If funding to SME’s was easy, the whole of the country would be moving ahead now at a far quicker rate than what it is currently travelling. SME’s are what really moves the country forward, gives it impetus, helps spread confidence. And confidence is highly contagious, it moves down the High Street, and Industrial estates. Suddenly everybody has a spring in their step.
In the real world, we are moving forward, and there is some confidence in the market, but funding for SME’s is still not really happening. Let us look at the Funding for Lending Scheme which the banks operate. Last year, in Q1, they missed their target by £719 million, in Q2 they missed again by £435 million, in Q3, they missed again by £128 million, and you’ve guessed it, in Q4 missed by £810 million! Nothing now will happen until after the election, so we all have to wait for the Autumn before matters will change.
The banks say the businesses are too new, under 3 years established, wrong equipment, no wheels on each corner, not painted yellow! Peer to peer lenders say they require at least first years accounts, now we all know that will take almost 2 years, so how do SME’s fund this shortfall?
We have all heard the phrase ” computer says No”,well it is time to put that firmly into the dustbin.
The first thing I would say is that funding is available from Oak Leasing, to brand new starts, recent starts, as well as established companies.Whatever the equipment, whatever the circumstances, we will try to help you. We are very good in fitting square pegs into round holes, nothing off the peg will do!, and it has nothing to do with the size of the hammer !!
Often SME’s will miss opportunities of selling into Europe, they think it will be difficult, and impossible to secure funding for their European customers. However, some SME’s have the vision to move into Europe, we have been asked by such a company to arrange leasing for specialist shipping equipment into Europe. We have arranged this for the company within three days. Cross border leasing , and european leasing is always available to you from Oak.
In a nutshell, don’t let the apparent lack of funding stop you from growing, talk to us, we are real people in the real world, and have the broad commercial leasing experience and pedigree that you require to help move your companies forward and grow, both in the UK as well as Europe.
So if your bank or funder says ” Computer says no”just give us a call.