About
The buyer of a $2m business gets no one on their side.
Their accountant is not engaged for the transaction, their broker's job is the loan, and nobody rebuilds the numbers or writes the credit submission. This firm exists to do exactly that, at a fixed fee.
Why this exists
Better finance for the businesses trying to get past $10m.
Most commercial advice is built for businesses far larger than the ones that make up nearly all of Australia. Owners buying, borrowing or growing are quoted mid-tier fees for mid-tier attention, or handed a template and wished well. Our work is with the businesses trying to scale past $10m in revenue and keep going: from the first facility a startup can get, through the years when the numbers stop fitting a simple application, and on to the corporate banking relationships that come with size. We stay through the bad years too, which is where the speciality in restructuring and distressed finance came from. Every calculator here is free and every method is set out because an owner who understands the arithmetic makes better decisions than one who is told the answer.
Nicholas Clunes, Founder
Principal
Nick Clunes
Nick started on the lender's side of the desk, as a personal and business banker, before moving into broking in 2018. Since then he has spent his career in commercial and acquisition finance, structuring and arranging funding for business purchases, commercial property and development transactions across Australia.
Nick leads every engagement personally: he scopes the work, reviews every finding and takes every debrief call. The team builds behind him to the same standard. The conclusions you rely on are his, and he stands behind every number in the report.
$200M+
Arranged across development, construction and private lending
8+ years
In commercial and acquisition finance
Top 10
Broker recognition
Gold Club Elite 2025 · Commercial Broker of the Year finalist 2025 · Multiple MFAA award nominations
Figures relate to finance arranged by Nicholas Clunes through his broking businesses, Andorra Private and The Lending Lab.
Qualifications and professional standing
- Diploma of Finance and Mortgage Broking Management
- Diploma of Financial Services, specialising in complex issues in commercial finance
- Accounting and finance studies at Charles Sturt University (Bachelor of Business, Finance and Accounting), with strong results in the accounting subjects
- Xero Certified Professional (Level 2)
- Certified Lending and Finance Professional with CAFBA, in progress
- Mortgage Finance Professional accreditation with the MFAA, in progress
- Member, Australian Institute of Company Directors (MAICD)
- Justice of the Peace, NSW
Nicholas Clunes: Credit Representative Number 530711 is authorised under Australian Credit Licence Number 387856. For credit services, visit thelendinglab.com.au.
Level 3, 116 Military Road, Neutral Bay NSW 2089 · 0480 521 605
Why the background matters
Banking and broking are different crafts. Nick has done both.
Inside the bank
A banker works a single credit policy from the inside, with a credit team down the hall to argue the marginal deal. You learn what an assessor actually reads, and what makes a file die on the desk.
As a broker
A broker has to know forty lenders cold, read which one will say yes to this file, package it for that lender's policy, and win the approval without any bank's internal advocate carrying it.
Learning the second craft after the first is what lets Nick and his team present a deal the way the person deciding on it needs to see it.
What we actually do
Credit-team analysis, before the credit team sees the file.
For buyers, and just as much for owners who are not buying anything: the business is running, new debt or a growth move is on the table, and nobody has tested what the numbers actually carry.
The work
Commercial numbers work: rebuilding earnings from source documents, modelling debt against them, and testing what a business can carry before it commits.
Where we sit
Your accountant knows the history and keeps the compliance work. Nick and his team work out what a lender will do with the numbers, and then go and get it done across 40+ lenders. Credit assistance is provided by Nicholas Clunes, Credit Representative Number 530711, under Australian Credit Licence Number 387856.
The long haul
The relationship does not end at the deal. Whatever stage you are at, Nick knows who you need next: the right accountant, solicitor, insolvency practitioner, financial planner or buyers agent. The buying, the growing, the property outside the business, the hard conversations in between, he stays for all of it.
Some of that experience is contracted directly rather than bought as a product: lenders structuring credit, brokerages building commercial capability, boards wanting the funding perspective in the room. How consulting works.
Why fixed fees, no hidden costs
People buying businesses at this scale currently pay mid-tier firms roughly three times our schedule for a slower answer. Or they skip diligence entirely, because nobody can budget for an open-ended hourly engagement. Putting the fee on the site fixes both problems. You can see the price, match it to the transaction, and book a call knowing exactly what the work costs.
The same logic drives the engagement terms. The fee is payable regardless of what the analysis concludes, because the product is the answer, not a particular answer.
Related businesses
Andorra Private
The development, construction and private lending broking brand of Andorra Private Advisory Group Pty Ltd. A separate offering to the advisory work on this site; see our disclosures for how the two interact.
andorraprivate.com.auThe Lending Lab
Where the credit authorisation sits. Finance we arrange is provided under Nick’s credit representative authorisation held through The Lending Lab Pty Ltd, and where a lender pays commission on a facility it is paid there. Through this site we arrange commercial finance only, for business or investment purposes.
thelendinglab.com.auWant a straight read on your deal?
Book a free call with Nick. Bring the numbers you have, and we will tell you the right service level and the fixed fee. No obligation.