Q&A with BCRS introducer Tom Wilkinson, Director, Beta Commercial Finance
In its mission to support all viable businesses, BCRS Business Loans works with a number of partners and introducers to widen its reach.
We caught up with Tom Wilkinson, Director of Beta Commercial Finance, to find out how he works in partnership with BCRS Business Loans to refer businesses in need of funding.
Beta Commercial Finance is an independent commercial finance broker and finance services intermediary. It helps businesses through the process of applying for and obtaining finance, finding funding solutions tailormade to individual requirements.
For more information on how BCRS works with introducers, please visit our Llwynwyr webpage.
How does Beta Commercial Finance work with BCRS?
We have a close relationship with BCRS, taking the same analytic view of a client’s circumstances to ensure they have the best possible chance of achieving the business loan products that BCRS have to offer.
Working together we seek to gather and analyse information to really understand the client, what is happening in their business, identify risks and what they are looking to achieve, and then bring this information together in the most positive way to obtain the required finance for them.
How does Beta Commercial Finance support businesses that are struggling to get funding from mainstream lenders?
Every business is different: from their sector to their financial performance, management team, growth strategy, credit risk profile and future plans.
Beta seeks to thoroughly understand all of this in great detail, and where there is a factor that prevents a business getting the finance required from a mainstream lender, we then submit their case to a lender that can take a more subjective view on the reasons they have been unsuccessful with their finance application elsewhere.
BCRS require a detailed understanding of every business, and we gather and present all the information that they require to ensure they have the level of detail to make an informed decision on how they can support with the application.
What do you like about working with BCRS?
If there is an element of risk with an application, perhaps a loss made in recent years, or an issue raised on a credit search, rather than decline the client in the first instance they seek to understand the reasons behind these factors and where possible mitigate the risk.
It is the level of understanding they have for how businesses operate and factors affecting them, perhaps outside of their control, that makes BCRS different.
Providing there are justifiable reasons for some of these factors they can very often mitigate these risks and deliver a positive outcome for the clients we present to them.
They are also very hands on with very experienced business development managers that have the experience and knowledge to really understand the businesses they support.
They meet with every client face to face to build a close relationship, and also ensure they maintain a close working relationship with us as the broker, which really assists the application to move forward quickly and effectively.
What successes have you had with BCRS?
BCRS supported us with eight of our clients in 2024, which range from a landscaping contracting business looking to grow their company to a relocating wedding dress maker.
Both businesses required additional support as their banks could not support them with their lending requests. BCRS were able to overlook the reasons for these initial declines and see the positives in both businesses, being able to provide not only the finance required but at the amounts originally requested.
Why would you recommend that a business works with a community lender like BCRS?
BCRS operate a traditional relationship model in the way that they look after their clients and assess cases, ensuring face-to-face contact and gathering a good level of detail to really ensure they understand the particular business and finance application they are considering.
Despite not being a traditional lender, they can turn things around quickly, which is a great benefit to clients.
Their key differentiator is their communication, analytical approach and genuine desire to help businesses within their area to grow and create jobs across a range of sectors.
