In short
Some South African accountants add a second income stream by becoming trained private-lending consultants alongside their practice. You're trained, given a public profile page, a calculator and ongoing support, and mentored through your first client meeting. You earn commission on business successfully placed — starting at 3% and rising with volume. It's a commercial opportunity, not guaranteed income, and you'd be an independent consultant, not an employee.
The role
Trained consultant
Commission
From 3%, rising with volume
Qualification needed
None — we train you
Status
Independent, not employed
01 — The fit
Why this suits accountants particularly well
Accountants have something that can't be manufactured: people already trust you with their numbers. You see who has capital sitting idle, who has just sold a business, who is holding a lump sum in a call account earning very little. And crucially, when you say something is worth a look, people listen — because you have no history of selling them anything.
You also already do the hard part. Explaining a structure clearly, being honest about trade-offs, telling a client when something isn't right for them — that's the daily work of a good accountant, and it's precisely the skill a private-lending consultant needs. Most of what makes someone effective in this role is what makes someone a decent accountant in the first place.
What's usually missing isn't ability or relationships — it's a credible product, proper training, and the tools to explain it. That's the gap this fills.
02 — The role
What a ProLend consultant actually is
Worth being precise, because "referral" gets thrown around loosely. A ProLend consultant is not a referral link. You're a trained professional who can explain private lending properly, model real figures with a client, and walk them through the structure, the term and the risks — then hand over to ProLend's product team for anything beyond your remit.
In practice that means a conversation, not a pitch. A client models their own numbers on your calculator, sees an indicative figure for their own amount, and then you talk it through honestly. Your job is to make it clear, not to sell — which is also the only way this works for someone whose professional reputation is the asset.
You're an independent consultant, not an employee of ProLend. That's set out plainly in the consultant agreement.
03 — Earnings
How consultants are paid
Consultants earn commission on business successfully placed — starting at 3% and rising with the monthly business secured, up to 4.5%, per the consultant agreement. Because private lending typically involves substantial amounts of capital, a small number of successful conversations can be meaningful.
Two honest caveats, stated plainly. First, this is a commercial opportunity, not a guarantee of income — you're paid on business actually placed, so the outcome depends on the work you do and on clients choosing to proceed. Second, commission is income, so speak to your own tax adviser about how it should be treated alongside your practice earnings. You'd hardly need telling, but it's worth stating.
04 — Practicalities
How it fits alongside a practice
This is designed to sit beside an existing practice rather than compete with it. There's no minimum hours, no territory to service, no obligation to hit targets. Training is structured and paced, and the client conversations tend to happen with people you already deal with — often as a natural extension of a conversation you're already having about a client's position.
The seasonal shape of accounting work is worth thinking about too. Practice work has heavy periods and quieter ones; consultancy conversations can largely be placed in the quieter stretches. Several professionals treat it as something that scales up when they have capacity and quietly ticks over when they don't — which is only workable because there are no volume obligations.
There's a strategic angle beyond the income, too. Practice fees are largely tied to hours and compliance deadlines — you earn by doing the work, every year, forever. Commission on capital placed behaves differently: it isn't billed by the hour, and it draws on relationships you've already built rather than new time you have to find. For a practice thinking about what its next decade looks like, a second income line that doesn't scale purely with hours is worth understanding, even if you conclude it isn't for you.
05 — Support
What ProLend gives you
The reason this is a consultancy rather than a referral scheme is the infrastructure behind it. Consultants are given:
- Training on private lending, the products and how to have the conversation properly.
- A public profile page on ProLend — a professional presence clients can check you out on.
- Your own calculator link, so clients model their own figures and the activity is attributed to you.
- A digital business card and email signature, so you look the part from day one.
- A mentored first client meeting — you're not sent out alone the first time.
- Ongoing product support for anything technical or beyond your remit.
You can see the actual assets a consultant is given — profile page, business card and signature — rather than take the description on trust.
06 — Due diligence
What to check before you apply
This part matters more for accountants than for most, and it would be wrong to gloss over it. Before taking on any outside commercial work, check:
- Your professional body's rules on outside business interests and earning commission.
- Your firm's policies, if you're not in your own practice.
- Conflict-of-interest and disclosure obligations — where a client relationship overlaps with commercial work, transparency protects you.
- Whether the activity touches regulated financial advice in your circumstances, and what that implies for you.
ProLend can't advise you on your professional obligations, and you shouldn't accept anyone who says otherwise — those are yours to confirm with your professional body. What we can say is that the role is designed as education and introduction, with product specifics referred to the registered provider, and that consultants are independent rather than employed.
07 — Getting started
How to start
The process is deliberately unhurried: a short application, then a conversation to see whether it's a fit both ways, then training before you speak to anyone. Nothing commits you at the application stage — it's an introduction, not a contract.
If you want the full picture of the model first — the training, the tools, the support and how consultants build a practice — the become a consultant page covers it. If you'd rather just start the conversation, the application takes a few minutes.