Very often, the difference between a successful practice and one which is failing to live up to its potential is the level of investment it receives.

Sometimes, just putting an amount of money into a new piece of equipment can prove to be a shrewd business move, giving your firm the ability to stay ahead of the pack by offering something a little different to what everyone else is.

However, with it being rare to have pools of cash in reserve just waiting to be spent, the question often arises as to how such investments can be funded. With banks still reluctant to lend to businesses unless they can jump through numerous hoops and tick countless boxes of criteria, traditional business lending is now no longer easy to come by.

With this in mind, unsecured practice loans could offer the perfect solution. A major bonus here is that the borrower does not have to secure any assets attached to their company in order to have the amount lent to them.

Of course, taking out a loan is not without its risks – but this risk is crucial when it comes to encouraging business growth.

Investing in equipment

Many professionals require specialist equipment in order to ensure that their practice is operating at peak performance, meaning that having to lay out a large amount of cash to get a business off the ground – or back on its feet – is often unavoidable.

Dentists, for example, have an awful lot to buy in order to run a modern practice. Everything from dental chairs to X-ray machines don’t come cheap – however they are all essential items to have and without them, the company simply wouldn’t exist.

Lease or hire purchases can be a handy way to obtain such facilities, allowing the professional to acquire, for example, the dentist’s chair with a deposit equal to a percentage of its value. The borrower then hires the chair for a monthly fee until the payments are equal to its original cost plus interest. After this point, they can choose to either buy it for a small fee or return the chair to the lender.

Again, this suits both parties as the person borrowing the money doesn’t have to provide security if the loan is defaulted, while the lender has something of value which they can take control of if things go awry.

Investments in equipment can really make a difference to professional practices, especially when it comes to buying new goods that rivals may not yet have access to – which, combined with effective marketing, could result in growth at a rapid rate.

Investing in premises

When thinking of expanding, the most obvious solution is often to physically grow the business by investing in new premises. This growth could come in the form of a larger site to accommodate a bigger workforce and result in higher output, or by taking control of a new area completely to also increase customer reach.

In a similar way to buying new equipment, opening your operations in a new location often requires taking out some form of loan and in this case a business mortgage would be the best option.

When dealing with the high street banks, strict – sometimes seemingly impossible – criteria needs to be met in order to achieve financial backing. Luckily, they’re not the only ones who offer commercial deals in order to make your aspirations a reality.