On Yer Bike – A Week In Review
What an interesting coincidence. The day IDS announces welfare reforms to get people back to work, Boris suggests that people should “get on yer bike” with the launch of the new bike hire scheme in London. I’m sure Norman Tebbit would be proud.
This sort of government involvement belies the hue of these government officials – especially when you add in the assertions of the Business secretary Vince Cable who has indicated that the part state-owned banks could suffer sanctions if they don’t lend in greater amounts to small businesses. With he banks pre-empting more state “interference” by suggesting that small businesses just do not want to borrow at the moment because of economic uncertainty. From our experience this is just plain rubbish. There’s a world of difference between a small company needing debt funding to keep operating and those seeking other equity funding in the form of angel investment to expand. For those organisations that don’t offer anything remarkable and are in distressed state, equity funding just isn’t an option. The problem is that the only way forward for too many small business owners is to “get on yer bike” and head down to the bank. Unfortunately many are returning empty handed. Let’s hope that Vince and the gang can bang a few heads together.
» For more information read the Financing a private sector recovery white paper document from the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (pdf)
And in an interesting report on the premier production of the BBC Comedy Channel, Tom Bulford from Money Week reported that last year 395,327 new businesses were registered which has only been bettered once in the last 25 years – enterprise certainly is flourishing. But this raises an interesting question, how will these start-ups be financed? With interest rates looking to stay low for a good while, will the queues start to lengthen at the banks, will grandma be turfed out into a granny flat to obtain “love money” or will angel investment become the funding option of choice? Of course, programmes such as Dragon’s Den and Mary Queen of Shops have at least opened up the eyes to the fact that if a new business is going to increase the chances of survival, money just isn’t enough – the type of business acumen that Angel Investors offer can be the difference between success and failure.
So if you’re still undecided about Angel Investment then we’ve got a wide range of Funding Clinics up and down the country this summer that you can arrange a time and pop in and chat over your questions about business funding, just click here for the dates in your region.
And for those that like to hear a bit about outcomes from our SpeedFunding events … the last held in Singapore this week generated at least one Angel interested in each entrepreneur with two of them having six Angels wanting to meet further and talk details.
This week has been no different to most, we’re travelling the world spreading the word about angel investment, and the government are trying to open up lending. We want the same thing in the end: a well-supported enterprise sector.
