How to use Fundladder, in five minutes

Need money for your business? There are more ways to raise it than most people think: from asking customers to pay up front, to government-backed loans, to selling shares. Fundladder is a free, plain-English map of sixty-two of them, cheapest first. In the next few minutes, I'll show you how to find the ones that match your business, what each one really costs, and how to get ready before you apply.

This is the funding ladder. Borrowing is ranked by what the money costs. The top rung, L0, is free or nearly free: such as asking customers to pay up front, or charging interest when they pay late. Below it, cheap and government-backed loans. Then everyday bank lending, then specialist lenders, and at the bottom, L4, the fast but expensive options. Selling shares is a separate climb, ranked by how much of your business you give away. Nobody pays to be higher up: the order comes only from cost.

Pick a rung to see its routes. Each one has an upside and a downside, side by side. Grants, for example: money you do not pay back, but usually small amounts, and you pay part of the cost yourself.

The quickest way in is Your options: nine questions, about three minutes. Your answers stay in your browser, and nothing is stored. Let's answer them for a made-up business: a bakery, run by its owner, that needs a new oven.

The money is for equipment.

Fifteen thousand pounds, within one to two months.

The owner runs it as a sole trader, and it is based in England.

Trading for two to three years, with sales of between a hundred thousand and a million pounds a year, and making a profit.

It sells food, so the sector is food and retail. Customers pay by card, or up front in cash.

The bakery owns nothing big to borrow against, and the owner would give a personal guarantee.

They want to keep all of the business.

No big plans to tick.

And nothing unusual about their situation. Let's see the options.

The results are worked out in your browser. Seven routes match, four are possible, and fifty-one are unlikely, each with the reasons why, in ladder order, cheapest first. At the top are three on the cheap, government-backed rung: loans from community lenders, known as CDFIs, the Growth Guarantee Scheme, and Start Up Loans. Further down come asset finance and a bank loan. A merchant cash advance matches too, but it sits on the most expensive rung.

Each result says why. Start Up Loans matches because the bakery has traded for less than five years, and needs up to twenty-five thousand pounds.

Why not a cheaper rung? This explains what holds the free options back. Tax reliefs on equipment, and local grants, could both help with an oven. But they usually take months, and the bakery needs the money within one to two months. It also says what would change that: if the money can wait. Every result comes from fixed rules, written down for each route, and the same for everyone.

Open any route to read it in full. Here is asset finance: hire purchase and leasing. The key facts are at the top, with the date they were last checked. Then how it works, in plain English, with terms like finance lease linked to the glossary. Then the upsides and downsides, at the same weight. You get the oven now, without a large payment up front. But it costs more in total than paying cash, and the provider can take it back if you miss payments.

Further down: the costs that are easy to miss, such as fees, or a large final payment on some agreements. When it fits, and when it does not. Whether it is regulated, and where you can complain. And the sources every fact comes from, each with the date it was read.

Got a quote? The calculators turn it into numbers you can compare. This one puts a hire purchase quote and a lease quote side by side. In the worked example, a thirty-thousand-pound machine over three years, the lease has lower monthly payments. But with hire purchase, you keep a machine worth nine thousand pounds at the end. Counting that, hire purchase costs four hundred and fifty pounds less. Put in your own quotes to see your answer. Nothing you type is stored.

Before you apply, get ready. Back on the results, What to prepare gives one checklist for all the routes that matched: fifteen things providers usually ask for, the most asked first, starting with a cash flow forecast, accounts, and bank statements. Tick what you have, and it shows what to prepare next. You can print it, or take it to your accountant.

One more check before you sign anything. On the checks page, you can search the FCA's register, to see that a lender or platform is authorised for what it is offering you. Scammers copy the names of real firms, so check that the website and phone number match the register too.

If you would rather start from where you are, there are guides by situation, such as: my bank said no, what now? Or: I need cash while I wait for customers to pay. And there are guides for kinds of business, from construction to care.

Fundladder is information, not advice. Nobody pays to be listed higher, it never asks for your name, and there is no tracking. Use it to understand your options and get ready, then check the details with the provider, and think about getting independent advice before you commit. Find your options at fundladder.uk.