Business finance
for Nottingham companies
Flowzo arranges invoice finance, invoice discounting, revolving credit lines and business loans for Nottingham limited companies and LLPs, from £1,000 to £500,000. We do it by phone and online from outside the city, with no Nottingham branch to visit, and enquiring leaves no mark on your credit file.
No credit check to enquire.
Nottingham’s 9,940 businesses, by what they do
The count of VAT or PAYE registered enterprises in the city council area grew by about 3.8% in a year, from 9,580, the fastest rise of the ten cities in this pilot.
Source: ONS UK Business Counts, enterprises on Nomis, Nottingham, March 2026. Sector groups are ONS broad industry groups, totalled from Nomis division counts rounded to the nearest 5. The query behind the total.
- Four in five are companies. 7,925 of the 9,940 are registered as companies, which is the part of the base our cash flow panel can serve. A further 1,120 are sole proprietors and 265 partnerships.
- Shops, cafes and care punch above their weight. Retail, hospitality and health each take a larger share here than across the UK, while construction, at 10.2% against 14.1%, takes noticeably less.
- A count of firms is not a count of jobs. Manufacturing has 520 businesses in the city. That is a small slice by number, though a single large factory can employ more people than a hundred micro firms.
What that mix does to cash flow in Nottingham
- Professional firms wait on their own invoices
The largest group, 1,410 consultancies, practices and technical firms, bills other businesses after the work is done, often on 30 days or more. That is a ledger a lender can advance against. Invoice finance releases most of each invoice when you raise it, and confidential invoice discounting keeps your clients from ever knowing.
- Couriers and warehouses carry a weekly bill
Nottingham has 195 postal and courier businesses and 120 in warehousing, around twice the UK share for storage. Fuel, vans and agency staff are paid weekly while the contract customer pays monthly. Our transport page sets out what funds that gap.
- Tills pay at once, but seasons do not
The 925 retailers and 815 food and drink businesses are paid on the spot, so a ledger product is no use to them. Their squeeze is stock and staff ahead of a busy period. Revenue-based finance, repaid from card takings, bends with a quiet month in a way a fixed loan cannot.
- Care providers are paid by the council, eventually
Health and care is 6.6% of the base against 4.4% nationally. A home or agency billing a local authority is owed by a payer that will settle, just not quickly, and that predictability is what invoice finance is priced on.
Invoicing other businesses in Nottingham? Tell us your debtor book and we will say whether discounting fits.
Get my optionsFree help in Nottingham before you borrow
Some of what a Nottingham business needs is free, and you should take that first. None of these is run by us and none costs anything to ask.
- East Midlands Combined County Authority Growth Hub. The single front door for business support across Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire. Its advisers and telephone service point you to the programmes that are open now, and its events are free.
- East Midlands Combined County Authority. The mayoral authority for the same four areas. It runs the growth hub and the region’s investment programmes.
- Nottingham City Council business support. Business rates, licensing and the council’s own support and finance pages.
- Midlands Engine Investment Fund II. The British Business Bank’s £400m fund for the Midlands, which lends and invests through appointed fund managers. Nottingham is inside its area. You apply to those managers directly; it is not something we place.
How we work with Nottingham companies
We are a broker based in North Yorkshire with a panel of lenders who lend across the UK. Nothing about your postcode changes the decision: lenders read your bank statements, your filed accounts and, for invoice finance, the quality of the businesses that owe you money. So a phone call and a secure upload do the same job a meeting would.
Search data shows Nottingham businesses most often looking for invoice finance and invoice discounting, which fits a city where professional and business services make up more than a fifth of the base. If your customers are other businesses, start there. If they are the public, revenue-based finance or a credit line is usually the better shape, and for a one-off need such as a VAT bill, see tax bill finance.
The panel lends to limited companies and LLPs. If you trade as a sole trader, here is why we cannot help on cash flow, and machinery or vans are arranged by our sister company CW Asset Finance.
Common questions
Is there invoice finance for small Nottingham firms?
Yes, though the size of your ledger matters more than the size of your business. A firm invoicing a handful of reliable trade customers is a better proposition than one with many tiny debts. 86% of Nottingham businesses employ fewer than ten people, so a small ledger is the normal case, not the exception.
Can a Nottingham care provider borrow against council invoices?
Often, because a local authority is a payer that lenders understand. Care contracts can carry terms that complicate it, such as rights to claw back for missed visits, so send us the contract wording early and we will tell you which lenders read it kindly.
Do I need to come to an office in Nottingham?
No, and we do not have one. Everything is done by phone, email and a secure document upload, which is how the lenders on our panel work with every customer anyway.
Will the Midlands Engine fund lend instead of a bank?
It might, and it is worth asking. It is aimed at smaller businesses that would struggle to raise money elsewhere, applications go to its fund managers, and decisions take longer than a commercial facility. Many businesses ask both.
Find out what your Nottingham ledger supports
One enquiry, about a minute, and no credit check to see your options.
Get my optionsWhere to next
By city Back to the hubTen UK cities, each written from its own business figures.Invoice financeBe paid now for invoices your customers will settle later.Factoring vs discountingWho collects, who finds out, and the same invoice priced both ways.Revenue-based financeRepay more in a good month, less in a quiet one.