Family dream becomes reality with tourist attraction purchase

Mike and Rebecca Agate had good careers in London but longed to start a business in Lincolnshire to be closer to their family and friends, and to improve their lifestyle.

The business opportunity presented by the sale of Claythorpe Watermill and Wildfowl Gardens was perfect - but raising finance to make their dream become a reality was proving a problem.

Lenders wouldn’t support the unconventional business

Mike said “Lenders were dismissive and too restrictive to make our plans work. But R&BS believed in our plan and shared our passion. Importantly for us, they knew how the system worked and had relationships with the right people at the right lenders.”

There were some challenges:

• It was an unusual property which had been on the market for five years. 
• It was an unconventional commercial business with limited trading history information. This rendered the proposal a ‘start-up’ enterprise in the eyes of the banks and with that comes restrictive lending criteria.

Gathering and preparing the right information was pivotal

Jim Richards at R&BS knew he had to demonstrate there was an existing business. Claythorpe Watermill was open, attracting visitors and generating income, but recent trading data was needed to prove it. 

By building a relationship with the existing owner, Jim secured information to demonstrate the enterprise was established and to provide the foundation on which the forecasts for the business plan could be calculated, compared and substantiated. This was pivotal to the success of the lending application.

“It would not have happened without R&BS”

The R&BS approach worked. Mike and Rebecca successfully secured the funds they needed to make their plan a reality.

Mike said, “It was a long, often hellish road, but I'm certain that it would not have happened without R&BS. My only regret is that we did not find them earlier which could have saved us a considerable amount of time and effort and we could have been at Claythorpe and trading far earlier.” 

Research, negotiation and expert advice are all part of the R&BS service. We also know how to uncover the key information that will swing a lending application into our clients’ favour and which lenders to put the applications to.