About

We exist for the business owners the bank has already said no to

Difficult Business Loans arranges business funding for New Zealand owners in hard situations: IRD arrears, defaults, statutory demands, missing financials and unusual security. We connect them with lending partners whose criteria fit, so a viable business can get money in, pay its way out and stay in its owner's hands.

Three people in a workshop looking at a laptop screen together

Why the name?

Because it's honest. If your business loan were easy, you'd have it already. You'd have walked into your bank, handed over three years of tidy accounts and walked out with a yes.

The people who find us have usually been through a harder version of that story. A customer who didn't pay. A slow winter. A contract that went wrong. IRD letters that arrived faster than the money did. By the time they call, the bank has said no, and someone may already have suggested talking to a liquidator.

That's where we start.

What we believe

A business in trouble usually needs money in, not someone else in charge. When a viable business has run out of cash to pay its old debts, handing control to a third party is an expensive way to solve a funding problem. Paying creditors in full, keeping the staff, keeping the suppliers onside, that's usually the better outcome for everyone.

The bank's answer isn't the only answer. Banks are built for standard files. A great many good New Zealand businesses aren't standard files right now.

Honesty beats optimism. Not every business should borrow more. If a loan won't fix the problem, we'll say so plainly and point you towards the right kind of help.

What we'll never do

Promise approval before we understand your situation.
Publish a rate card. Every loan is priced on the client's individual circumstances, and we look for the sharpest option available for yours.
Lecture you. You know your business; we know the lenders.
Arrange personal or consumer loans. We only work on lending for business purposes.
Pretend a formal insolvency process is never right. Sometimes it is.

Who we help

Sole traders, companies, partnerships and trusts, across the country, from Whangārei to Invercargill. Tradies and builders, café and restaurant owners, transport operators, retailers, manufacturers, farmers and rural contractors, professional practices, and the many businesses that don't fit a category.

With propertyProperty-secured business loans$20,000 to $1m, first or second mortgage over New Zealand property. No financials for the initial assessment. Bad credit, defaults and arrears considered case by case.

Without propertyUnsecured loans and lines of creditFor businesses usually trading six months or more, sized on turnover and bank statements. Weaker credit considered.

All at onceComplete refinanceIRD, creditors and expensive short-term debt, paid out at settlement into one loan.

How we work with lenders

We work with a panel of lending partners, each with its own appetite: some focus on property-secured lending, including second mortgages and less conventional security, others on cash-flow lending for trading businesses. Our lending specialists know what each will and won't look at, which saves you applying blind and collecting credit enquiries along the way.

We're not a bank, and we don't pretend to be one. We're the people who know where to take a file the bank has turned down.

Our writing

The guides on this site are written by our editorial team for New Zealand business owners, using current sources such as Inland Revenue, the Companies Office and New Zealand legislation. They're general information, not legal or tax advice, and we update them as rules change.