Self-Employed Forestry Venture Financed

About The Client

We were approached by a timber haulier who had been working as an employee of a large woodyard since leaving school. He basically transported wood around the North, delivering to the large timber mills, and he had always dreamt of having his own business. He had approached his employers to see if he could buy a timber vehicle and trailer from them in order to set up his own business. They agreed and said that they would allow him to continue working for them as a subcontractor, although future work would not always be guaranteed.

Objectives

We needed to explore how to finance our clients’ venture into self-employment, namely, to help him access finance to purchase the timber vehicle from his current employer. Unfortunately, our customer was not a homeowner and he did not have a large cash deposit, so we needed to gather any additional information that could support a finance proposal.

How We Helped

We visited him at his home to gather more information, and we soon realised that he was an extremely impressive and hardworking individual that had the backing of his parents. He even provided us with a supporting letter from his employer to say they would guarantee him enough work to get him started over the first 3 months at the very least.

Armed with this supporting information, we successfully negotiated an offer for finance with a specialist finance company. Our client was able to raise the deposit required for the vehicle finance by using saved cash resources and an investment from his parents. He has now been trading for just over a year, and with extremely hard work, he has picked up further three further contracts and is no longer solely reliant on his previous employer. He is delighted that he took the plunge!