It is generally accepted that a business plan is essential for business owners who are seeking to raise money to help fund their businesses. However, a business plan written by the management team can easily fall into the trap of being inward focussed, i.e. centred around the management benefits of planning. To secure finance, you will need to have a business plan, which is specifically targeted to meet the individual requirements of your finance providers or your investors, and not your management team. How does a Funding Business Plan help? Whether debt or equity, a potential backer wants to see why you need finance, how you plan to use it, and what evidence you can provide to back up any claims. It helps convince lenders and investors, that the business owner has thought the strategy through. It also gives any actual investors a set of financial benchmarks for which the business owner and the management team can be held accountable. What should be … [Read more...]
Are banks really that bad?
It is fashionable these days to criticise and knock banks. Most people think that they caused the recession and many feel that they have not changed in the last few years. The media are happy to promote stories about evil banks causing small businesses lots of trouble. But is this the reality in 2011? Lloyds Banking Group have recently put out some figures that do not seem to have been widely reported and also seem to show that the press view and the actual position are far apart. For instance this year Lloyds alone lent £9.6Bn to SMEs out of a total of £32Bn to all UK businesses. They report in their bulletin, “ Supporting UK Businesses,” that they are on track to fulfil their part of the Merlin agreement for business lending. In fact there was a 2% growth in business lending year on year by Lloyds in its core Commercial sector. Further they have approved eight out of ten requests for loans and overdrafts this year. Of course there will be exceptions to the rule. There will be … [Read more...]
