Can I get a business loan if my business has no assets?

If you run a consultancy, a cleaning round, a digital agency or a one-person trade, you may own very little a lender can point at. No building, no machinery, no stock room. That feels like a dead end, because most people picture lending as “put something up, borrow against it”. It is not the only model, and for service businesses it is often not the main one.

How do lenders decide when there is nothing to secure against?

They swap the question. Instead of “what could we sell if this goes wrong?”, they ask “does this business reliably generate enough cash to repay?” The evidence is your business bank statements: how much comes in each month, how steady it is, how close the balance runs to zero, and what is already going out to other lenders.

That is why unsecured business loans are sized on turnover rather than on a valuation. Our funding range for this kind of loan is typically $5k to $500k. Where you sit depends on the money moving through your account, not on the assets behind it. Our guide to what lenders see in your bank statements shows the lines they read first.

Many lenders can now read statements directly, with your permission, through the Consumer Data Right. That means fewer PDFs and a faster answer, but it also means they see everything, including the quiet months.

What does “unsecured” actually mean?

This is the part most articles skip. Unsecured means there is no specific asset, like a house or a truck, pledged against the loan. It does not mean the lender has no claim on anything. Three things commonly sit behind an unsecured loan:

• A personal guarantee. If the borrower is a company, the director usually promises to repay if the company does not. Our guide to personal guarantees covers what that exposes.
• A general security agreement (GSA). Some lenders take security over all of the company’s present and future personal property, even if that is just a laptop, receivables and a bank account. The lender can then register that interest on the Personal Property Securities Register. The PPSR guidance is clear that a security agreement and a registration work together to protect the lender’s position.
• A PPSR registration you can see. Once registered, it shows up when other lenders search. It can make a second loan harder if the first lender holds a GSA over everything.

So “no assets” does not mean “nothing to take”. ASIC describes a security interest as an interest in personal property, meaning anything other than land, that backs a debt. A business with only receivables, contracts and a bank account has plenty of that kind of property. Ask any lender whether they will register on the PPSR and over what.

Which businesses borrow this way most?

Asset-light, cash-generating businesses: consultants, recruiters, marketing and design studios, bookkeepers, health practitioners renting their rooms, mobile tradies working from a leased ute, online sellers who drop-ship, and sole traders of every kind. If you are one of those, also read our sole trader loans page, because the borrower is you personally and the credit file that counts is yours.

What are the real limits of borrowing without security?

Be honest about three:

1. Turnover caps the amount. A business that banks $30k a month will not be offered a loan sized for $300k a month. Lenders work backwards from deposits, so the number is your reality check. Our guide on how much your business can borrow walks through the logic.
2. A short history shrinks the first offer. Under six months of statements, there is little to read. An offer may be smaller, with the chance to step up once a pattern shows.
3. Existing repayments reduce room. Every repayment to another lender comes out of what the lender thinks you can afford. Stacking small loans before applying can leave less than you expected.

When does a guarantor or property help?

If the amount you need is more than your turnover supports, there is a second route: someone with property offers it as security. This could be a business partner, a family member or you personally. Property-secured business loans start at $20k and go to $5m, via first mortgage, second mortgage or caveat, and we do not need a valuation before approval.

The trade-off is serious. The asset belongs to a person, and if the loan fails that person’s property is at risk. Our guides on property security for business loans and using home equity for business set out what to weigh. A guarantor should always get independent legal advice and know the most they could lose.

If you want to see how the two routes compare, the secured business loans page is the place to look.

A worked example

This is an illustration, not a real client. A Brisbane bookkeeper trading for 18 months has a laptop, a subscription to accounting software and about $28k of deposits most months. No property. The bank declined a loan because there was nothing to secure it against.

An unsecured, cash-flow lender looks at twelve months of statements instead. Deposits are steady, there is one dip in January, there are no other loan repayments, and the director’s credit is clean. The offer is sized to the deposits, with a personal guarantee from the director. It is not enormous, but it covers the new staff member she was after. A year later, with a longer record, she can ask for more.

Mistakes that cost asset-light owners

• Applying to six lenders at once. Each one can leave an enquiry on your credit file, and enquiries are visible to the next lender. Our credit enquiries guide explains why.
• Mixing personal and business spending. Statements full of personal transfers make income hard to read.
• Over-borrowing because the limit is high. A bigger approval is not a reason to take it. Borrow what the job needs and can repay from cash flow.
• Not checking who gets a GSA. If the first lender takes everything, the second one has nothing to sit behind.
• Overstating turnover on the form. Lenders check against the statements, and a mismatch slows or sinks a deal.

If you are not sure where you stand, take a minute to check your options. It does not touch your credit file.

How should you compare offers when security is light?

Look past the headline amount. Ask four questions of every offer: what is the total you repay, how often are repayments taken and does your cash flow handle that rhythm, is there a personal guarantee and is it capped, and will the lender register a GSA over the whole company. Our guide to comparing offers by total cost shows how to line two offers up side by side.

Repayment rhythm matters more for asset-light businesses than most owners expect. A service business that is paid on 30-day terms but repays weekly can be squeezed in the gap, so match the repayment pattern to when your customers actually pay. If it does not line up, ask for a different structure before signing, not after.

How to prepare in a week

1. Pull the last six to twelve months of business statements and read them as a stranger would.
2. Separate personal spending into a personal account before you apply.
3. List what you owe to other lenders, with repayment amounts.
4. Decide the real purpose and the amount, then add a sensible buffer, not a large one.
5. If a person could back you with property, have an honest conversation before the application, not after.

The loan documents checklist covers the paperwork, and speed is mostly about having it ready: funds can arrive in as little as 24 hours on straightforward files once documents are signed.

Ready to see what your cash flow can borrow?

Having no assets is not a mark against you. It describes how a lot of good Australian businesses are built, and the right lender looks at what you earn, not what you own.

Enquiring takes about 60 seconds, and your credit file isn’t touched just for asking, so you can find out where you stand with no risk to your score. We don’t send your details out to a pile of lenders. One real person reads your situation and calls you to talk it through. Please fill the form in accurately, so we can match the right option first time.

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