Trade Show Tips

Trade shows are a great opportunity to make yourself known. You may provide a great product or service, but it won’t do anyone any good – including you – if nobody knows you’re out there. At a trade show, the time you spend interacting with potential customers is very limited, and you have to make it count.   Here are a few things that can help you jumpstart your very own ad campaign and grow your customer network.

Leave a Good Impression

Nothing can make or break you like your first point of contact with potential clients. You should be friendly and informative while also explaining the benefit of your product or service. Is your end goal a sale? Probably. But you don’t want to look like you’re desperately giving a sales pitch. Good first impressions turn into good leads. Be your best self when you interact with possible customers and let the game come to you. Which brings me to my next point…

Leave Something Behind

Put something in the hands of those you meet. Consider a custom business card or some other tangible item someone can hold onto – the nicer, the better. If you show that you care about your enterprise, it’s more likely that you’ll be taken seriously.

Press Onward

Don’t waste all of your time talking to one individual or entity. Give them something to chew on and move to the next person. A potential customer will appreciate the fact that you make an effort to talk to everyone – this shows how dedicated you are, even in a scenario where you may be rushed and overwhelmed. Keep track of the people you talk to so you can follow up at the appropriate time.

Leaving a memorable, positive impression at a trade show can do wonders for your business. It can net results that even massive advertising campaigns would be jealous of. So, whenever you go put yourself on display, remember these tips so you can let everybody know how awesome you are.

Chris Ford enjoys science fiction, writing, and hot wings. He writes for Basler Co., Inc., makers of custom Post-It products.

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Web Hosting – Unlimited Doesn’t Exist!

You may hear people often talking about unlimited web hosting. This could either be unlimited disk space, bandwidth or both.

The truth is – it doesn’t exist.

It’s a marketing technique that has been used successfully over a number of years to lure people into paying money for something which will eventually stop working for them over time.

Imagine your website as a computer. You can only fill a computer with a certain amount of data before it starts to fill up and become slow. Your website is the exactly the same.

We all know that there’s no such thing as unlimited hard drives, or unlimited bandwidth. These are finite resources that have limits. Regardless of the size of your web host, they will probably have some sort of limit along the line.

It’s all in the fine print.

Let’s be honest, have we ever fully read the fine print? We merely just click accept and continue with whatever we were doing. This is where you will get caught out.

If your website is running a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, and you suddenly get a large burst of traffic then it’s very likely that your account would be suspended, rending your website unavailable. This could mean you lose customers and could hurt your SEO efforts too.

Moving away from the ‘unlimited web hosting lie’.

There’s a vast number of web hosting services available to choose from, all offering different prices for their services. However, picking one may be difficult.

HostNinja offer managed hosting solutions (they handle all the hard work) for a respectable price, and even offer solutions for those who are running sites with WordPress. They have 100% uptime, which means your site will always be online.

Quote SBC100 to get 100% off your first 2 months, and a free migration from your old host. Visit HostNinja by visiting www.host.ninja or by emailing them at hello@host.ninja.

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Why Website Experience is Critical to Business Success

Marketers have long postulated that “your website is your best salesperson,” and this statement is probably the best way to describe the importance of having a neat and informative company website that interacts with the audience. Considering the number of internet users who browse the web to find products and services they need, it’s clear why your website needs to provide seamless user experience.

Moreover, user experience can even determine the way people perceive a brand, which is another reason why webmasters should adopt a user-centric approach to building a website. Namely, as confirmed in an earlier research by PEER 1 Hosting, 76% of ecommerce decision makers claim website experience and brand perception are directly related.

Mobile is the next conversion platform

Few years ago, building a mobile-friendly website was rather optional, while today it is an imperative for businesses large and small. Even Google is preparing to roll out a new algorithm that is supposed to affect around 50% of search results according to some estimates. This means that half of the websites out there are still not optimized for mobile display, which translates into lost visits and potential purchases from mobile devices.

Given that today web users increasingly make purchases or calls from smartphones and tablets, mobile website is one of the critical aspects of user experience that needs to be considered. In a survey mentioned above, 35% of respondents pointed that mobile device compatibility contributed to overall business, which clearly points to the importance of this.

Overall design encourages people to complete actions

Once you ensure a visitor can actually land on your website, you need to make it easy for them to navigate across your pages. Here, simplicity is the key because it enables even the first time visitors to easily understand what your website is about and how to get to the specific pages they have been looking for.

Again, different studies on user behavior reveal that if a visitor doesn’t see what he or she has been searching for immediately on the page, they are likely to leave – frustrated. This is why a well-designed company website needs to display information in readable format and ensure every call-to-action or internal link is transparent. Coupled with graphic and textual elements that successfully communicate messages relevant to user’s query, such pages are more likely to drive conversions.

Speed is critical for user retention

Slow loading pages have always been seen as a major negative user experience trigger and are the most important aspect of your website you need to optimize. As reported by Kissmetrics, 47% of users are likely to leave a website if it takes longer than 2 seconds to load, while the research by Ensighten previously proved that this also negatively affects conversion rates.

Therefore, improving page load time is critical to website success and it should be done by writing a clean code, optimizing images for faster load and minimizing HTTP requests. Furthermore, the choice of a local web hosting provider and a scalable plan that supports your growth can be another way to overcome this issue. For example, if you’re running a local business in Sydney, choosing a web hosting provider that uses Australian servers would guarantee faster page load time. The same goes for businesses in Switzerland or any other region.

These are again rather technical aspects that you need to handle, but whose overall impact may well be worth your time and effort. By making the right decisions about everything from a web hosting package to the design and development team, you can ensure the best performance of your pages and, therefore, a greater number of satisfied users.

Conclusions

Considering the extent to which people nowadays rely on the internet search, it’s unsurprising that they’re increasingly expecting seamless experience on company websites. For website owners, this means that if a website fails to load properly on different devices, your prospects are likely to abandon it and try to find relevant information elsewhere. Obviously, this may translate into a lost revenue, which is certainly a scenario every business wants to avoid.

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Common Big Problems You Have To Deal With As A Startup Owner

Opening a small business is definitely a huge achievement for a lot of people but the really big challenge is maintaining it. We are faced with various standard challenges like hiring good staff, brand building and much more. However, those that are really complicated to deal with are the ones that you need to be extremely careful with since you will need to get over them in order to grow your firm.

Client Dependence

In the event that you have one major client that is bringing in a huge part of the income, the business is more like being an independent contractor. It is vital that you diversify a client base in order to grow your company. That is difficult if you have a really large client that does pay on time and does pay really well. Most small business owners believe that having this type of client is tremendous but on the long term, this is a huge problem.

Improper Money Management

You never know when an unexpected expense appears and if you do not have the necessary funds to pay bills, you end up bankrupt. Money management is incredibly important and too many individuals out there do not actually have the necessary skills for this. You have to be 100% sure that you build up cash reserves. While you can always deal with unexpected problems by selling a property or getting a loan, the most important thing is always being sure that you do have access to backups.

Getting Tired

Being a startup manager is something that takes up a lot of time. You have to work a lot and the hours that you are about to put in will bring in a lot of pressure. There are way too many business owners that are stuck working a lot of hours, usually a lot more than employees. The manager rarely takes time off. You have to do all that you can in order to relax. If you end up tired, you lose time, money and can end up bankrupt without realizing it.

Being Dependent On The Owner

Think about one thing: if something bad happens to you and you cannot work for 1 month, will the business still bring in the same income? If a company cannot operate properly without the founder, it is obvious that the business has an upcoming deadline. Founder dependence is really bad, especially as the business gets more clients. Compromises have to be made and that is tough for some owners.

The Balance Between Growth And Quality

The last thing we should highlight is that business growth is definitely something that an owner wants. However, managing that growth is not at all easy. Any business needs to make compromises in order to grow. In many situations you are faced with the personal engagement level that goes down with services and products. Small business owners are tied to various habits that are highly detrimental to overall growth. Scaling should always be done while maintaining brand values, which is really important.

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7 Accounting Blunders Every Small Business Needs to Avoid

Starting your own business can be an exciting as well as a nerve-wracking time. Exciting because you have this commercial entity that is all yours and you can mold it to suit your dreams. And nerve-wracking because any mistake you make, even a minor one, can come back to haunt you.

Irrespective of the stage your business is in, the accounting function is going to be an integral and complex part of it. Several small businesses bite the dust because of their failure to handle accounts well.

No business is immune to accounting errors. Mentioned ahead are a few common accounting mistakes that all small business owners should make a note of to keep their business safeguarded.

1. A Lack of Effective Accounting Processes

Several times, entrepreneurs forget to instruct their employees and/or contractors about the systems and procedures of their business. Having rules and processes in black and white can ensure that everyone associated with the business knows about them and reduces the chances of non-adherence to important regulations.

hen setting accounting procedures, include everything –  from accepting and making payments, depositing them, documenting important papers, dealing with routine tasks like payroll and GST, and all that comes in between. This should help you stay abreast of every transaction that your business makes and result in systematic and error-free procedures.

2. Mixing Business and Personal Finances

Mingling business and personal finances can spell doom for a business. Without boundaries, your finances can get out of hand very quickly. It also makes it extremely difficult to figure out how much money you’re making and spending.

Combining the two will create difficulties at the time of filing your taxes and audits as well because all the transactions will reflect on the same statement. It can also be tricky to pick out the individual deductions for your business. With this problem, it is easy to miss out on several deductions that were actually owed to you.

3. Working Without a Budget

Want to know for sure where your business stands currently and where it could after a particular duration? Make a concrete budget instead of just “watching” over your finances. If you thought making one is complicated, think again!

Start by looking at the bills and the deposits of the last few months and add other elements to it later.

Working without a budget is a serious mistake as it leads loss of control over expenditures, and missing out on investment opportunities in case of a surplus that you’re not aware of.

4. Losing Track of Account Receivables

Every time you make a sale, be sure to bill your customers for it. When you issue an invoice, you create a receivable, which needs to be recorded. Whether you sell items for cash, or provide cash for unwanted gold, do record every detail.

Having a detailed report of accounts receivables which includes client’s information as well as all late/outstanding payments is extremely essential to be able to follow up with delinquent ones and convert your sales to cash as well as blacklist such clients.

5. Not Keeping Tabs on Expenses

It is crucial to track all your expenses as it is a fundamental part of bookkeeping. An easy and effective way of doing so is to have a dedicated bank card or credit card for making business expenditures. You can also use apps which allow you to upload transaction receipts and enter information real time for accounting purposes.

6. Not Distinguishing Between Cash Flows and Profits

In order to avoid accounting errors, it is important that you understand the difference between cash flows and profits. Your business can have positive short-term cash flow and yet not be profitable. It can also have a negative cash flow in the short term, but be profitable in the long term.

To have the exact picture of your business’s financial condition at all times, it is important to create financial statements or at least a profit & loss statement on a monthly basis.

7. Failure to Integrate Bank Accounts

It is necessary to integrate your business’s books of accounts with your business bank account on a monthly basis. Account reconciliation is quite easy. Simply compare your books with your bank statement and make sure there are no inconsistencies.  If there are, get in touch with your bank to get them resolved. Doing this helps identify and correct accounting errors before they result in major financial problems.

Conclusion

By being aware of the above mentioned accounting gaffes in your business operations, you can look forward to removing them and enabling more accurate accounting and spend less time trying to sort out the mess that these blunders leave behind.

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Japanese Electronics Company Brings European Expansion to Dublin

SMK Corporation, a multinational electro-mechanical component manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo Japan is to establish a new European Headquarters in Dublin.

Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD today (Thursday, April 9) announced that the Japanese company will create 11 jobs over three years.

SMK designs and produces a wide range of products for the electronics sector including connectors and switches, remote control units and touch screens. Demand for SMK products is driven by the requirements of a new generation of communications devices such as smart phones and tablets, as well as a proliferation of Pay TV Services and ever-increasing Electronic content in vehicles. The company works closely with clients in new product development and boasts many household name clients in these sectors.

SMK Electronics (Europe) Limited in Ireland will co-ordinate the activities of the company’s sales and design operations in Europe and will employ seven people initially.  The new European HQ will be located at Northwood Business Park and will be overseen by Mr. Paul Evans, Corporate Executive VP.

Originally from Dublin, Mr. Evans is a 30-year veteran of SMK and in 2006 was appointed SMK’s first non-Japanese Vice President.

SMK was introduced to Ireland through ConnectIreland, the company responsible for delivering the Government’s Succeed in Ireland initiative, as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, in association with IDA Ireland.

SMK1

Michael McLoughlin, CEO, ConnectIreland; Emer Cusack, Project Manager, Growth Markets Team, IDA Ireland; Minister for Jobs, Richard Bruton TD; and Paul Evans, Corporate Executive VP, SMK Corporation at the announcement that SMK will establish a European base in Dublin

 

Welcoming the announcement, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD said:  “I am delighted that SMK has chosen Ireland as the location for its new European Headquarters.  The availability of talent was a key consideration for the company and once again highlights the attractiveness of Ireland’s well educated workforce to foreign direct investment.  The announcement is another ConnectIreland project supported by my Department through IDA Ireland and is another example of how companies leading in their field are establishing in Ireland.  I wish SMK every success for the future. 

Paul Evans, Corporate Executive VP, SMK Corporation said:  “We considered a number of locations for our new European Headquarters including Germany, England and the Netherlands.  We chose Ireland because of the availability of highly skilled professionals and the business friendly environment.  ConnectIreland’s support enabled us to establish our new European HQ in Dublin far more quickly than we could have in any other location we considered.   

“We expect to create seven jobs in Dublin and given the rapid growth of our business in Europe, we expect our Dublin HQ to play a central role in our expansion over the next 10 years.  As our business in Europe grows, Dublin can expect to benefit from that growth”.

SMK2

Michael McLoughlin, ConnectIreland CEO, said: “We are delighted that as SMK Corporation celebrate 90 years in business this year that they have chosen Ireland as a strategic centre for their next phase of growth in Europe.  The creation of seven financial and general management positions in the coming 12 months is very welcome and brings to over 1,100 the number of jobs created in Ireland through the Government’s Succeed in Ireland initiative. We are delighted to have worked with SMK and wish them every success in Ireland as they continue to expand their workforce to 11 over the coming three years.”

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3 Solid Steps for Defining Your Sales Process

There are three major steps for defining your sales process. First, there’s the type of contact. Second, there’s the milestones reached. Finally, there are helpful tools you can use to improve the sales process and optimize the sales cycle.

Type Of Contact

There are many types of contacts out there.

The Suspect
The suspect is a person’s name only. This is not really a hot prospect but rather someone who might be interested in listening to what you have to offer if they don’t have anything better to do. They might be interested in your product or service, but you’ve no idea and they’ve expressed no interest, so it’s anyone’s guess.

The Prospect
A prospect is a suspect that has engaged with you in one way or another. You might have handed them a business card. They might have called in about information about your service. Maybe you took them out to lunch, or maybe they know you through a friend or associate. At this stage, your job is to qualify them to see if it makes sense to do business with them.

The Lead
The lead is when a prospect becomes an actual lead – someone you could sell to. There’s a definite need there, but he or she hasn’t made a commitment yet for whatever reason. Maybe the person doesn’t have the money right now, or they have to wait until the spring or fall for additional funds to clear up.

The Customer
A customer is someone who has already bought something from you.

Milestones In The Sales Process

Milestones are stages in the sales process that are significant.

Engage
This is where you reach out to them and send them information about your company, your product or service, and your personal contact information. Provide them something of value during this stage so that you can qualify them.

Qualify
Qualification is nothing more than figuring out whether this person is a high-probability sale. A high-probability sale is one that won’t require too much effort to close and the person has the money, the interest, and the need for your product or service.

Assess
Assess whether you can really meet the person’s objectives and needs. Make sure you understand the key factors driving their decision. Are you speaking with the decision-maker? Do they really understand your value proposition, and are they looking at the competition and, if so, who?

Propose
Make a proposal. This is your offer for a sale. It includes quotes, and a formal offer to sell.

Close

If you’ve qualified the prospect properly, you shouldn’t have too much work to do in the close. Leads naturally want to buy from you when they have an immediate interest, and the money, to buy what you’re selling.

Helpful Tools

Some of the most helpful tools that will make your job easier include sales lead management tools, like this mortgage software. Basically, you want tools that will help you capture leads, followup with them, remind you to contact them, and store precious information about where the lead is in the sales cycle.

You also want your tools to simplify, rather than complicate, your life. Use that as the standard by which you judge them. Some tools won’t be worth the money, even when they cost thousands of dollars. Sometimes, free tools are your most valuable lead management asset.

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Funding for Startups – 4 Options Having an Impact in 2015

Let’s take a look at funding for Startups with 4 alternative options in 2015. Keeping any business competitive is a challenge for anyone involved at the sharp end of managerial strategy and financing will always play a key part in decision making processes that really matter in that context.

In fact, without working capital and ready access to cash, it is easy for financial constraints to squeeze the life out of even very viable and vibrant businesses. But with mainstream lenders broadly reluctant or unwilling to provide credit to enterprises at present, new alternatives are increasingly being made available in the UK and elsewhere.

Here’s a look at 4 such alternatives that are having a real impact on the way businesses are making their finances work in 2015.

1. Crowdfunding and peer-to-peer finance funding for startups

You may only have heard of crowdfunding in the context of somewhat gimmicky start-up scenarios through platforms such as Kickstarter. But the scope of these processes and peer-to-peer (P2P) financing more generally has radically expanded in recent years.

Indeed, in the scale of loans being accessed through P2P platforms in UK doubled to a value of £1.2 billion in 2014, during which time 90 per cent more borrowers made use of the financing processes involved. Every expectation is that there will continue to be fast-growing interest and a much expanded reliance on P2P funding among enterprises of all sizes over the course of 2015 and beyond.

2. Invoice finance

For businesses facing a potentially very damaging squeeze on their finances, the key focus tends to be squarely on accessing cash quickly and affordably. With traditional loans and other credit facilities notoriously difficult to make use of for SMEs, invoice finance solutions have been emerging as viable and appealing options.

As with P2P services, the processes involved in invoice financing are being streamlined and simplified by new online platforms that make it possible for businesses to quickly turn their unpaid invoices into upfront cash. There are fees and strict terms involved but the popularity of these processes is continuing to grow in 2015 as it has been for the past several years.

3. Growth loans

For ambitious small or medium-sized businesses in any field, growth is usually the essential aim being targeted year-on-year and financing is very often designed primarily to fuel that expansion as much as is possible. So for those companies that succeed in achieving that growth, a lack of finance at crucial moments can be a real source of frustration, which is why growth loans are increasingly playing an important role.

These loans tend only to be available to companies that can demonstrate consistently growing revenues and a solid business case for the future. So not all operators will be able to access finance through growth loans but they are increasingly being turned to by businesses keen to continue an upward operational trajectory.

4. Merchant cash advances

Our final non-bank finance option making an impact in 2015 is merchant cash advances, which won’t be suitable for all types of business but for those that use card terminals can be a real game-changer. The process involves merchants being advanced a lump sum amount by a lender on the basis of turnover likely to be derived through a payment card machine. The simplicity and all-important accessibility of cash advances as a financing solution is helping to make it an increasingly popular option in 2015.

John Baird is a personal finance and insolvency expert from Scotland Debt Solutions. He specialises in advising people on how to manage their money and deal with their personal debt problems.

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Calling all Innovators & Entrepreneurs, we need your help & your green VOTE !!

As with any Irish technology company, we all suffer unique challenges when growing business internationally. As a country we have a small population so we struggle when trying to make as much noise as our International competitors. Even places we assume are tiny states such as Haiti & Togo have twice and three times our population.

Hence we need your help…

One of our company’s, Surface Power HONE which has developed a revolutionary “daylight” powered Nano-heat engine technology is short-listed (final 18 was judged by experts) for the 2Degrees Champions Award –  “Innovation of the Year” which is the world’s leading collaboration platform and service for sustainable business with over 46,500 members from 177 countries. https://www.2degreesnetwork.com/

Surface Power HONE has nearly 7,000 installations of this patented technology over 8 countries to date and it has been kept fairly secretive until recently. The technology was field tested in the West of Ireland & New Zealand as the daylight levels are some of the lowest in the OECD. In short, it replaces the use of oil and gas for heating and cooling with free daylight. Have a look at LIVE customers on our website such as the UK National Health Service running their hospital’s central heating on free “daylight” (sounds mad but true !!)

The next phase of the 2Degrees “Innovation of the Year Awards” is a voting stage which will reduce the final 18 to 5 for the big awards ceremony and we need your help and your vote. 

Although already in the short-list of 18, we are the only Irish Technology company in this shortlist and are up against huge players such as Nestle, General Motors & B&Q.

You can vote for us by clicking the link below to get us into the final 5 and we thank you in advance for that vote. Be sure to tweet it afterwards using the link so we can personally send you a thank you tweet. Go raibh maith agat as do chabhair.

Best Regards, John Quinn, CEO. (Twitter – @johnquinn_irl )

Read our story and VOTE from below.

https://www.2degreesnetwork.com/groups/2degrees-community/resources/surface-powers-nano-engine-harvests-light-generate-heating-and-cooling/

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Top 5 Ways the Government is Supporting SME Growth

Here are 5 of the most important ways in which the UK government is supporting SME growth around the country. A vast majority of businesses in the UK fall into the small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) category and few people would doubt the extent to which their prospects are linked to the potential for growth in the wider economy. Without a vibrant and optimistic SME sector, any economy will struggle to sustain any measure of expansion and to continue creating jobs.

Here are 5 of the most important ways in which the UK government aims to support and encourage SME growth around the country:

1 – Opening up SME access to public procurement

Perhaps the most direct way in which the government seeks to support SMEs is through the procurement system, which has been reformed in recent years in an effort to make it much more accessible to smaller companies. The government procures roughly £230 billion worth of services from third party vendors every year and until recently it was very difficult indeed for SMEs to access any part of that or to compete with large companies in that context.

Key reforms aimed at opening up more SME access to public service contracts have included the elimination of pre-qualification questionnaires for deals worth less than £100,000 and the insistence upon greater transparency around advertising and the allocation of all public contracts. Individual government departments also now have to reveal just how many of the contracts they sign with service providers involve SMEs.

2 – Employment allowances

In an effort to encourage small businesses to take on new employees and pursue growth, the government announced in April 2014 that every company in the UK would be entitled to a £2,000 Employment Allowance. The allowance enables mostly small businesses to reduce their National Insurance Contributions and in many cases avoid having to pay any at all for the year. According to the government’s own estimates, over a million companies with fewer than 250 employees will benefit from the allowance in 2014-15 tax year.

3 – Support, advice and resources

A key aspect of the government’s strategy around encouraging start-up and SME growth is its provision of support, advice and online resources. The website Great Business is one such resource, which is designed to give entrepreneurs and SME bosses access to information, guides and case studies that might help them pursue their ambitions. The site is officially backed by the government, as is its Business Support Helpline, which allows business men and women around the country to speak directly to an expert advisor on issues relevant to SMEs and their development.

4 – Creation of a ‘prompt payment code’

Anyone who has every created a company or operated as a small scale service provider in any industry will understand the importance of being paid on time and as promptly as possible. Indeed, failing to maintain cash flows can be the difference between survival and insolvency as far as many SMEs in the UK and around the world are concerned. With this in mind and in collaboration with a variety of business groups, the government has drawn up and invited signatories to the Prompt Payment Code, which is now administered by the Institute of Credit Management. The code is designed to encourage organisations of all kinds to pay SME service providers on time and in line with pre-agreed terms, and also to encourage SMEs themselves to become more aware of their rights when their invoices go unpaid.

5 – Alternative finance proposals

Few, if any, issues more greatly concern SMEs than access to finance. Traditionally, funding and finance have typically only been sought by applying for loans or other lines of credit from familiar banking institutions. However, in the future, more and more SMEs will be funded in alternative ways and through processes such as invoice factoring, peer-to-peer lending and asset refinancing.

It’s no secret that traditional lenders have retreated from the SME sector in large part in recent years, much to the frustration of the government, which has long been seeking to encourage banks to lend more readily to viable small businesses. The government’s latest efforts to improve matters in this context recently saw legislation drafted that will oblige banks to point their rejected SME loan customers in the direction of alternative funding options and information on finance providers available outside the mainstream.

A thriving SME sector is what virtually every government would want and certainly the UK’s coalition is no exception. Making sure small companies can access finance and find a way to flourish is not easy but it is vitally important to our economy that efforts to that end should continue to be made. Above are 5 important ways the government is aiming to support SME growth around the country but hopefully this list will be added to and expanded upon considerably in years to come.

Conrad Ford is the founder of Funding Options, which provides a range of online tools to help firms and their trusted advisers to manage funding and cash flow.

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