British Business Bank launches new ‘Making business finance work for you’ Guide to coincide with Business Finance Week
The British Business Bank today launches a new guide aimed at smaller businesses to help them understand how different financial products can support them at all stages of their development.
The launch comes during the Bank’s annual Business Finance Week, which provides smaller UK businesses with a host of free nationwide and regional in-person and virtual events and seminars from 6-10 November.
The week, run in conjunction with partners from across the industry, addresses a different theme each day, covering starting up, growing, thriving, innovating and next steps.
The new guide, ‘Making business finance work for you’, available on the British Business Bank’s online Finance Hub, is designed to help businesses make informed choices about accessing the right type of finance. It highlights the seven most common challenges businesses might face and the types of finance that could help to meet them:
- Starting a business – Starting a new business often requires capital – money that is used to help research a business idea, create a prototype product, or purchase equipment or machinery that a new business will use.
- Research and development – Research and development (R&D) is when a business develops innovative products, services, or processes.
- Importing and exporting goods and services – Businesses selling goods or services overseas face risks when it comes to cash flow and receiving payment from buyers.
- Protecting cash flow and working capital – Cash flow can be unpredictable with unforeseen costs, seasonal fluctuations, and wider economic challenges all impacting business growth.
- Debt consolidation – If a small business has multiple loans or lines of credit, they may decide to consolidate their debts into a single, more manageable loan.
- Purchasing a major asset – If a small business is looking to acquire another business or invest in a large asset, such as specialist plant or machinery, an injection of capital may be required.
- Scaling and growing a business – Whether it’s opening a new location, expanding product lines or increasing production capacity, growth requires capital.
Louis Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, British Business Bank, said:
“It can be challenging for businesses to find the right finance at the right point in their journey. I hope our new ‘Making business finance work for you’ guide, the seminars and other events that we are running during this year’s Business Finance Week can help businesses find the information and finance that they need to take them to the next level.”
As well as online, the ‘Making business finance work for you’ guide is also available in Accessible PDF, hard copy, Braille, Audio-Described and Large Print PDF (20pt) formats.
ENDS
Notes to Editors
About the British Business Bank
The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.
The British Business Bank’s core programmes support over £12.4 billion ¹ of finance to more than 90,000 smaller businesses ².
As well as increasing the supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of finance options available to smaller businesses. The British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to businesses about finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success.
The British Business Bank is also responsible for administering the government’s three Coronavirus loan schemes and its Future Fund, together responsible for delivering £80.4 billion in finance to 1.67 million businesses. These schemes are now closed to new applications.
British Business Bank plc is a public limited company registered in England and Wales, registration number 08616013, registered office at Steel City House, West Street, Sheffield, S1 2GQ. Wholly owned by HM government, the Bank and its subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. They are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). A complete legal structure chart for the group can be found at the British Business Bank.
References:
¹ Figures as at the end of March 2023
² Figures as at the end of March 2023