Posted on 05.02.2014
With 2014 being a year of growth for many businesses, as we have talked about before in this blog, the question is how is that growth going to be financed?
Whilst there is evidence to suggest that banks are dipping their toes back into the market and avenues for alternative sources of finance continue to grow, one area of funding that is under-utilised and little understood is equity.
A recent report issued by the CBI, ‘Slice of the Pie: Tackling the Under-Utilisation of Equity Finance’, has revealed that just 3% of small and medium-sized businesses use this type of finance.
Raising equity to release cash involves shareholders selling a slice of their business and yet for many business owners this is a step too far. Not unsurprisingly the report reveals that the biggest barrier to improved demand for equity finance is the perception of losing ownership. 46% of businesses say they will not considering using equity finance due to concerns about losing ownership and decision-making power.
The CBI survey finds though that 68% of those firms which have raised finance this way believe that the investment had a positive impact on their business. As a result, four out of five of these businesses said that they would use additional equity finance to fund their business growth in the future. Bringing in new capital has also helped 26% of businesses gain additional external finance.
These businesses are ready-made advocates of equity finance, with 81% saying that they would recommend equity finance to another business.
Against the background of these benefits the CBI has recommended the following actions:
Further to your recent presentation at LEAD Wales just wanted to say it was very refreshing to see somebody talk passionately and positively about finance, very insightful!
Hi Rob, it was so interesting and entertaining listening to you at the Kevin Green Wealth Coach Workshop in Reading this weekend! I didnt realise you can find Finance proposals such fun!. Brilliant tips! Thanks.
Rob delivered a series of 3 workshops aimed at understanding how finance houses look at finance propositions with the aim for us as a team to deliver more of a bespoke offering to our customer base. The training was delivered to a mixture of staff who work with new businesses start-ups and existing established businesses across Mid & South West Wales. Rob delivered the training with an abundance of passion and has really helped my team look at financial propositions in a different light, many thanks again Rob and I look forward to work with you in the near future.
I wanted to thank you for such an insightful, energetic, and entertaining talk at the Kevin Green Wealth event on securing funding and creating a successful plan. It was brilliantly executed and a pleasure to listen to and the ideas I’ve learned are definitely going to help me in going forward.
Rob kindly agreed to attend the recent Pontypridd RFC sponsors networking evening and delivered what can only be described as an excellent talk on 5 Tactics to Boost Your Business and Your Profits. He kept the audience engaged throughout and the feedback from everyone was excellent. Rob is very knowledgeable on business and finance and on top of that is a genuine nice guy. We hope to have him back at a future event and I have no hesitation in recommending Rob’s services.