We are sensitive to our clients’ need for confidentiality and in this case, as the storytellers wanted to remain anonymous, we have omitted their names. This is the story of a couple who required funding to buy and expand a hotel and group of holiday cottages in the Yorkshire Dales.

We weren’t sure where to start

We were due to take over the hotel and holiday cottages at the end of June – and we couldn’t wait to get started! We’d been in business before but we hadn’t been in the situation of looking for funding for about 25 years, so we weren’t sure where to start. A contact had recommended Peter at RedSky because she thought he might be helpful for us in the business. He came to see us and explained what he could do. He helped us to prepare a case for the bank to get a commercial mortgage for the business. In doing that he looked at all our finances, explained to us all the ways in which we could ‘sell’ the business to the bank in order to get some funding, and the different ways in which we might get finance. He also discussed ways in which we might expand the business and the different things we might do with the land.

Sorted – within a week!

When we met Peter we liked him instantly. He’s very easy to talk to, very approachable and he doesn’t patronise you or talk down to you. And he works very quickly. If you’re doing something like this, you want it done quickly. You can’t afford to have someone lagging behind and saying ‘I’ll do it next week’. We answered everything that he wanted and he got the answer for us; and the whole process was all done and dusted within a week. We thought this was incredibly impressive.

The bank wanted an impartial financial assessment of our business and that’s what Peter did. Being an ex-bank employee, he knew exactly what format the bank wanted the information in and he got it spot-on. As a result of Peter’s efforts we were successful in getting a commercial mortgage. I think also maybe the fact that Peter is known and respected by the banks carried some weight.

Peter is very knowledgeable and grasped our business and what we wanted to do very quickly – and he came up with some of his own ideas as well, like what to do with some land that we’ve got, the people we should talk to and so on. He comes from the area, like we do, so he knows who to talk to which helps.

We couldn’t have achieved our goals without RedSky

We wouldn’t have got the mortgage that we wanted without Peter’s help – definitely not! And I’m sure we’ll go back to Peter again for advice – he’s the sort of chap that you can just pick the phone up and ring – and we were always very impressed with how quickly he got back to us. It didn’t make any difference if we had to ring him on a weekend – he was very flexible in that. When I sent him an email I got one straight back – most unusual! And he came over to see us; we didn’t have to go to him. I think that also helped him to get to know our business and what were trying to achieve. We would recommend Peter to anybody!