# Levelhead Business Advisors

> Business finance broking and advisory for SMEs and corporates in Sydney, Newcastle and Australia-wide. Led by Nicholas (Nick) Clunes, a former business banker. Finance across 60+ lenders, with cashflow forecasts, business plans and credit papers built in-house. No tax or audit work.

Finance is arranged through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd (Credit Representative 538291); Nicholas Clunes is Credit Representative 530711; both authorised under Australian Credit Licence 387856. Content is general information, not credit or financial product advice.

## Finance

- [Business finance overview](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance): the five stages, from equipment to property outside the business.
- [Equipment and asset finance](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance/equipment-finance): Income-producing equipment should pay for itself. We structure the term, balloon and lender so repayments fit your cashflow, and leave room for what you will need next.
- [Cashflow finance](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance/cashflow-finance): Growth uses cash before it makes it. We size working capital to your real debtor and creditor cycle, so a big contract or a slow month doesn't become a crisis.
- [Growth and acquisition finance](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance/growth-and-acquisition-finance): Expansion is where many businesses are under-assessed. We show a lender what the combined business will look like, with the add-backs and projections that support it.
- [Commercial property finance](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance/commercial-property-finance): For a profitable business, the rent cheque is often the clearest case for buying. We model rent against ownership, settle the structure with your accountant, and finance it across 60+ lenders.
- [Property outside the business](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/finance/property-outside-the-business): Strong trading is the time to build assets in your own name. We look at business and personal borrowing together, so each property is planned against the next.

## Business services

- [Business services and fees](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/services): Business finance review, Cashflow forecasts & projections, Business plans, Credit papers & lender submissions, Debt capacity & covenant advice, and Levelhead Partner (a finance retainer).
- [Levelhead Partner](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/partner): the funding side of a CFO, on call. A monthly retainer, tailored to each business and quoted in writing.
- [Submission pack pricing](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/services#pricing): fixed fees for lender submission packs.

## Due diligence

- [Financial due diligence](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/due-diligence): Levelhead does not perform due diligence; buyers are introduced to Kate Groom, business adviser and franchise specialist. No referral fee is paid.

## Client stories

- [All client stories](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories): fourteen anonymised matters.
- [The self storage deal the bank said would not service](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/self-storage-acquisition): An additional $3m in lending approved.
- [The vet practice capped at $3.0m](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/vet-practice-capacity): Capacity lifted to $6.5m.
- [The franchisee turned away from a bigger site](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/franchise-second-site): The finance approved, fully funded. The larger site secured.
- [The buyer from overseas, declined first go](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/overseas-buyer-franchise): Approved by a major bank, on strong terms.
- [The 50 year old business, 100% financed](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/prestige-sydney-acquisition): Secured, 100% financed through a major bank at competitive rates and structure.
- [The carwash, and the 12 month deadline](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/carwash-broker-referral): A major bank approved a facility just under $1m over 15 years, not 12 months.
- [The landscaper with 11 months on the books](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/landscaper-eleven-months): Approved through a major bank, fully funded.
- [The restaurant franchise nobody wanted to fund](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/central-coast-restaurant-franchise): Approved, and the site acquired.
- [Declined twice. Then $1.5m of equity in nine months.](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/industrial-value-add-brisbane): Over $1.5m of equity uplift in nine months.
- [The bank said no. The asset shows a projected 55% IRR.](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/cbd-retail-centre-brisbane): A projected 55% IRR, business balance sheet left intact.
- [A $20m deal, funded by the client's own bank.](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/activity-centre-melbourne-own-bank): Funded by the client's own bank on a projected 181% five-year ROI.
- [The file that unlocked a $9.28m portfolio.](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/industrial-portfolio-own-bank): Funded by the client's own bank on a rental-reversion story a generalist file would have buried.
- [$1m of equity on day one.](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/off-market-industrial-day-one-equity): $1m of equity before the first rent cheque, on a projected 32.2% IRR.
- [The one where the answer was no](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/client-stories/when-the-answer-is-no): A clear, documented no within days. The fee was the same as a yes.

## Insights

- [All insights](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights): articles on business lending, written from the credit side of the desk.
- [A balloon is not a discount](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/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.
- [Paying an overseas equipment supplier](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/paying-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.
- [Profit First in Australia: does it survive BAS?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/profit-first-in-australia): 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.
- [Simple Numbers review: are you really making a profit?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/simple-numbers-review): 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.
- [The cash conversion cycle, with an Australian example](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/cash-conversion-cycle-explained): 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.
- [The lease that breaks your covenant](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/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.
- [The Power of One: the cash flow framework banks wish every borrower knew](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/power-of-one-cash-flow-framework): 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.
- [Two offers, and the answer flips](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/the-cheapest-rate-is-rarely-the-cheapest-deal): 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.
- [What a lender will ask you for](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/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.
- [What buyers actually pay up for](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/what-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.
- [What lenders actually lend against](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/what-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.
- [Why a lender values your equipment at half what you think](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/why-a-lender-values-your-equipment-at-half): 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.
- [Your overdraft is not costing you 8%](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/your-overdraft-is-not-costing-you-8-percent): 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.
- [Why growing faster makes the cash worse](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/why-a-profitable-business-runs-out-of-money): 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.
- [Refinancing business debt: what the numbers show](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/refinancing-business-debt): 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.
- [What DSCR do lenders actually want?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/what-dscr-do-lenders-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.
- [How much can a business actually borrow?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/how-much-can-a-business-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.
- [Financing your next franchise location](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/financing-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.
- [Building wealth by buying businesses in Australia](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/building-wealth-buying-businesses-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.
- [Expand, or stay the size you are?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/should-you-expand-or-not): 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.
- [Own or rent your business premises?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/own-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.
- [Leaving corporate to buy a business: what nobody tells you first](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/leaving-corporate-to-buy-a-business): 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.
- [Is buying a business worth it?](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/is-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.
- [Add-backs: which ones are real and which ones are not](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/add-backs-which-ones-are-real): 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.
- [How to get a loan to buy a business in Australia](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/how-to-get-a-loan-to-buy-a-business): 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.
- [How to prepare a cash flow forecast for a bank](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/how-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.
- [How to write a business plan for a bank loan](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/insights/how-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.

## About

- [About Nick Clunes and Levelhead](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/about): background, recognition and qualifications.
- [Contact](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/contact)
- [Full text for AI assistants](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/llms-full.txt)

## Legal

- [Disclosures](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/disclosures): credit authorisation, how we are paid, scope of advice.
- [Privacy policy](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/privacy)
- [Terms of engagement](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/terms)
- [Complaints](https://levelheadadvisory.com.au/complaints): internal process and AFCA.

## Contact

- Book a call: https://calendly.com/nickclunesbroker/financial-due-diligence-meeting
- Phone: 0480 521 605
- Email: nick@levelheadadvisory.com.au
- Office (in-person appointments): Level 3, 116 Military Road, Neutral Bay NSW 2089
- Post: PO Box 308, Neutral Bay NSW 2089