Meet Mr Business Loans

Let's get the important bit out of the way first: Mr Business Loans is a cartoon. He's a mascot. He was drawn, not born, and you won't find him at a bank counter or on the end of a phone. What you will find is a character with one job: to make business funding feel friendlier for owners on both sides of the Tasman.

Why a mascot?

Because business funding has a reputation for being grey, jargon-heavy and a little bit intimidating. Owners put off asking questions they really should ask, like "can I borrow to pay my GST?" or "does an IRD debt rule me out?", because they're worried about looking silly or leaving a mark on their credit file. Mr is the opposite of intimidating. He's colourful, a bit cheeky, and genuinely interested in the answer.

He also has a very good memory for the differences between Australia and New Zealand, which is handy, because there are a lot of them. Tax offices, GST rates, business numbers, payroll rules and property registries all change when you cross the water.

The bowler hat, the specs and the moustache

• The bowler hat is for looking tidy at important conversations. It has a tangerine band because Mr believes even serious things deserve a bit of colour.
• The round specs are for reading the fine print. He always reads the fine print.
• The moustache is mostly for fun. It's rumoured to have its own comb.
• The briefcase holds the good stuff: document checklists, tax calendars and a well-thumbed Aussie–Kiwi jargon translator.

Mr's family

Mr has two close relatives who do the real work. In Australia, there's Mr Business Loan (mrbusinessloan.com.au), a straight-talking type who answers Australian owners' questions one at a time. In New Zealand, there's Mr's Kiwi side at mrbusinessloans.co.nz, who answers questions for New Zealand owners. When you're ready to enquire, that's where you go, and a real person on that side reads what you send.

This site, mrbusinessloans.com, is the family home: the place for side-by-side explainers, trans-Tasman questions and a bit of fun. It has no form of its own. Every "get started" button takes you to the country chooser.

What Mr believes

1. Asking should be free and safe. That's why there's no credit check when you first enquire on either country site.
2. Your details aren't confetti. Mr doesn't hold with spray-and-pray. Your enquiry goes to one team in your country, not to a crowd of lenders.
3. People beat robots. A real person reads every enquiry and calls to talk it through.
4. Honesty saves time. Accurate answers on the form get you the right match first time, and a straight "no" beats a long "maybe".
5. No rate games. Mr never quotes "from" rates. Every loan is priced on the business's own situation.

Where to find Mr

Mr pops up all over this site: waving on the home page, thinking hard in the Ask Mr anything tool, cheering at the end of the funding route quiz, and pointing at the important bits in the side-by-side explainers and trans-Tasman pages. If you see him, say hello. He'll wave back. Probably.

And when you're ready for more than a cartoon, pick your country and start a 60-second enquiry.