. The company saw a demand and responded, which makes them a big draw to investors.

 

   2.  Write a Stand-out Business Plan

 

A business plan is your future company on paper. It lets investors see the results of all your research, understand what problem you want to solve and shows how you differ from your competition.

A good plan includes:

• A one to two-page executive summary, (an overview of your plan’s key components)
• Your research presented as proof of demand and market
• Financial data and how much money you need
• A description of your perfect customer
• A write up of any staff or team members
• Past accomplishments and future goals

Walk the line between enthusiasm and hyperbole. Use plain, straightforward language and be sure to edit several times. Ask a professional writer to look at it, make sure it reads well and seek any minor mistakes.

Your complete and polished presentation will help you stand out and make the right people pay attention.

 

  3.  Develop a strong Marketing Strategy

 

Break down your marketing for anyone who wants to buy into your business. It’s essential to be specific and have a breakdown of your numbers.

 

Take the college magazine as an example. Here is what an interested investor is waiting for:

 

“We ran a quick poll on Facebook and got a big response from readers aged 17 to 19.

We tested keywords in tandem with Pay-Per-Click, (PPC), on Google. A new reader costs us $4.50 and generates $30 dollars in profit.”

 

You know the audience, you can build the audience and be in the black. You are the expert of your project – show it.

 

  4.  Have a Working Model

 

Ideas alone are rarely enough. It’s those who have a working model that get the money. Show that your idea has traction and you are much more likely to get that deposit in your account.

A working model is your service or product offered on a small scale. For example:

 

Product: An online subscription magazine for students on surviving college

 

Working Model: A blog with over 1,000 subscribers and a substantial social media following

When investors see the success in your model they will see you as an asset.

 

 

  5.  Answer the Question: Why You?

 

Never forget that you are the true product, so make investors understand why you, not the competition are the real investment.

Put your best traits, biggest accomplishments, past success in the foreground. If you have a mentor, classes to help you continue your education or any seminars scheduled, bring those up as well.

The best trait about you is that you have more than an idea, you have your drive and your vision to back you up. Show investors you bet on yourself and that will help bring them around to do the same.

Marketlend Academy: A New Business vs. A Driver Licence

Why is starting a new business easier than getting a licence to drive in Australia? In the video below, Marketlend Founder and CEO Leo Tyndall explains how this is a problem and why we should think differently about the reality of starting a new venture. Prefer to read rather than watch the video? The transcript is below.

 

 

Q: What do you mean by it’s easier to start a small business that to get a driver licence in Australia?

 

Yeah. Well, what I mean, is it’s easier to get a driver licence first than starting a business is the reality is, is that driver licence you gotta do a number of hours, and you gotta do these tests, you’re gonna send your contact and accounting firm alike when you open up a company, and away you go. And people will take on commitments, and you’ll be operating.

 

The problem is, is that, directors’ responsibilities are not fully understood, people don’t realise that there is a lot more complexities around things of reporting, you have finances, or like they do when they grow, there’s no business plan required, and so they send you to get going. Some, you’ll find business plans, but are they realistic or not? So there’s all these problems that come with people setting up businesses, because there is no restriction: you can just contact one of these guys and set up a company. Now, I’m not suggesting we should have restrictions, but what I’m definitely saying, is, that businesses themselves, by the time they get started, get too carried away to actually think about all things they need to know, and unless they’re very experienced, they’re gonna find that things are gonna blow up or things are gonna pop up that they never considered would happen before.

 

So, there is a need for some more training, on-going training, maybe, or at least some form of compliance check, or supervision, you could say, for businesses that have been operating for a year, or the like. I mean, I just saw a proposal for someone who’s start-up, and I gotta admit, the idea was just on the left field, he’s already spent 2.5 million dollars on it, and it’s like oh my God, is no one sort of sat there and gave him a bit of a shark’s tank, … test, and said, “Really? You need to actually wake-up and realize.” There has to be a very clear delivery of a solution, and not only just an idea, but an ability to actually make it grow and deal with it as it grows over time.

 

I think the other problem being, which is, in a way, a little bit being fixed is the failure for equity investors to participate in small business . . . the biggest problem in Australia I think is that people have to learn how to get more money, they can’t actually, most of them are not skilled enough to know how to raise equity.

 

If you look at our business, we haven’t borrowed anything. We’ve got equity partners, and every time we need funds, we’ve raised equity, and we’ve done that on the basis that we don’t, for the first few years, we didn’t think want to be levered. We didn’t want to have that debt hanging over our head, and it’s still the case, and it’s very much where it’s by comparable notes, or whether it’s by some other form, it’s very much that there is a need for the business to be able to grow, and by turning around and just going out and getting loans, ’cause you think that’s the only solution, isn’t the best solution.

 

 

 

 

Marketlend Academy: The Lending Challenge For Small to Medium Enterprises

Why a digital marketplace for SME lending? The simple answer is a need among SMEs for more access to capital and investment opportunities. Here as part of our Marketlend SME Academy, Marketlend Founder and CEO Leo Tyndall talks about how the search for money was a source of pain for many in the SME landscape when he began.  (Prefer to read, not watch?  The transcript is below.)

 

Q: What was the pain that you were seeing in the market [when it came to SME lending]? 

 

A: What really was obvious was there was a number of things: firstly, that the size of transactions that was sort of sitting between the businesses turning over one to 20 million, they weren’t really getting the proper attention from the banks. The banks weren’t giving those SME’s and their sort number one attention. What also was seen is that suppliers would give credit that suppliers would have a vested interest in when they gave credit so that they would change the credit terms quite regularly, and then at the same time, they wouldn’t actually give them credit for different suppliers. They would only give them credit for one supplier.

 

So then, what we saw also, was that the investors would complain they weren’t getting yields. So they would go into major investment schemes, other type of investments, find that their managers were charging them one to 2%, find that there was a fee here, and a fee there, and by the time that they looked at their net return, they were lucky to get much more than what the banks were doing, and the banks were actually offering them, as they do now, one to 2% yield and yet they’re landing on the other side of 12, 14, even up to 20%.

 

So the SME’s, when we first started, which was in December 2014, what we found is the SME’s at that time didn’t have a lot of options. So there wasn’t that many SME lenders out there either, and they were very, very expensive. There has been a lot more SME vendors pop up, close to about 60. However, their rates have been still quite high, so the risk is not being matched against the actual, essentially, profile of the borrowing, not getting any interest rate for risk. So what you’ll find is a business that’s turning over, say one to ten million, which should be a fairly positive risk, is turning out to be paying quite high rates.

 

Marketlend Academy: What Three Things do SMEs Need to Know about Lending?

Marketlend founder and CEO Leo Tyndall wants every SME to know three basic things before they take out a loan. Click on the video below or read the transcript to get a closer look at better lending.

 

Q: What three things do you think SME needs to know about lending?

A: Well, they need to know what the true cost is of their facilities. So, first thing they need to know is when they get pummelled with all these different plethora of lenders, they need to be very clear about what is getting, essentially, what is the true rates. The other thing that they need to know about is what is the benefit in the long term.

 

One of the difficulties with a lot of SME’s is that they’re not looking what the long-term advantage is, they’re just looking at the short term, and then the last thing would be is this that is this lending facility something that I could actually put as my balance sheet management tool going forward in the long term. Is it something that when I go public or do a trade sale, I’ll be able to say, “Look, yes, I’ve got this facility, and that facility allows me to buy stock every 90 days, and I’ll pay it back, and I’ve got a good cash flow from it.”

 

It’s those type of things. whereas, if they’ve got [a certain type of] loan, generally, most investors will look at it adversely and go, “Well, this looks very risky, why are you drawing down these urgent loans?”

Cause it’s a drain on their cash flow: the biggest problem is the drain on the cash flow itself. (Certain types of) loans have a place, and all the other loans have a place, but if their cash flow is having a direct debit [inaudible 00:13:17] on a daily or weekly basis, and it’s P and I, it’s essentially a significant drain on their cash flow, which causes them to have difficulties repaying other people.

So, it’s got to be very much a case that if someone’s got a million dollar turnover, they go and get a 50,000 dollar loan, and they look at their cash flow and go, “Yup, look, I can afford that.” Well, then fine. But not someone who’s turning over 150,000 and go and gets a 50K loan, and has to pay it back in six to 12 months, their cash flow isn’t going to sustain it.

Finding the capital to kick-start your business – invoice financing

Starting a small business can be one of the most exhilarating experiences a person can undertake, which is in part due to the risks and challenges that stand before you. Once you’ve made the decision to tackle the challenge and begin your journey, it becomes quite urgent for you to be able to get your hands on a lot of capital. Unfortunately, not many people share the same enthusiasm that you have with your business and won’t be eager to hand over their funds to help you out. But why is it easier for big businesses to receive massive loans, whilst your smaller loan is mulled over by the big banks?

Bigger businesses are less likely to fail

How has a business grown big? By being successful. Successful businesses generally equal a healthy cash flow. With clear profit results, it’s a lot easier to convince a bank to lend you money. It’s like going to a horse race and having an untried two-year-old take on the defending champ. If you were a gambler, you would go with the tried and tested choice. At the end of the day, as exciting as a new talent is, potential doesn’t mean bills will be paid on time.

Fixed Cost

One of the problems that is completely out of your hands is the cost associated with a loan. Some of the costs are the same, whether you are borrowing a hundred thousand or a million dollars. Because of this, obviously a bank’s margin will be higher on the larger loan. This one is completely out of your hands, and we wouldn’t recommend you borrow more just to appease your bank.

Expensive evaluation

It is much harder to obtain a small business’s records for analysis. This could be because they haven’t been well kept, aren’t available to the public or aren’t exceptionally flattering. Without a certain degree of transparency, you are again deemed to be an excessive risk, simply because the money lender doesn’t know what it’s getting itself into. This factor you can control, but it may not help you if the numbers aren’t on your side either.

Even if you do manage to secure a loan, the process is nowhere near as quick as a larger competitor. This is why more and more small businesses are looking to marketplace lending, peer to peer lending or debt crowdfunding as their new solution.

Leveraging invoice financing to fuel business growth

Cash flow can make or break a small business. You don’t have hundreds of other customers to fall back on to pay their invoice and get you out of a tight spot. You need all of your customers to be pulling their weight, and paying their invoices as they become due. That’s in an ideal world, and more often than not, the business world is not ideal. You have to be ahead of the game and think outside of the box to get your hands on your hard earned money to grow to your full potential. This is where debtor or invoice financing comes into its’ own.

You can rely on your sales

Big businesses gain their security through their assets. Their multimillion dollar property would be the most obvious example. You don’t have that (yet) so your sales really are the life blood of your business. Relying on your own hard work, rather than a non-current asset will grow your business at the appropriate rate for you.

Your business grows with you

When businesses survive the initial startup, they can fail in the growth stage. Success can allow a bank to lend you too much money, which can prove to be too much of a temptation for some. Invoice financing controls the growth at which you are expanding. You don’t have to predict growth; you can only expand as your bank account does. Invoice financing is a much safer option; especially if this is the first time you’ve created a startup. Invoice financing doesn’t mean you have to give away your customers. Your customers will realise that you are funding your business and still you as the supplier. A good invoice financing solution will result in improved customer relations as there is more communication with them by you and the invoice financing solution provider.

You don’t have to offer discounts

A strategy many businesses utilise to guarantee early payment is a discount. You are essentially underselling your product in exchange for an earlier return. With debtor financing or invoice financing, you’re guaranteed the cash flow, and can now afford yourself the luxury of time to receive full payment. This way you are not undervaluing yourself, and receiving the full payment which is rightfully yours.

Personal relief

This one is possibly the reason that will allow you to sleep a lot easier at night. Your personal property won’t have to be used to help finance your tougher times. If you’ve had an exceptionally busy month, which will take a few months to recover all of your payments, two months can be a very long time for your business to live on promises. Instead of having to delve into your own pockets, your invoice financing will leap to your rescue, and ensure you live to fight another day.

Don’t go for a quick solution

When you start looking for invoice or debtor financing, what you are essentially seeking is someone to buy your invoices with ease, without administration hurdles and most importantly at a competitive price. You may find that there are many different solutions that may look cheap at the time of offering, but when you take into account service fees, selection criteria and the short-term nature of their financing, you will find there are only a few offerings that make sense. What makes marketplace lending or peer to peer lending solution of debtor or invoice financing attractive is that you set the term, the rate you are willing to pay and also there are no hidden fees. Your investors are your peers, not some large multinational that may leave you when the times change or they have a restructure or strategy rethink. With marketplace lending you get to say these are my terms and invest now to take advantage of a great opportunity, not what are your terms and can you please lend. More importantly, marketplace lending sets you up for the future because you build an investor base that supports you in your business.

Administration

The biggest downfall of many small businesses is that when they start out, they have only a few people doing tasks or they do it all themselves, but as they grow the administration tasks expand and leave these people bogged down with administration tasks. This is where Marketlend, a well establish marketplace lender also known as a peer to peer lender, not only assists you with the improved cashflow with debtor financing or invoice financing, but also handles all the collections, payments and legal processes.

For more information check out  Marketlend  or call them on 0280066798.

Why P2P facilitators have to have ‘skin in the game’

An un-named regional bank made an unusual statement in an article I read recently;

“Depositors lend them the money, not the individuals.”

 

In my opinion, the comment seems naïve, as I cannot possibly imagine that the majority of depositors see that they are the lenders themselves. The GFC demonstrated that many well-known banks had used depositors’ money to invest into assets that were considerably riskier than what the depositors believed.

 

Many have misconstrued the original concept of P2P lending. In essence, P2P lending is the idea that one party acts as a lender to a stranger, using the facilitators’ guarantee and research as a risk indicator. In contrast, if you are putting money into a fund, a managed investment scheme or debenture scheme, you are not lending to a peer, but you are investing in the facilitator.

 

P2P lending has been a hot topic recently, but it isn’t very clear what the P2P facilitators have invested themselves. By invested, I’m referring to the loss position that they take in the event of a failure of the loan.

 

In a recent interview, the interviewer stated that he believed that a P2P facilitator is unaffected by a recession because they are merely a service provider, not an investor. I corrected him; Marketlend always invests with the investor and takes a first-loss position.

 

It has been proven, over and over again, that a debt facilitator that has their own personal investment within the debts offered, has a lot more tenancy to ensure the realisation or return of those assets in a time of crisis. I refer to this as “skin in the game”.

 

I find that many investors aren’t aware of this, until a crisis occurs. It’s important to draw the fine line between what is and what isn’t having “skin in the game”.

 

Investments into their own personal businesses and provision funds withheld from the borrower, isn’t having “skin in the game”. “Skin in the game” is demonstrating that they have full confidence in the borrower, by using their own money to fund a part of the loan.

 

So when you’re looking at a peer-to-peer investment,  the question you’ll need to ask yourself is:

“What skin in the game does the peer-to-peer lender have?”

 

Many P2P facilitators describe their “loss provision”. It is a very vague and undefined term, thrown around by the facilitator’s marketing consultants. As an investor, don’t be afraid to ask the following questions.

 

How are the loss provision funds obtained, and what is the source of this money? If it’s from the borrower, is it the same money you gave to the borrower? If it is from the margin to be paid to the P2P facilitator, is it a cost that is being added to you? If so, then it is again, your money.

 

P2P lending is lucrative; it is new and exciting. But like anything, make sure you aren’t exposed as an investor. It is very easy to fall into the trap of investing with the facilitator who has the fastest processing time, especially when the economy is doing well.  However you must make sure you research each facilitator and ensure that that they have a loss protection program available.

 

At Marketlend, we invest in every loan and also offer insurance protection to investors if they choose.

 

Every loan has paid on time, and an average of 12% loss protection has been provided on each loan.

The Greek Economic Crisis and Peer to Peer Lending

Commentary
The Greek Economic Crisis:
Greece has experienced a tremendous amount of attention, after the strenuous and frustrating months of negotiation between creditors and the Greek Government have come to a crescendo.
Creditors had given Greece another opportunity for a bailout, under the provision that strict austerity must be practiced. Alternatively, Greece could vote ‘no’ to these provisions, and default on these loans.
The Greek Government put its decision to a referendum. One side, led by the opposition leader, was ‘Yes’, we will adopt austerity and accept the bail-out, and on the other, campaigned heavily by the Greek Prime Minister, was ‘no’, which risks default and exit from the euro-zone.
From the moment that the votes were rallied, and a resounding majority voted ‘no’, Greece had stepped into uncharted, yet dangerous waters. It has an opportunity to create history, and hold its own destiny in its hands, a dangerous, yet empowering situation.
Businesses and institutions are struggling to manage, as imports become increasingly harder to obtain, the entire country is strapped for cash, and more importantly the political effects of default will soon resonate throughout the euro-zone, potentially leading to Greek exit. This has led to shockwaves in the world economy, as the Australian dollar fell to a six-year low, and almost all major economies were negatively affected.
Investors have a big question mark over their heads. What does this mean for them? The Greek Economic crisis highlights the importance of independence and information in investing. Investors should know where their money is going, and it is very easy to lose sight of this idea when you are investing.
Peer to peer lending platforms, like MarketLend, and other P2P lending hubs show the importance of this idea. Banks, Governments and Politicians are not always secure, typically not transparent and it is the unknown that seems to surprise us.
Statements we are hearing from super fund participants are “I didn’t know my fund was at risk, or took risks in countries where I would not invest”. To a lot of those funds, the answer is simply it is all interconnected. But how do you know?”
Investing and transparency should go hand in hand, so that you can invest knowing the risks. It’s in situations like these, it comes to be known that directly investing is favourable because you can know your risk. Peer to peer lending offers such investments.

Demand for Working Capital Business Loans is staggering – 7.1M listed within weeks, with another 1M in pipeline

The obvious need for working capital business loans in Australia is evidenced by recent demand from the newly launched only Australian business peer to peer lender, Marketlend.

Within a month, Marketlend has  7.1 Million loans listed on the marketplace from borrowers with strong credit and significant asset positions, and another 1.2Million in the pipeline. It is obvious that the need for working capital business loans is not filled by the major banks, or corporate credit providers.

The borrowers are strong corporates who seek to improve their bargaining power with suppliers or consolidate debts that are charged at rates in excess of 20%.  Without the security of property collateral, competing products to Marketlend are corporate cards or expensive factoring solutions that are limited by high interest rates or limit to the lending amount.

Investors – Self Managed Super funds and others

With a burgeoning Australian self managed superannuation market looking for yield, it is a no brainer for these investors. Marketlend provide a stringent credit and rating process, and offer investors net returns between 10-14% dependent on the risk. A personal property security interest is created over the supplies and the business, complimented by director’s guarantees. This is fully transparent and accessible to the investor.

For the borrower the ease of an application process that takes less than 10 minutes to complete, with approval and listing within 1 hour, there are few competitors in this space.

“These are borrowers  have bank facilities, and strong credit performance but seek for an alternative for their working capital that offers transparency, speed, reduced finance and administration costs. We return to the borrower the ability to bargain with its suppliers by paying them overnight, and to the investor, a strong yield that is stable and easy to collect” Leo Tyndall, Founder of Marketlend.

Marketlend offers a new solution to Institutional Investors

In December 2014, Marketlend launched in Australia, and has begun to build a pipeline of business loans. Using securitisation methodology and developed software tested in the UK market, it is set up for economies of scale.

Offering business borrowers direct access to investors is its theme, and it offers a safe and transparent investment environment to the investor.

Marketlend purchases the subordinated debt, the first loss piece, and offers a hands on solution for the matchmaking of borrowers and lenders.

For institutional investors to acquire small business loans, working capital and commercial property loans originated by Marketlend, Marketlend offers a tool called “Invest Now”.

At Marketlend, large institutions can create an account and have their own trust that purchases securitized loan or a loan package in the form of bonds from Marketlend on an automated basis, using the Invest Now option and receive monthly or daily principal and interest payments.

CEO and Founder, Leo Tyndall says:

“Marketlend has designed a system that reviews the eligibility criteria of the investor and randomly selects the loans or parts thereof that are to be financed through the marketplace “

“This solution also offers surety in funding, and quicker turn around times for borrowers”

“it revolves around diversity and spread of the risk, each investor is issued bonds where underlying security is the loan. The loan is in its own trust and has its own independent trustee and security trustee.”

Unlike Society One, RateSetter and upcoming startup Money Place, Marketlend only lends to small businesses and believes its loans are most used for growth purposes as opposed to debt consolidation or for personal reasons.

Marketlend enables institutional investors to provide warehouse lines.

Loans are priced based on the risk grade and a bidding process by the investors, after a range relevant to the risk is set by Marketlend. The risk grade is determined using the company’s proprietary credit-scoring tool that analyses large volumes of publicly available data and individual factors to evaluate the credit risk.

Five Peer to Peer Lending Predictions for 2015

Five Peer to Peer Lending Predictions for 2015 – Lend Academy http://bit.ly/1zS5ziN