Spartan Has Financing That Is Designed For Your Business The SME landscape is fast and flexible. It requires financing that understands how entrepreneurial businesses operate. Through its unique processes and assessments, Spartan's finance solutions are geared to do just that.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur South Africa, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
It takes an entrepreneur to know entrepreneurs, which is why Kumaran Padayachee and his team at Spartan are dedicated to financially backing an often under-serviced sector: SMEs.
"We're fast, we're flexible, and we're understanding," says Kumaran. "Every single person who works here is SME-centric. We hire for fit, looking for empathy and alignment in every position. All of our processes and assessments are done with empathy and understanding towards SMEs."
Becoming funding ready
Thanks to these systems, processes and the team's unique way of assessing SMEs, Spartan typically grants finance within seven days, although the fastest approval has been six hours, with the longest 15 days.
"How quickly we can approve finance is determined by how prepared the business owner is," explains Kumaran.
"Do they have all their basic documentation ready? These include financials, management accounts, debtors age analysis and creditors age analysis. From a working capital context, this information makes it easy to assess the health of the business. Every business owner and financial director should be on top of these figures."
Finding a funding fit
Not every business needs funding. Some can grow organically and draw on their own cash reserves. Others choose an equity route.
Spartan is a debt funder. However, even as a debt funder, the team's aim is to back entrepreneurs and help them grow their businesses. They evaluate what the finance will be used for, and if the return is greater than the repayments.
"There are numerous ways that finance can be applied incorrectly by SMEs," says Kumaran. "One of the first flags we look for is debtors age. If the industry norm is payment in 30 days, but a business is typically paid by its clients in 60 or 120 days, then we know there is something wrong with their internal processes. Either the company is too shy to be assertive with clients, or it lacks the capacity or capability to invoice clients and collect cash efficiently. Either way, the result is a shortage of cash.
"Business owners in this situation apply for a loan in order to be able to pay the bills, when they should be reviewing their own business, pulling one or two levers, and improving their cash flows.
"A customer project or contract is an example of an expansionary and positive need for finance. These cases are ideally suited to bridging finance. The problem is that there's a lead time gap. You need to start the project, spend cash to hire people or purchase equipment, build internal capacity, deliver on the project and then the customer only pays you. Working capital and bridging finance allows the entrepreneur to do just that, and the company grows as a result."
Bridging finance, in particular, is high risk and requires a large amount of flexibility, which is why more traditional funding institutions shy away from it. Spartan, on the other hand, offers revolving bridging loans to customers the team has worked with. "We understand this space, and our aim is to support the entrepreneurs within it," Kumaran concludes.
Alternative finance solutions
Spartan is a 36-year-old Non-Bank Finance Company — that specialises in financing Small and Mid-sized businesses by providing:
- Growth Finance [structured finance for expansion]
- Specialised Asset Finance [equipment/machinery/technology/software/office fit-outs/energy/etc.]
- Working Capital Finance [bridging finance & medium term loans].
Bridging Finance
Bridging Finance is available for one to three month terms and is ideal for contract or project-based businesses. It is a solution that assists businesses with solving cash flow issues due to growth related challenges in their business and is either for a once-off need or for revolving business use.
Spartan is an Authorised Financial Services Provider 47631 and Registered Credit Provider NCRCP8669.
