Ian Smith is the CEO of 1pm plc, an independent provider of finance facilities to the SME sector. Today, he offers Business Leader an insight into his company, his leadership style, and why he calls himself ‘the imposter in the room’.
Can you tell us about 1pm and what it does?
The 1pm name is derived from ‘one payment monthly’, which is the clue that we’re a money lender. 1pm is a non-bank, speciality finance provider focused on lending to SMEs in the UK, and, in particular, to smaller businesses – so the ‘S’ in SME. We’re a hybrid lender and broker, so taking lending risk on our own balance sheet, but also arranging finance from other lenders.
We’re deliberately multi-product, providing all the main finance products SMEs require, namely asset, loan, vehicle and invoice finance – this range of products sets us apart.
1pm plc (LON:OPM), established in 2006 is an independent provider of finance facilities to the SME sector. The 1pm plc group offer a full range of business finance solutions to the UK market from asset finance, hire purchase, commercial loans through to invoice finance and factoring.
