Are your business assets working hard enough?

David Kirwan, CFO at ScotPac Business Finance, explains how the firm's business finance solutions, developed over almost 40 years of experience, can help companies of all sizes unlock hidden value and build lasting resilience.

Presented by ScotPac.

What are the biggest pain points facing businesses and how do they connect to challenges such as staff attrition?

Our research for the 24th edition of the ScotPac SME Growth Index shows the biggest pain points are compliance and tax pressures, policy uncertainty and crucially, access to credit. Almost 40% of SMEs say a lack of credit access is stopping them from achieving their revenue targets. This financial pressure is directly linked to retaining talent. We found 31% of SMEs reported higher levels of staff attrition over the past 12 months.

Businesses under cash flow pressure often struggle to reward their best staff, which makes it even harder to trade through difficult periods. It creates a vicious cycle where you lose your most experienced people exactly when you need them. Staff attrition is typically viewed as a human resources metric, but it can actually be a strong indicator of financial resilience, or a lack thereof.

When companies turn to asset-backed lending, what do they often discover?

Many businesses have traditionally relied on secured overdrafts from a bank, which can be inflexible, cap out or disappear altogether when times are tough. We've found not all SMEs are aware they have locked-up asset values sitting on their balance sheet that they can leverage to access credit. If they have a receivables ledger of invoices, inventory, equipment or property, that's all value we can lend against from our suite of financial products.

We frequently see clients who know they have some value, but don't realise its full extent. For example, a client came to us a year ago wanting a simple invoice finance facility, but after working through their needs, they ended up with an invoice finance facility, an equipment finance facility and a trade facility. By leveraging various assets, they gained access to significantly more credit than they initially expected, which helped them grow.

Because this credit is asset-backed, it remains flexible and available, even during challenging times, unlike an unsecured overdraft. We ask what their problem is and find a combination of products to solve it.

Is the current level of financial pressure a longer-term trend, and does it drive a shift towards non-bank lending?

Over the past six or seven years, we've had a succession of compounding shocks, including COVID, the RBA putting us on an interest rate rollercoaster, supply chain disruptions and the ATO going much harder at tax debt collection. If you're a small business or director of a larger company, you have to think this is the new normal and be prepared, which means having the right funding sources. 

Consequently, non-bank finance is no longer a shift, it's very mainstream.

Our survey found 57% of SMEs intend to access non-bank finance for new investments, three times higher than seven years ago. It's a structural change - non-banks are now a huge part of the

SME lending ecosystem. Businesses come to us seeking speed, certainty and flexibility of funding, which they don't always receive from banks. Traditional lenders often tighten credit and slow down approvals during macro shocks.

We do the work on assessing cash flows and balance sheet assets, allowing us to be much more flexible with how much we extend, the covenants we apply and the speed of our decisions.

What should directors of SMEs and larger companies take away from this?

As a board member, you must think about your company's financial resilience, regardless of how well it's performing right now. You should have working capital buffers in place before they're actually tested, because funding is incredibly difficult to secure when you're in a crunch. Directors need to be open and curious about what's on their balance sheet and their funding diversity. Just because you've been with one bank for 10 years doesn't mean it'll be there for you in bad times. Directors shouldn't view these solely as SME issues - funding and working capital challenges only get bigger as a company grows.

As the leading non-bank lender across Australia, with more than 9000 clients, ScotPac has the experience and dedicated resources to help. We cater to small SMEs with $50,000 facilities up to tens of millions for larger corporates.

Whether you're an SME or a large corporate, diversifying your funding sources and security is essential to weather whatever comes at you.

Learn more about how Scotpac can help your business build lasting resilience. 

This article first appeared as 'Are your business assets working as hard as they could?' in the Oct/Nov 2026 issue of Company Director Magazine.