Personal Loans Becoming Popular With Small Business Owners

Mon, 13 Jul 2009

Nearly a third of Britain’s small business owners are willing to turn to personal loans to fund their business, new research has revealed.

A survey of more than 500 small and medium-sized companies in the UK, commissioned by the invoice finance arm of Close Brothers investment bank, found that 30 per cent would happily take a personal loan and 6 per cent would use credit cards to finance operations.

A further 20 per cent of enterprises said they would approach friends and family for the funds, double the amount reported in last year’s survey.

David Thomson, chief executive of Close Invoice Finance, said problems accessing credit from banks has forced many small business owners to pursue "risky" short-term strategies to secure finance .

However, many company owners claim that conventional bank lending has become easier to secure in recent weeks, helped by the government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme .

Mike Anstey, managing director of Pilotlight, which helps launch new businesses and business teams within large corporations, said the EFG was more of a success than the Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme it replaced.

More than 3,500 businesses have been offered loans through the new scheme, totalling more than £346m, according to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
add to favouritesnewsletterlink to this pagesend to friendpost comments

Link to this page

Copy and Paste the following HTML into your page.

Credit Crunch Savers
HSA Dental Plan
Get covered from £7.70 per month!
Amex Cash Back
Credit Card
Get 5% cash back on purchases with Amex
Income Protection Insurance
Get an instant quote with the award winning company