The December blog of course feels like a review of the year and rightly so. The problem is how to condense it into a blog when a full edition is needed to justify the year.
Well, I’ll have a go. Busy would be a good place to start. Busy supporting new clients with over 120 deals done this year and still a few to go before Auld Lang Syne rings out. Those deals have come in every shape and size across our three products, the largest deals have been up at the £2 million mark and of course we have plenty going on at our £50k entry level as well.
Do I have a favourite deal of the year? Not really, we have helped lots of people move their businesses forward, secure new opportunities or solve problems and they are all different, big or small, we get to understand the deals in detail which is why we can build solutions for clients.
There are so many highlights I can only name a few…
Up there on the list is becoming a shareholder when I bought in back in the spring. This is a first in my career and a proud moment. It doesn’t change my thinking though as I have always lent money in my career thinking “what would I do if it was my cash” and that’s a trait that all lenders should have, something that is unfortunately sadly lacking.
We raised external funds in the city, another massive positive for Reward, showing the maturity of the business and most importantly the quality of our people.
Month after month of record new deals, record loan books – a true testament to the business’s drive and desire.
New website launched, a massive step forward in terms of building our brand, sharing our products and communicating with our valued introducers. I have stopped short of saying “digital revolution” as we will always be a people business. Yes, of course, we will invest in technology but we will never be a loan portal – our introducers and clients will always have direct access to our people, our decision makers.
We have invested heavily in our North West office with new premises, three new people and with clients now being managed locally. There are no two ways about it, building our North West presence is a key objective for 2018 and beyond.
We’ve lent over £34m this year to new clients, we’ve done it transparently, sometimes (if needed) very quickly and always responsibly.
Thank you to all our clients, introducers and friends of the business, it’s been a great 2017 and we can’t wait for 2018 to get going. I hope everyone has a great Christmas and New Year.
Nick, on behalf of Team Reward