New research shows that a lack of funding options is stifling the ambitions of more than half of all small businesses in the UK. How can these firms overcome this barrier to growth? Alternative finance can help.

According to new figures from Nucleus Commercial Finance, over half of small business owners have business ambitions that they feel they unable to raise funds for. These goals include building their brand, marketing and online presence, expanding in the UK, growing their workforce, launching a new product or service, moving to larger premises and targeting international markets.

Aldermore’s latest Future Attitudes study paints a similar picture. According to the report, almost 20% of SMEs in the UK have missed a new opportunity in the last year because of a lack of available funding. Medium-sized businesses have been particularly hard hit, with nearly 30% affected. And the impact on business is significant. The study puts the average cost of missing out on opportunities at almost £77,000 per firm.

As these studies show, accessing funding remains a challenge for small businesses. Achieving ambitions requires investment in technology, staff, facilities and more, and at the same time, having the resources to meet costs relating to the likes of pension auto-enrolment, business rates and data protection. And raising the capital to do so is clearly not easy for small firms, which is bad news for the UK economy.

So, what can small business owners do to help fund ambitions?

Alternative finance has a role to play.

In the wake of prolonged caution from traditional lenders, the likes of invoice finance, asset finance, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding are redrawing the small business funding landscape. These facilities, which offer a more personalised approach to lending, are helping small businesses succeed, providing them with access to capital, on an affordable and flexible basis, for essential investment.

This is how a Sussex small business used peer-to-peer lending, through a commercial finance broker that specialises in alternative finance, to raise the capital to invest in new resources.

SMEs represent over of 95% of all business in the UK and as such, play a key role in driving economic growth. So, for the economy to perform well, small businesses need to be able to realise their ambitions, and for this they better access to funding. This is the popularity of alternative finance continues to rise.

To find out more about A&T Business Associates services, contact Steve Bowles on 01903 602211 or steve.bowles@atbusinessassociates.co.uk.