While there is no doubt that we continue to be in a universally challenging environment, what we as a finance adviser are seeing as a common factor amongst successful and thriving customers is their attitude. This is because behind every cloud is a silver lining and “silver linings” often are mostly about attitude and a willingness to see opportunity, and to act.

For Finance New Zealand, September 2022 represented our largest month ever both in terms of lending volume and number of individual transactions facilitated for our clients. So despite market challenges, we are still seeing plenty of our customers moving up positively, seizing opportunities and needing funding support to act.

Some common observations from our team are that irrespective of industry sector, the key components for success are the following:

• An ability to embrace change and develop strategies to adapt and pivot, and, where appropriate, in a new direction. Businesses that we work with in the rural sector continue to adapt rapidly in the face of adverse climatic events, environmental pressures, increases in the cost of doing business, increased regulation and taxation, and staffing issues. Despite all these pressures, we are seeing plenty of investment in the future from the sector, with farmers and related support sectors, such as rural transport, rural contracting and other related suppliers, adopting a more mechanised approach to offset workforce shortages and increase efficiency.
• Diversification in their business so that they are not overly exposed to one market, one customer, one supplier, a key staff member or one funder, or any area where there is a singular concentrated risk. Diversity enables businesses to weather challenging times much more effectively and remain sustainable. One key part of our value proposition is to work with clients to ensure that there is diversity in the funding options available so that one funder does not overly control your business or its assets. As the banks and finance companies change their relative appetite for business or competitiveness in the market, we can adapt to where we place our clients’ funding.
• Good business discipline means good control over costs, a keen awareness of cashflow and good business governance. This is critical to being “bankable” and funders now expect high-quality, accurate, and up-to-date financial information to be readily available when making lending assessments. We’ve previously talked about the two key areas here being financial performance and how well your business is run and organised. Click here for more details.
• A clear value proposition (or point of difference) that is well understood by all those in the business as well as their Customers. This should ideally be a sustainable difference that provides some meaningful value to your Customers and sets you apart from your competition.
• Investment in the future goes beyond the purchasing of new capital equipment. It also includes investment in appropriate business infrastructure, technology, and staff. With items of capital equipment now generally having higher replacement costs, your Finance New Zealand Adviser can work with you to consider funding assets for a longer term (in line with its estimated productive useful life) in order to make the payments lower and promote better cash flow. Some Customers are electing to run their assets for longer and where this might require expensive rebuilds or refurbishments, if there is equity in the asset, then there may be an opportunity to fund any work required to extend the asset’s life.

At Finance New Zealand, we are proud to support our clients to meet their business and personal goals, and to move up positively in life. We have the expertise in our Advisers to work alongside you and determine which of our diverse panel of funders might be of use to you as you look beyond the current cloud to find your silver lining.