New Brokerplan Academy Website Launches!

New Brokerplan Academy Website Launches! Brokerplan are thrilled to announce that we have launched our new and improved Academy website! The launch reflects the expansion of our partner packages, which were developed and launched late last year in response to growing demand for these services. We are now able to offer packages covering an even wider range of financial services including: Commercial Mortgages Cashflow Solutions and Business Loans Asset & Invoice Finance Residential and Buy-to-Let Mortgages Insurances and Protection Services Wills, Trusts and Estate Planning NEW Autolease – Car and Van Leasing NEW R&D Tax Reclaims NEW Superbroker Packages   After a successful roll out of the new packages to our existing network we are now promoting these to new partners and franchisees – Please submit an enquiry or contact form to receive further information from our business development team. All packages come with comprehensive training courses, which are consistently well commended by our partners: “The Brokerplan training has been such a fantastic and pleasant experience from start to finish, I really enjoyed it. The trainers conducted the 3-day course in a professional and easy to understand way from start to finish, providing us with the most valuable information and tools to get started in the commercial broking business with some brilliant tips thrown in. A massive thank you to everyone at Brokerplan for such valuable training and for just looking after us all the way through. The support has been amazing, and everything was delivered in a very warm and friendly manner.” Özgen H “The Brokerplan introductory training is an excellent way of getting a comprehensive overview of the commercial finance consultant role and products available to utilise. Although the range of content within training can be a lot to absorb, it also is constructive so that when you leave you have got a good step forward to starting the journey more confidently. It is also great way of meeting the key individuals within the Brokerplan team, who are all very supportive and keen to show that everyone will work together to achieve success.”   Richard S Click Here to book a call with our Business Development Team

Case Study – Birmingham Buy to Let Purchase

Case Study – Birmingham Buy to Let Purchase For this project, the client wanted to purchase a six-bedroomed HMO (house of multiple occupants) in their limited company. The Birmingham property has two kitchens and is spread over three floors, it needed to be valued ASAP as the agents had had have a lot of interest in this property. The loan required was £262,500 and the purchase price of the property was £352,500 The Brokerplan partner approached Precise Mortgages, who declined due to the property layout, then it was discussed with Fleet Mortgages who, due to COVID restriction, couldn’t guarantee when they would be able to get a valuer. The case was then discussed with Shawbrook Bank, who found the property acceptable and could instruct valuation quickly via their online system. The client was happy to proceed with Shawbrook Bank on this basis, as the interest rate was not his priority but speed in valuation. The Brokerplan Partner who successfully managed to close this deal earned £4,388.26 in net commission. This case displays the value of a commercial broker who understands the lending and criteria and funders who operate in this market. At Brokerplan we provide both initial business launch training and ongoing training and support to help facilitate and improve our Broker’s knowledge of current products and criteria to ensure they are able to find the best solutions for their clients.   To find out more about becoming a Commercial Finance Broker with Brokerplan you can email info@brokerplan.co.uk or call 0333 405 6666

Kickstarter Takeaways

Kickstarter Takeaways In my first two months working for Brokerplan Academy, I have picked up many new skills and developed my understanding of the Business and the various departments within. I have had great support from my colleagues who have pushed me when required and helped develop my skills by giving me new responsibilities and tasks. My role mainly consists of allocating deals to our R.M team, liaising with our Brokerplan network partners on enquiries, assisting the accounting team and general admin support. Through the execution of my daily tasks, I have built fantastic working relationships with my colleagues as well as our Brokerplan Academy network partners. My top takeaway from working at Brokerplan is my expanding knowledge of alternative business and property finance and traditional mortgages. This is something that I can use for the rest of my life and something that will benefit me greatly in the future, whether it be financing a car or buying my first home. In conclusion, after two months of working at Brokerplan Academy I have been made to feel extremely welcome and enjoyed every second of working here. I have the ambition and support from Brokerplan to help continue my career in the alternative finance and broking space and looking forward to seeing where the journey takes me.

£50k in 50 Days

£50k in 50 Days The commercial finance sector is renowned for generating eye-watering fees on single deals. Indeed, gross earnings of £100k+ are a regular feature, but of course, these deals are well sought after, and for those new to the industry difficult to land.  The majority of commercial brokers establish themselves by developing a pipeline of smaller cases to build regular income and hope to close the bigger deals as a bonus. With a strong enough deal flow, the revenue stream can pay significant dividends from multiple, smaller deals across various products as this news story illustrates. Brokerplan network partner Stuart Cruickshank, who runs Lochend Finance from an idyllic location west of Glasgow is an experienced finance professional who joined the network in August 2019. Stuart was one of those who were quick to identify and maximise the opportunity presented by the changing environment created by the COVID pandemic. Building on his early success since joining, Stuart recently completed on £50k gross commission in under 50 days. This demonstrates the value in a working as a proactive broker who drives deals forward using the commercial finance opportunity available through the Brokerplan Academy. The breadth and diversity of the deals, spanning a range of solutions, is evidence of the unparalleled lending panel available to the Brokerplan commercial network. Many of the loans were part of the government’s CBILS scheme, designed to provide SMEs with financial support during the pandemic. Being able to react positively in challenging times and keeping up to date with the latest products is essential in providing the best client advice which is exactly what Stuart has achieved. In doing so, he has generated an average £1000 per day for 50 days – a genuine win/win.. well done Stuart. New van for a furniture refurbishment business £15k on a 5-year Hire Purchase deal – £450 Purchase of £125k second-hand crane 3-year Hire Purchase (CBILS supported) – £3750 CBILS loan for professional services firm – £200k on a 5-year loan term – £4750 CBILS loan for IT firm – £187k on a 5-year term – £4441 Purchase of scaffolding for a business £30k 3-year Hire Purchase – £3000 Purchase of a used food trailer for a business £26,800 3-year Hire Purchase (CBILS Supported) – £798 Purchase of 2 nearly-new motorhomes for a motorhome rental business – £68,175 5-year Hire Purchase – £2727 Regulated bridging loan £129,500 for 6-month term – £3189 Property Development Loan £560k on a 12-month facility – £15149 Limited Company Buy-to-Let – £75,684 on a 5-year fixed rate – £1974 Purchase of 6 used campervans £95k 5-year Hire Purchase – £4750 CBILS Term Loan £150k – £2250 CBILS Term Loan £76,834 – £1806 Purchase of a Motorhome £20k – £1000 The gross commission generated by broking these deals totalled over £50,034 “I personally find having a mix of business works best for me. Having Asset Finance transactions that turn around quickly helps with cash flow as the property transaction can take a number of months. It also means that not all my eggs are not in one basket and I can be flexible and adapt to changing market conditions and customers’ needs.” Stuart Cruickshank Lochend Finance Lenders Brokerplan network partners have access to an unparalleled whole of market panel of over 300 lenders. A selection of the lenders providing funds in these cases include: Hampshire Trust Bank, Funding Circle, United Trust Bank, Praetura Finance and more… Lead Generation There are multiple ways in which finance brokers can generate leads, and relationship building is at the heart of almost every successfully closed deal. Leads for these cases came from a variety of sources, including: BNI networking meeting, repeat business, returning client, client’s IFA, LinkedIn, client’s architect, referral from another Broker, client’s accountant.  The Opportunity If you are interested in joining the 1 million professionals operating in the £132bn financial services sector, the Brokerplan Academy is an excellent place to learn the ropes. Want to learn more about Brokerplan? Call 0333 405 6666 | Or email info@brokerplan.co.uk 

£1.1M Saltburn Property Development Deal

£1.1M Saltburn Property Development Deal Brokerplan Network Partner Chris Cullen of Lunaria Finance has recently completed on a £1.1 million development loan for an experienced property developer – An amazing achievement! The client in this case had previously attempted to obtain a loan via their usual broker who, unfortunately, was unable to place the deal for them. After receiving a direct marketing communication from Chris, the client decided to give it another try, to see if Chris could secure them the funding needed to get the project off the ground. For this development, the client had carved off a piece of land – which was previously held on the same title as his private residence – And had secured planning permission to build 6 detached residential properties. They had experience developing properties but this project was the first that they were to be attempting themselves. This combined with the requirement of a charge against the client’s residential property meant that a specialist broker with knowledge of the market and lenders who were likely to consider this type of deal was needed to get the case funded. Chris presented the client’s requirements to 4 lenders and, after some discussion and consideration, eventually settled with Affirmative Finance who were comfortable with the client and their project. Affirmative Finance is a UK-based lender that specialises in short-term ‘bridging’ and property development finance and our contact Ian Harrison was invaluable in assessing and eventually getting this deal over the line for the client. Having previously attempted to obtain funding, the client had most of the information and documentation at hand to supply Chris and Affirmative with and so the application and processing was a relatively painless and smooth one. The client is currently looking at more development projects which may generate additional opportunities and revenue for all parties in the future!

3 Recent Partner Deals

3 Recent Partner Deals Previous Next Above are three recent partner deal summaries from some of our current network partners, scroll through to see basic deal details and commissions earned across a variety of product areas. Want to learn more about Brokerplan and how you can generate sizable commissions from brokering commercial finance to clients? Call 0333 405 6666 to find out more or book a call with our business development team here

Guest Blog – Ultimate Finance

Guest Blog – Ultimate Finance Ultimate Finance is a specialist asset-based lender that provides a wide range of flexible solutions to support the ambitions of UK businesses. Part of international private investment company Tavistock Group, Ultimate Finance has offices in Leeds, Bristol, Manchester, Lutterworth and Edinburgh.  Ultimate Finance currently supports over 2,500 businesses with flexible funding solutions to help realise potential through unlocking working capital, funding the purchase of assets and easing cashflow challenges. In 2020 Ultimate provided over £1.5bn in funding to their clients.   THE ROLE OF THE BROKER IN A RECOVERING ECONOMY Faced with a constantly changing and uncertain environment for families, health, the economy and businesses right now, juggling priorities is a huge challenge for most of the UK. With the vaccine roll out picking up pace it offers a great deal of optimism despite some of the harrowing statistics we are still faced with and in particular for those families who have lost loved ones. With the country adjusting to leaving the EU and the changes that brings, and the government support schemes changing or coming to an end over the coming months, the Chancellor’s budget in early March should provide some element of certainty or at least more insight to a recovery plan for UK businesses. SMEs are at the heart of the economy and supporting them through their recovery and revival stage is going to be extremely important for lenders and specialist advisors. The role of the advisor/broker/accountant has, like many other jobs in the last year, had to adapt quickly to understand the government funding schemes, and whether they are the right option for businesses versus more traditional lending. With so many lenders in the market, these specialist advisors will continue to have a vital role to play in helping businesses with their cashflow and liquidity challenges by offering advice and support in finding the funding to support their plans. In helping businesses find the right funding, at the right time, advisors will give business owners the confidence that they are making the right funding decisions.  This could be advising and facilitating refinancing of CBILS loans, refinancing of assets, structuring HMRC repayments, or providing working capital finance through invoice discounting, or specialist products such as Construction Finance. Businesses must give themselves not only short-term support, but an ability to flourish in the medium to long term without the constraints of a cashflow headache on a weekly or monthly basis. Ultimate Finance values it’s relationships with commercial finance brokers and feels they are going to be hugely important in keeping business moving in 2021 and beyond. In this regard we will work closely and in partnership to provide the best funding solution possible, through fast, commercial and flexible decision making, and the added value of a proper relationship to both business owner and broker. Written by Michael Beer, Regional Director at Ultimate Finance https://ultimatefinance.co.uk/

Transport & Logistics Company – Case Study

Transport & Logistics Company – Case Study Recently one of our network partners was approached by a transport and logistics company, with depots in Suffolk and Glasgow. The Glasgow depot was a specialist cold storage depot used for storing principally frozen fish a new service being offered by the clients’ business as a specific response to the possible adverse impact due to Brexit. The client entered in to a 2-year lease in 2019 with the landlord. The lease included an option for our client to purchase the target property at £1.2m, this being the value of the target asset in 2018, when the landlord was looking to rent/sell the asset.  When our client was in a position to purchase the Target Property (November/December 2020) due to the improvement works undertaken by our client since occupation and an improvement in market conditions for assets of this nature the target asset had increased in value to £1.5m. The client approached Brokerplan Partner Mark Everard of Michaels Commercial Finance as they needed the help of someone with commercial finance knowledge to assist them in identifying a source of funding to purchase the target property, at the pre-agreed price of  £1.2m as per the lease agreement, after having struggled to secure the required funding from the clients’ own bank. After the client reached out, our Brokerplan Partner contacted Head Office to discuss the proposal with our Senior Case Manager – Peter Leonard Ideally, the client was looking for a 70% Commercial Mortgage assessed against the Vacant Possession Value of £1.5m, rather than against the Purchase Price of £1.2m. The issue is that a majority of commercial funders are only prepared to lend against the lower of Purchase Price or Valuation i.e. £1.2m. However, Aldermore are prepared to consider advancing 70% against the Vacant Possession value where the borrower is the existing tenant. Therefore, Aldermore were considered the most suitable fit given the clients funding requirements. However, whilst the rate was competitive, we wanted to provide the client with an option from a Tier 1 lender, we therefore made an approach to TSB and whilst the interest terms were lower than those secured with Aldermore, the maximum advance would be restricted to 70% of the Purchase Price i.e. £1.2m. This would require the client to find a further £210,000 deposit than compared with the offer from Aldermore. Having provided both options to the client, it was agreed to progress with the Indicative Terms received from Aldermore. Having provided Aldermore with the relevant information including Financials, Management Information including a list of the clients existing financial commitments.   Formal credit approval was achieved within 7-working days which was subject to a number of conditions. Between the Client, the Brokerplan Partner and Head Office, these conditions were quickly satisfied allowing the case to complete within 6-weeks of achieving credit approval due to the close involvement of all parties including the respective legal advisers from both sides. This case generated a total of £10,500 in commissions, but more crucially has now allowed the client to move forward, in the knowledge that the purchase of the property has secured the long-term future of the business as well as annual saving in excess of £60,000 per annum being the difference between the annual rent and the annual commercial mortgage payments. To find out how you too can become a successful commercial broker   email info@brokerplan.co.uk to receive our brochure or call 0333 405 6666 to speak to a member of our business development team.

A Year of Virtual Training

A Year of Virtual Training This year has brought about many changes in the way we work, the shift to remote working has been a learning experience here at Brokerplan. The need to adapt the way we train and educate our partners has caused us to drastically shift our software and processes. A year ago, in March 2020, we held what was to be our final in-person training course at our head offices in Selby, North Yorkshire. After the lockdown was announced we suddenly had to explore new avenues as to how we could continue to train our new partners whilst there were restrictions on physical visits to the office. Luckily, we already had access to a virtual meeting facility that we had been using for our weekly lender webinars for established partners. Adapting this software to enable us to provide an in-depth training course spanning multiple days would prove to be quite the challenge, and has been an ongoing process of trial and improvement, as our business development manager Laura Fieldhouse explains: “We very quickly realised that we would have to change the format of the training for it to work online. We spread the training over five afternoon sessions, instead of training intensively for 2 and a half days. We created a workbook to guide people through the week and we have constantly asked for feedback. This has resulted in changes to the order of sessions, changes to breaks and also development of the content to make the training as enjoyable and interactive as possible!” Laura Fieldhouse Business Development Manager Our comprehensive business training covers FCA regulations and compliance requirements Business procedures & administration essentials Core commercial product training Lead generation and business development How to use our bespoke sourcing system ‘Lender Hub’ The fundamentals of case underwriting Developing Ancillary / Additional Revenue Streams Business Planning, Forecasting and Budgeting Want to learn more about Brokerplan? Call: 0333 405 6666 or Email: info@brokerplan.co.uk

Recent Deal Summaries

Recent Deal Summaries A recently completed deal, from one of our partners and it’s their first case. A bridging loan of £216,000 for a property development in Doncaster through Affirmative Finance landing them a £2,106 commission! Client had a property in a SIPP Pension that the beneficiaries wished to convert to and operate as a coffee shop, we managed to secure an asset finance loan with Eastern Credit to help the client with this project One of our partners recently secured a £340k Day 1 Development Bridge Loan for a client – Who’s project was a new build single dwelling. The deal with secured with lender Golden Tree. The commission generated on the deal was £3,400