Short Term Finance Options You Have Probably Never Heard Of with Chetan Jethwa [CPD Available]

Check if your dental practice qualifies for capital allowances here >>> https://www.dentistswhoinvest.com/chris-lonergan

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UK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club

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Cash flow can look fine on a spreadsheet and still fail you on payday. We unpack a clear, practical playbook for UK dentists to stay liquid when insurers delay payments, tax deadlines cluster, marketing needs ramp up, or a critical scanner dies at the worst time. With finance expert support, we explore fast, purpose‑built funding that keeps teams paid, treatments running, and growth plans alive without remortgaging the practice.

We walk through short‑term working capital that lands within days, fixed‑term loans that turn chaos into a known monthly line, and specialised facilities for self‑assessment, VAT, and corporation tax. You’ll hear why predictable repayments over 12 to 72 months can protect decision‑making, how to map term length to the problem you’re solving, and where unsecured options or a personal guarantee make sense. We also dig into marketing finance for Google Ads, SEO, and Instagram campaigns, showing how a planned budget and realistic patient value can turn borrowed pounds into full chairs and stronger long‑term revenue.

When shocks hit, speed matters. We outline funding routes for staffing gaps, agency cover, equipment breakdowns, and urgent replacements, plus merchant cash advances that flex with PDQ/card takings. The theme is discipline over drama: maintain a small contingency, keep documents ready, choose lenders who know dental cash cycles, and borrow to a clear purpose with measurable outcomes. Liquidity is a strategy, not a wish, and the right mix of tools helps you protect service quality while you scale on your terms.

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Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.

Chapters

• 2:40 Welcome And CPD Membership Perks
• 4:16 Why Short‑Term Funding Matters
• 5:13 Solving Delayed Insurance Payments
• 6:58 Financing Tax, VAT And Corporation Bills
• 9:05 Borrowing For Marketing And Growth

Transcript

Dr James: 1:47

Welcome back to Dentists Who Invest Podcast, everybody. Today we're here to talk about finance options, except with a little bit of a twist, because these are lots of the options that are out there. Maybe us dentists just aren't going quite as often as we should be. We're gonna get proper, obscure, and easy temperature on this podcast because that's what the fun stuff like is. I'm joined by Mr. Chetan Jethwa, Finance Expert to Dentists. I'm here today to learn just as much as everybody else is. Looking forward to this episode as ever. As ever, you can claim your CPD for this episode within the official Dentists Who Invest Smart Money Members Club. Smart Money Members Club also includes multiple mini courses and webinar series on finance to dentists, including how to become as tax efficient as possible, as well as understanding investing. All of this content comments as a verifiable CPD, and you can download your certificates there and then one completion of each lesson. In addition to this, we also include a whopping 10% discount on your dental indemnity and a 5% discount on lab bills for dental principals, amongst other perks and discounts for members. Please use the link in the description to claim your verifiable CPD for this episode. Alright, we're here to talk finance for dentists today, Chetan. And you know what? Everybody knows about commercial premises finance and goodwill finance and equipment finance, but there's way more stuff out there that people don't necessarily know about, and you're regaling me about these just off camera.

Chetan: 3:16

Yes, yeah. Thanks, James, for having me. But there are so many finance options out there when it comes to short-term funding. And the short-term funding can be used for a number of uses. Obviously, this is very specific to dentists, but what I try and highlight when I speak to a client is what have you thought about? Because you might have a need for money in the short term, which you want to get done within a couple of days, two, three days, or even same-day funding. Um, it's not impossible to do. It's about knowing where to go, speaking to the right individuals and getting that money arranged. But what I've noticed of late, where people within the dental market are using money, is things where um they get delayed insurance payments. Uh, and that's become quite uh quite large of late. I don't know why, it may be the insurance companies, maybe the admin teams, etc. But you can actually ensure that you've got funding in place to pay your staff, pay your bills, pay your associates, because unfortunately, insurers can delay payments for a multitude of reasons. Um but liquidity is key, and that's probably the most important thing. The other advantage with some of the fixed-term uh loans is at least you know that you've got a fixed cost for the next 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, or up to six years, depending on the use of that. Um, the other thing we've seen a lot of um is tax bills. So we saw them in July when you've got to do your uh personal returns. Uh the bills are coming up again. Uh and then uh tax um VAT and corporation tax. So if you do need to pay VAT or corporation tax for other sides of the business, then we can actually get loans in place to get those paid off. And once again, a competitive rate, so it's not um back breaking or anything like that, but you've got the liquidity there to get the bills paid in time and ensure they get paid until the following year. And if you need to use it again, you can in the future. Uh there's also uh a need, I would say, for the this next sector, which we've seen explode a fair bit, and that's basically things like your marketing. So no one's ever actually thought about do you know what I can actually borrow money to pay for my Google ads. So you've got third-party people that run these kind of things, like your Google Ads, your PayPal Click, um, SEO and so forth. I'm not an expert in those areas, but I know they're very expensive because I've tried it in my own business. But what I do understand is funding helps because by you being able to be that little bit different to your competitor, you might be able to do localized ads, whether it's Instagram ads, because I see it on my own Instagram, people putting veneers in and dentists and implants, and a lot of the times that the actual dentist themselves has a little niche around them of what they do and how that they present themselves, and that helps with social media. But if you needed funding for that within, say a master business plan of growing your business, yes, you can get that kind of funding.

Dr James: 6:12

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Chetan: 8:03

Now, it all just depends on what you'd like to do. But as and when you decide, just let your broker or advisor know, or whoever your funding partner is, and they'll be able to come up with a solution. But do have a look at that because it can help. And coming to a new year, everyone's going to have new marketing um strategies in place. What else do we see? Um we also see things like staffing gaps. So if you ever come across that and you need to take on agency stuff, cash flow helps because at times when it comes to the month end, you run payroll, etc., it can get tight for most businesses. Machines breaking down. Uh, I think someone actually reached out for a mobile CT scanner that broke down recently. Needed to get a new one in very, very quickly. And uh the thing is, those uh things can be funded very quickly, but on the same token, it's just about understanding what you're buying, why you're buying it, can you service the debt as a practice um or as an individual? How is it being bought? Now, uh what I say to everyone is always have enough contingency, um, and that's liquidity in your business because you never know what's going to pop up, like the breakdown of machines. You might need to do renovation work, slight refurbishment, and you don't want to remortgage a whole practice for that because you might need 100k, but you might actually find you know what, we don't need to refinance a big fixed-term loan or borrow against goodwill or any of those kind of bits. There are other ways of getting that working capital into the business so you guys can do what you're great at, which is obviously doing your dental treatment. Now, there's different types of loans, there's secured loans, unsecured loans. Most of this short-term lending that I mentioned is actually going to be on an unsecured basis or just with a personal guarantee. So it's quite easy, very, very quick to set up. Um, and there's another kind of caveat to this. A lot of um dentists are now exploring things like merchant cash advances. Because if you're doing a lot of work on PDQs and you're taking electronic payments, that can be another method of a short-term kind of loan or money that you could borrow against, and that's something a lot of guys are exploring. Now, you're gonna find that dependent on when or what time of the year it is, things vary as to why you might need money. So I know for a fact I've already had clients calling me up saying, Can you help me? Because I've got a corporation tax bill to pay and I've got a massive personal self-assessment kind of bill to pay. This is kind of the ideal time to start looking into things and seeing where you go from there because the rates are good. Um, they're not the the the worst in the world when it comes to actually rates, because it serves a purpose. And if it serves a purpose of getting the job done and ensuring that the bills are paid on time, taxes paid, um PAWA is paid, etc. Because it depends whether it's your personal tax or your corporation tax, but things will get done. Um but that's probably what I'm seeing now. But at the end of the day, like I said, short-term financing is exactly that. It's 12 months, 24 months, 36 months, up to say six years. It serves a purpose to get money in as and when you need it, because yes, there might be a machine you want to buy or you might want to grow your business. But you know what? Give me a call, chat and Jetha. Um, my number's 07962-337-337, and I always say that's the best thing. Um, to give me a shout, WhatsApp me, text me, and then one of the team or myself will get back to you and we'll get the funding in place.