Cash flow management is a constant stressor SMEs, especially in the early days. Imagine you’re the owner of a small garage; you’ve won a contract to service and maintain a fleet of cars for a large company and, on paper, your business is profitable. But paper and reality don’t always coincide, as garage owner Callum discovered. He had the usual regular outgoings for rental, utilities, payroll (he employed two young mechanics), VAT, parts, etc. But he was bedevilled by late payments from customers – not the least of whom was the large corporate client he’s recently won the contract from.

Although he was taking steps to recover money owed (and establishing a new invoicing agreement which obliged customers to pay within 30 days), he was facing an exceptionally tough end-of-month, fearing that he would not be able to pay his staff unless some of those outstanding invoices were paid in full.

To avert the prospect of falling off the cliff at the end of the month, he decided he needed to look into the possibilities of borrowing credit – something he’d been deeply resistant towards so far. Not only did he not want to saddle his business with debt, he’d also been turned down for a loan a year previously as the lender did not consider his creditworthiness robust enough to justify releasing funds. Like most people, he worried about the effects on his precarious credit rating if we was again turned down for another loan.

It was while he was researching options online about the UK’s alternative finance lenders that he came across peer-to-peer lender platform Unbolted. What attracted him? Not only does Unbolted spare all its customers the intrusion (and risk) of a credit search, its unique secured asset loan model meant that he didn’t need to endanger his business with debt.

Because of the range of items Unbolted considers high value assets, Callum quickly realised he was in with a chance. He owned a highly valuable heirloom, handed down through the generations since his great grandfather acquired it during the Second World War: a highly collectable 18 carat gold hunter pocket watch and chronograph dating from the 1870s.

Our expert partners, Fellows (with their dedicated team for watches) were able to value the piece, which was in remarkable condition, at £4,400 – more than enough for the £2,400 loan Callum needed to pay his two employees and avert disaster at the end of the month. He sent the timepiece to us using our fully insured Royal Mail delivery programme, whereupon we were able to release the funds to him, holding the beautiful item in safe, environmentally controlled storage as security.

Callum was aware that, should he be unable to settle the loan by the end of its short 6 month term, we would sell the watch at auction, returning any excess over the value we had originally agreed to him.

With two months, Callum had finally been paid the money he was owed and was able to recover his beloved watch. No intrusive credit searches, no loan refusals, no waiting – a small business saved from excruciating embarrassment on the back of a fob watch!