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We support you and your business at every stage with expert advice that delivers outstanding results.

We provide accounting, tax and business advice to individuals, family, and owner-managed businesses from across our offices in Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle and York.

Advisor's Role Vital for Funding

Jeremy Oliver, Director

This column is the third of a series aimed at providing businesses with an awareness of sources of funding and financial support and how to access it. 

The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) have recently undertaken some independent research into the lending climate for small and medium sized businesses in the UK.  The research identified some of the difficulties businesses are having in accessing finance and one of the key recommendations from the research was that businesses generally should improve the levels of financial information they have available and improve financial management skills and awareness in order to improve their chances of raising finance.  The role of the external adviser in the fundraising process has become more important than ever.

There continues to be a range of financial support available to businesses, for example fully funded financial health checks, R&D grants, innovation vouchers, export grants, mentoring and business improvement services and finance under the transitional loan fund and Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme.

For manufacturing businesses financial support, is available through the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS).  Recently Lord Mandelson announced £151.5 million investment package aimed at advanced manufacturing sector of which £4 million is being used to expand MAS.

R&D grants are available to start ups and existing businesses and to qualify for funding projects must be based around an innovative product or process that the business wants to bring to market. 

Funding is available through the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) which is £63 million of funding to encourage investment by the regions rural businesses to build capacity and efficiency and to stimulate enterprise and entrepreneurship.  Around 80% of our region is classed as rural and so this fund should be widely accessible.

Eligible businesses should consider a fully funded financial health check by an accredited accountant like ourselves to assess the current and future business needs and ongoing finance requirements.

There continues to be a good level of financial support for businesses. Garbutt & Elliott continue to run Access to Finance workshops where attendees receive Access to Finance fact sheets showing the eligibility criteria for different sources for finance with the next events taking place on Tuesday 13 October and Wednesday 11 November 2009.  Any businesses interested in attending should contact Rebecca Green on 01904 464100.