New research by One Poll shows that small businesses have got their funding appetite back and are feeling confident about getting it, primarily from banks and alternative finance providers, in the New Year.
The poll of 1,000 small and medium sized businesses, which included hospitality businesses , commissioned by Liberis, revealed that four in ten (40 percent) small businesses will be seeking funding in 2015, of which, half plan to approach their bank for it and nearly a third (31%) plan to go to alternative lenders.
In addition, three quarters are confident they will be successful in securing the funding they need. However, a third of small businesses won’t be applying for funding because they don’t think they’ll get it.
The top reasons for getting funding are to pay a tax bill, followed by purchasing new stock, buying new equipment and to grow the business.
When asked what the most important factors were when choosing funding types, more than two fifths (42 percent) said they didn’t want to use personal assets, followed by the cost of funding (39 percent) and not wishing to give up a share of their business (34 percent).
Commenting on the findings, Liberis CEO Paul Mildenstein said, “It’s good to see some confidence again and a shift in the funding balance too. However, there’s still a significant number of businesses, including those in the hospitality sector, deterred from applying for funding because they don’t think they’ll get it. But the non-bank funding choice is so diverse now, there’s very likely to be a funding platform for them and we need to make sure more small businesses are aware of this.”
The survey was undertaken among 1000 small and medium sized businesses around the UK by One Poll in November 2014.