From being a rugby pitch legend to paving a pathway for small businesses

Recently retired sporting legend JAMIE HEASLIP is making the same impact on the business world he used to make clearing out a ruck on the rugby pitch. As his former team-mates scrum down for the November internationals, Heaslip is busy highlighting some of his many investments in the tech sector. He’ll meet attendees and give away match tickets at the exhibit stand of the peer-to-peer lending outfit Flender during the upcoming ISME small firms conference in Citywest Dublin on November 21. Peer-to-peer lending? What’s that? It’s the practice of connecting business owners who want to expand with regular people like you and me who would be happy to lend to businesses in order to earn a better return than we are getting from the banks. The businesses get the expansion funds they need quickly, and everyone wins. Why would I want to lend money to some fella I don’t know? Because every business is creditchecked by professional underwriters, and you’ll get nine or 10 times’ better return than by just leaving it sitting in a bank savings account. Plus your money is used to create lots of new jobs. What if they don’t pay me back? If a business that passed the Flender credit checks gets into difficulty, the standard arrears process will kick into gear and everything will be done to get them back in order, including restructuring the loan if necessary. Have you invested yourself? I’ve backed 25 SMEs already through Flender, creating 80 Irish jobs. How much could I make as a lender? The average return through Flender over the past year is 10.3%. If I want to borrow, how hard is it? It’s very easy, assuming you have your accounts ready. Just apply online via Flender.ie. It’s fast and paperless. Same-day decision and funds within 24 hours. What are the default rates? Flender currently has the lowest loss rate in Ireland, at 0% after 18 months of lending. Gradually that is likely to rise to the industry average of 1%. If you factor this in and spread your savings across many business loans, then you will still average around 10 times more than your savings are currently earning from a normal savings account, even taking the loss rate into account. How’s Flender doing? Well ahead of expectations. It has funded nearly 100 business expansions already and created nearly 250 new Irish jobs in the past 18 months. It has also just raised another €10m in funding to expand more quickly. Why get involved? I’ve been looking for a while to engage with early-stage companies, and to be involved in something truly beneficial to the Irish economy. Flender came along at the right time. Do sport and business have similarities? I’ve always seen similarities between high-performance teams, whether they be in sport or business. One common thread is a really strong culture and values that everyone is invested and believes in. Biggest challenge so far? Transitioning from one career to the next is always difficult, especially when this was all the result of a sudden injury. Finding that singular focus is the most difficult thing. Is Ireland a friendly environment for small businesses? Yes, the support structures are in place now, especially with the new alternative lenders like Flender that provide funds really quickly. Another plus is that Enterprise Ireland is probably the best government agency in Europe for supporting small businesses. Best financial decision? Starting a pension at 21. Worst? Some of the clothes I bought over the years.