Robson Laidler is a practice with offices in Newcastle and Durham, which has been in business for over 100 years.
Bob Evans, Head of Business Accelerator Services at Robson Laidler, recently started working with cashflow specialists Fluidly to help clients access government loans during the pandemic.
Fluidly recently caught up with Bob to shed some light on his team’s approach to advisory services and his experiences finding funding for his clients.
Could you tell us a bit about Robson Laidler’s advisory service?
We’d recently started offering more business advice to clients, including help with funding and cashflow.
We wanted to give our clients some additional options around funding too – our advisory team is always looking for new ways to reach out to clients.
Not every practice helps clients with funding. What do you think are the benefits of offering this kind of service?
Funding is a great reason to start a conversation with a client. It helps us remind them that we’re not just accountants, we’re here to help with their business.
By the time clients come to us for help with funding, they might already be distressed. With Fluidly we can proactively step in before they do any damage to their credit rating.
How did you find working with Fluidly to help clients access funding?
Fluidly helped us identify which clients might benefit from a conversation around funding, by analysing transaction data, creditworthiness and borrowing history.
Fluidly’s data insights uncovered a range of leads which our advisers followed up. If a client expressed interest, we referred them to a Fluidly funding specialist. We could have potentially done some of the analysis ourselves, but it would have taken us a lot longer. Fluidly helped to speed up the process.
How did you feel about handing your clients over to our funding specialists?
There’s a bit of nervousness when you hand over your first client. But the feedback from the clients has been great, so we feel comfortable introducing them to speak to Fluidly directly.
We trust the Fluidly team to perform for our clients and the service reflects very well on us.
Were you and your client happy with the results?
We discussed funding with a number of the clients Fluidly identified, including a tyre management company that secured a CBILS loan to tide its business through coronavirus restrictions.
As a result, the company was able to refinance an existing Bounce Back loan and extend the interest free period by transferring it to a CBILS. They were thrilled.
