The resilience of SMEs across the country during the pandemic has been nothing short of impressive and as we look towards the year ahead, there appears to be a resounding sense of optimism amongst business owners.
Businesses clearly want to create a positive future for the coming year, with forward-looking plans to expand their operations. But, to achieve this, they’re likely to need external finance to support these growth plans.
With the new Instant Offers Partnership from Capitalise, it’s easier than ever for SMEs to apply for fast and flexible funding up to a maximum of £100K.
So, how would you invest £100K in to your business? Here are 5 ideas we thought of.
1. Take on more staff
It may be cliché, but the people you choose to employ are your biggest asset and having sufficient talent and people power is crucial to any growth plan. In addition to increasing your business’ capacity, new people bring with them new ideas, experiences, and perspectives.
At the growth stage, this kind of expansion can be critical, £100k could be a great starting point for increasing the company’s headcount. This extra cash can cover the extra payroll costs for two senior managers, four new junior salespeople or even a new director to sit on the board and bring some extra experience and dynamism to your growth strategy.
2. Outsource
As an alternative to taking on more staff, you made decide outsourcing is a worthy investment of your £100k. Turning to experts in the field will be one of the best tactics for businesses with ambitious growth strategies for 2022, to avoid pitfalls and ultimately become competitive market players.
3. Invest in new equipment
If your growth strategy is to expand operations, it’s likely that existing equipment, vehicles, plant, and technology may need an upgrade to achieve this. Funding these new items needs careful consideration and can put significant pressures on cash reserves.
With £100k available to businesses on highly flexible and competitive terms, your business could lease a fleet of new delivery vans, expand production facilities, or invest in a new software system.
4. Pay off debts and improve cashflow
Having numerous outstanding debts and liabilities on your balance sheet isn’t good for the financial health of your company.
Multiple loans, overdrafts, unpaid bills, and other repayments put unnecessary pressure on your cashflow – using the £100k funding to pay off these debts, or refinance existing liabilities, would help to improve your financial health.
5. Enhance staff benefits
Whilst hiring more staff may be one option to support your growth strategy, keeping the high-quality, valued staff that you already have is just as important. No business strategy can work without talent, knowledge, and employee buy-in to achieve its key goals.
A great way to retain core talent is to make the company a more inviting and attractive place to work, and staff perks, rewards and benefits are all part of this. In a market where there’s currently a labour shortage, you absolutely need to hold on to the staff you have. Offering cash bonuses, private medical insurance, enhanced pension contributions, tea and coffee supplies on tap, all help to keep your employees engaged, motivated and enthusiastic about the company.
Focal Business Group have partnered with Capitalise to make it easy for clients to access funding. And whilst there are still routes to government-back funding, including the Recovery Loan Scheme that will be available until June 2022, the access that different size businesses have to easy funding is variable. For smaller, younger businesses, the path to fast, available funding is more difficult.
In part, this has been the driver behind Capitalise’s Instant Offers partnership with Funding Circle.
Creating the Instant Offers platform, Capitalise wanted to offer a fast, direct route to finance. A finance channel where decisions on loans could be instantaneous, and SMEs can access the capital they need to grab their strategic opportunities as they appear.
For further information about funding opportunities available via Capitalise simply call 0800 112 0880 or email [email protected] – a growing business needs more from their accountant.