About

Conrad Ford is the managing director of Funding Options, an award-winning team of business finance experts who specialise in helping businesses get the loans they need. Ford is a chartered management accountant who served in the group strategy department of a leading global bank, before joining their fast-growing technology subsidiary where he served as COO during a period in which it won multiple awards. Conrad has a Masters from Cambridge University.

Alternative Finance for Business

Before debt takes its toll: Four reasons for debt consolidation

Simple debt consolidation could be all you need to provide that extra bit of breathing room. Here, we look into the topic.

Alternative Finance for Business

Considering an MBO? Here’s how to fund it

Funding Options CEO Conrad Ford explains the ins and outs of a management buy-out, and how to tell if it's right for your business.

Alternative Finance for Business

What is mezzanine finance and when is it useful?

Mezzanine finance is one of the more complex types of business funding. Conrad Ford explains when and how to secure this type of funding for your business.

Alternative Finance for Business

What is asset-based lending?

Funding Options CEO Conrad Ford explains asset-based lending and asset finance, and unpicks some of the terminology that lenders often use.

Alternative Finance for Business

Debt vs equity: which is best?

Funding Options CEO Conrad Ford explores the eternal funding question of debt vs equity.

Alternative Finance for Business

What are the best alternatives to a business overdraft?

Conrad Ford outlines three alternative financing options to a business overdraft.

Alternative Finance for Business

Funding Options: A scale-up journey with the Bank Referral Scheme

Funding Options is one of the three alternative finance platforms selected by HM Treasury as part of the Bank Referral Scheme, to help businesses secure funding when they’re unsuccessful with the major banks. CEO Conrad Ford takes a look at the impact this scheme has had in six months since its launch.

Alternative Finance for Business

Should I give a personal guarantee?

Funding Options CEO Conrad Ford explains the ins and outs of personal guarantees.

Alternative Finance for Business

Equipment leasing, hire purchase, asset refinance: what’s the difference?

It's easy to get confused between equipment leasing, hire purchase, and asset refinance. Funding Options' CEO Conrad Ford explains.

Financial Management

How to deal with late payments

Late payments may be the blight of growing businesses across the UK, but according to Funding Options' Conrad Ford, managing these delays comes down to process. Here's why.

Alternative Finance for Business

Do you have to be a homeowner to get a business loan?

Do you have to be a homeowner to get a business loan? The short answer is no — but it might help. Funding Options' CEO Conrad Ford writes.

Entrepreneurs

Conrad Ford: My management resolutions for 2017

As Funding Options embarks on its fifth year in business, CEO Conrad Ford looks back at its major milestones while setting three key management resolutions for 2017.