Funding the gap between money going out and money coming in, sized around your actual cycle rather than a round number.
Every healthcare business has a cash cycle
The shape differs but the problem is the same. A pharmacy buys stock and waits for reimbursement. A staffing agency pays locums weekly and invoices monthly. A distributor pays suppliers up front and waits on trade terms. A care provider staffs a home continuously and bills the local authority in arrears.
In a steady month that gap is absorbed. It becomes uncomfortable when you grow, when prices move, or when a payment run slips, and growth in particular widens the gap before it closes it.
What we arrange
- Unsecured business loans from £1,000 to £1m depending on funder, terms to 60 months
- Professions lending: £30,000 to £500,000, growth facilities to £2m, unsecured, from around 8%, for regulated practices
- Revolving facilities that flex with your cycle rather than amortising
- Tax, VAT and PAYE funding to spread predictable but awkward payments
- Invoice finance where you invoice on credit terms
- Merchant cash advance for clinics with consistent card turnover
Sole traders and small partnerships: lending of £25,000 or less to a sole trader, or to a partnership of two or three partners, is regulated consumer credit even when used for business. We cannot arrange those. Limited companies and LLPs are not affected, and nor is lending above £25,000.
Size it for the peak, not the average
The most common mistake is arranging a facility sized to a typical month. A facility that covers an average month and fails in your busiest one is not doing its job.
Work out the worst point in your cycle and size for that. The cost of unused headroom on most facilities is considerably lower than the cost of running out.
Overdraft or committed facility
An overdraft is flexible and familiar. It is also repayable on demand and can be reviewed away at exactly the point you most need it, which is a risk worth understanding rather than assuming away.
A committed facility costs more to arrange and cannot be withdrawn at a lender’s discretion. For a structural, recurring gap, which is what most healthcare cash cycles are, committed is usually the better answer, with an overdraft retained for genuine short-term variation.
Tax and indemnity funding
A specific and underused facility. Rather than a large tax, VAT or professional indemnity payment coming out of practice cash in one month, it is spread across the year.
For partnerships in particular this smooths a predictable but awkward pressure point, and it is inexpensive relative to the disruption it avoids. Worth arranging before the bill arrives rather than after.
Common questions
Is working capital funding expensive?
Unsecured lending costs more than property-secured borrowing, reflecting the security position. The comparison to make is against the cost of the alternative: a missed buying opportunity, a delayed hire, or a supplier relationship damaged by late payment.
Will it affect a practice purchase application?
It is taken into account in serviceability. If an acquisition is planned, tell us before arranging working capital so the two can be structured to sit together.
How quickly can it be arranged?
Unsecured facilities are among the fastest funding available, frequently decided within a day or two, with funds shortly after.
All figures are indicative and subject to lender assessment, your circumstances, valuation and prevailing market conditions. Commercial mortgages and unregulated bridging loans are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Property offered as security may be at risk if you do not keep up repayments.