In the latest Business Finance Bulletin Rob Warlow looks at the forthcoming launch of country-wide Venture Funding Hubs which will provide free advice to businesses wanting to know more about crowdfunding and how it works.

Turning to conventional sources of funding Rob looks at the latest bank lending figures which perhaps not surprisingly show a further fall in the total amount outstanding to UK businesses. However, there is a glimmer of some good news.

What banks are looking for in a finance request is the subject of a recent review, The State of Business Finance, carried out by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and Rob shares the one message this report has for banks.

Whether businesses actually want to borrow is a topic that is rarely looked at but as Rob discusses there is a large section of the UK business market that have no interest in borrowing. In a clip from a live seminar Rob looks at the key reasons why business owners say they are not interested in looking for finance.

If you prefer to listen to this week’s Bulletin you can download it as a podcast via our Soundcloud page. To listen now click below or click the download image to save to your PC or phone.

Posted on 23.01.2014, by Rob Warlow

Face with growing outcries about the continual fall in bank lending, the main High Street banks have launched a new campaign to get businesses borrowing.

The banks, together with the British Bankers Association, are keen to let businesses know they are a lot more likely to get bank finance than they think. The banks, which include Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Nat West, RBS and Santander, quote a recent SME Finance Monitor report which says that while only 37% of SMEs planning to apply for finance believe they will get approval from their bank, actual approval rates are a lot higher at almost 67%.

The research from the BDRC survey identified as many as 270,000 businesses that wanted to apply for finance but never actually ended up doing so. It attributes a lack of confidence in their chances of success as one of the key reasons for this.

The message of the campaign is that increasing confidence amongst businesses around lending has the potential to boost the UK economy, as if all of those businesses went ahead and applied for finance this could enable:

• 53,000 small and medium sized businesses expand in the UK
• 48,000 new orders for equipment
• 113,000 businesses to boost their spending power
• 16,000 companies to develop new products or significantly improve their offering to customers

The 12-month campaign will be aimed at businesses with a turnover of less than £25million, and working alongside the government, politicians, banks and business groups it will spread the message that SMEs are a lot more likely to get finance than they think.

The campaign, featuring online advertising and social media outreach, will provide top tips for finance success, promote schemes such as business mentoring and showcase examples of businesses that have gone on to grow and prosper after securing a loan.