• Immediate Working Capital
  • Growth, Aquisitions, MBOs
  • No Need for Re-negotiation
  • Instant Cash Flow
  • Saves Management Time
  • Improved Collections Performance
  • Recession-Proof Thinking
  • Practical How To Guides
  • Business Knowledge Bank
  • Fast Track Response
  • Competitive Rates
  • Personal Service

Over the Rainbow

Rainbow Office customises office products, working with a wide network of suppliers to provide best value prices to its customers, combined with consistent high quality. Their broad spectrum of products and services ranges from catering and cleaning, through to computer products, furniture and stationery.

Kanwal Awal, finance director of Rainbow Office, said: “Rainbow is now growing at a rate of 20% to 25% year-on-year. Since I joined the business in 2004, the turnover has more than doubled in size to £3.5 million. However, we simply couldn’t sustain that rapid rate of growth without Confidential Invoice Discounting freeing up working capital in such a way that it keeps pace with our business”.

Growing businesses often find that Confidential Invoice Discounting is a more flexible source of working capital than bank loans or overdrafts, as finance is made available to the business in line with the level of a company’s sales. However, as Mr Awal is quick to point out, not all invoice discounting companies are the same.

“The clearing bank we were using before SME Invoice Finance was very rigid in their approach and they did not talk the same language as our business at all.  Banks can seem distant and departmentalised and in my view can often lack the same values as a progressive, entrepreneurial business.”

“With SME Invoice Finance, the relationship is altogether different. As a smaller company than the bank-owned invoice discounters, SME comes across as caring more about our business at an individual client level. They listen, they work hard to understand our requirements and importantly we always feel that they are on our side, sharing our business risks with us.”

Mr Awal adds, “We have a very positive relationship with SME Invoice Finance. There is a good synergy there. The difference between Rainbow and our competitors, is based on the way we look at our customers' needs on an individual basis and above all, the 'can do' approach we apply to every relationship. Since they were referred to us, we have seen the same qualities in SME Invoice Finance.  They are streetwise and practical in their approach. As a company, and as individuals, SME Invoice Finance clearly want to help us to achieve our objectives and ultimately grow with us.  There’s nothing more I could ask for from a finance partner to our business than that level of commitment.”

SME Invoice Finance works hard to ensure that for every Rainbow, there is indeed a pot of gold.