We spoke to Managing Directors Dan Smith and Steve Barrett to find out about how 2023 has gone for SWBF.
We have been able to support many of our existing clients and new clients with their lending applications and structures providing vital support and cashflow during the challenging times. Overall, we have sourced over £120 million worth of lending and we are extremely proud of the Team’s tenacity to search the market and find solutions in a tricky lending landscape. Our commitment to serve the SME community and find the best possible funding options for our clients and our values of family, trust, experience and relationships have remained constant throughout as we strive to be the trusted partner for our clients and support them on their business journey.
This year we also celebrated 9 years in business and welcomed 4 more Partners to the Team. We also ran a number of events in Bath including a Networking Lunch with Amy Williams and Nigel Redman and an Economic Briefing Seminar with Mark Berrisford-Smith.
In 2023 we have completed a number of fundraising events for our fantastic charity partner the Youth Adventure Trust, including; a Quiz Night, the Virtual Resilience Challenge, the Dartmoor Ten Tours, a Charity Golf Day and the Three Peaks Challenge. We are so delighted to confirm that we have raised over £18,000 this year across these events. We cannot thank everyone who has supported us and donated to the charity enough and knowing we were raising funds for such a worthwhile cause really kept us going through some of the more gruelling challenges, (especially the Three Peaks!)
This year has probably been one of our most challenging yet with a context of rising energy prices, interest rates, inflation and uncertainty. We continue to support our clients through this changing landscape and will always look at how best to support them and help them to respond to this rising cost and uncertain environment.
We are happy to have a chat with any business owner, property investor or developer to give our thoughts on the lending landscape or how best to source finance or structure lending to get the best result with these changing factors. We have access to over 200 lenders in the market place and pride ourselves on our knowledge of the market and ability to find solutions for our clients, whether that be from business loans to support cashflow to commercial deals to property investment and development transactions.
Our advice for 2024 would be to please get in touch if you would like some advice or to chat anything through, it is much easier to have a look at the whole picture of your business structure and lending to be able to provide solutions and suggestions, then we can get on with finding out the answers while you run your business. Our biggest learnings revolve around preparation and business resilience, always trying to stay one step ahead of the competition and be agile enough to respond to any changes in the economic landscape. Our advice to our clients would always be to plan ahead, understand your business funding structures and what you need in place to best achieve your goals.
2024 will mark our 10 Year Anniversary so watch this space for updates on challenges we will be undertaking for Charity and a Summer Celebration!
We are looking forward to working with any client in 2024; helping them achieve their financial goals is very rewarding and is what makes us come to work every day!
We would like to thank all our Partners, Introducers, Lenders and Clients for their support in 2023 and we look forward to working with you all in 2024!