Insights
How lenders actually read a business.
Worked examples on borrowing capacity, add-backs, forecasts and the fine print, written from the credit side of the desk.
4 articles
25 October 2026 · 7 min read
A balloon is not a discount
When a residual is the right call, when it bites, and the number nobody puts on the quote. What to ask before you sign a deal built around one.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 8 min readPaying an overseas equipment supplier
The machine is built to order, the factory wants money before it starts, and it is on a ship for six weeks. Here is how that gap is normally bridged, and what each structure costs you.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 8 min readTwo offers, and the answer flips
One at 8.5%, one at 7.9%, and which costs less depends on a number only you can supply. Where the answer changes, the rate nobody can quote you, and the one rule that has nothing to do with money.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 7 min readWhy a lender values your equipment at half what you think
You know what the machine is worth because you have seen what they sell for. A credit team is working from a different number entirely, and there are three of them.Read the article →8 articles
25 October 2026 · 9 min read
Profit First in Australia: does it survive BAS?
The method was written for a market with no GST. Applied here unchanged, it allocates a share of money you are holding for the ATO. It survives, with two deductions off the top first.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 11 min readSimple Numbers review: are you really making a profit?
Greg Crabtree's four numbers, read from an Australian lending desk. One of the four ideas is the most valuable thing an owner can be told. Two of the thresholds do not transfer, and we will show you why.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 9 min readThe cash conversion cycle, with an Australian example
Ninety-one days between paying for something and being paid for it, on a business making $165,000 of profit and losing cash. Here is where the money is, and what one day of it is worth.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 9 min readThe Power of One: the cash flow framework banks wish every borrower knew
Seven levers, one per cent each, and what it does to profit and cash. It is the best of the popular frameworks at the thing it does, and there is one column it does not have.Read the article →19 October 2026 · 8 min readYour overdraft is not costing you 8%
An 8% facility that costs 31% once the fees land, and why that can still be the right product to use. Three questions worth putting to any working capital lender before you sign.Read the article →5 October 2026 · 9 min readWhy growing faster makes the cash worse
A business can be profitable on every line and still run dry, and growing quickly is what does it. Where the money actually goes, the two numbers that tell you how long you can keep it up, and what a credit team makes of them.Read the article →21 September 2026 · 9 min readRefinancing business debt: what the numbers show
What actually changes when business debt is refinanced, what it costs to move, and how to read the two positions side by side. We show the positions. We do not tell you to switch.Read the article →26 July 2026 · 8 min readHow to prepare a cash flow forecast for a bank
The 12-month cashflow forecast is the first thing a credit assessor opens. What it needs to contain, how to make the assumptions defensible, and the traps that sink credibility.Read the article →12 articles
25 October 2026 · 7 min read
What a lender will ask you for
The information request is not a formality and it is not the same for everyone. What gets asked depends on how long you have traded and how much you want, and having it ready is worth more than most people realise.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 10 min readWhat buyers actually pay up for
Not the things owners spend the last year polishing. Six things move a buyer, four of them cost nothing to fix, and none of them is the thing you are worried about.Read the article →7 September 2026 · 8 min readWhat DSCR do lenders actually want?
The commonly seen range, why the same deal produces three different ratios depending on who calculates it, and what to do when yours lands just under the line.Read the article →24 August 2026 · 11 min readHow much can a business actually borrow?
Not what a calculator says, and not a multiple of turnover. A worked walkthrough of how a commercial credit team sizes a facility, from adjusted earnings through the assessment rate to the covenant that actually binds.Read the article →15 August 2026 · 11 min readFinancing your next franchise location
The second store is a different lending conversation to the first, and most franchisees walk into it expecting the opposite. What gets funded, what accreditation is worth, why the loan term is capped by your franchise agreement, and what a credit team reads on a multi-unit file.Read the article →12 August 2026 · 10 min readBuilding wealth by buying businesses in Australia
Buying businesses can build real wealth, and it is not a passive strategy. Where the return actually comes from, how buyers fund the second one, and the honest version of the risks.Read the article →8 August 2026 · 9 min readExpand, or stay the size you are?
Growth is a numbers decision before it is anything else. What a second site, a fleet step-up or a bigger contract actually does to your cash, your covenants and your capacity, and the questions worth answering before you commit.Read the article →30 July 2026 · 10 min readLeaving corporate to buy a business: what nobody tells you first
You can run a P&L, manage a team and read a board pack. None of that is the skill that decides whether you buy well. What the transition actually demands, and the four things that catch corporate buyers out.Read the article →27 July 2026 · 9 min readIs buying a business worth it?
Sometimes. Buying an established business is worth it when the earnings are real, the price is built on tested numbers and the structure protects you. An honest look at both sides of the decision, with the arithmetic.Read the article →26 July 2026 · 9 min readAdd-backs: which ones are real and which ones are not
Every small-business sale price is built on adjusted earnings, and adjusted earnings are built on add-backs. A worked schedule showing which claims survive scrutiny and which quietly inflate the price.Read the article →26 July 2026 · 9 min readHow to get a loan to buy a business in Australia
What lenders actually assess, the documents that decide the outcome, why good deals get declined, and how to walk in with a case a credit team can approve.Read the article →26 July 2026 · 8 min readHow to write a business plan for a bank loan
Banks do not read business plans the way investors do. Here is what a credit assessor actually looks for, section by section, and the mistakes that get plans set aside.Read the article →3 articles
25 October 2026 · 8 min read
The lease that breaks your covenant
You signed a lease, not a loan. Under the accounting standards most of it lands on your balance sheet as debt anyway, and the first year hits your profit harder than the cash does.Read the article →25 October 2026 · 8 min readWhat lenders actually lend against
The same borrower, the same business, the same bank, and an advance rate that runs from half to nearly all of the purchase price depending on what is being bought. Here is the pattern behind it.Read the article →4 August 2026 · 9 min readOwn or rent your business premises?
Your landlord has offered to sell you the building. The rent stops being an expense and starts being debt service, and your borrowing capacity moves in two directions at once. How to work out whether it helps.Read the article →Bring the numbers you have. You'll leave with a clear answer and a fee in writing.