Sutton Businesses Seeking Finance
While the financial gurus are predicting continuous gloom, the business community are optimistic that they are the authors of their own destiny.
A show of twenty small businesses and future business owners attended the Planning to Raise Finance Workshop hosted by the Sutton Chamber in association with Sutton Council.
Delivered by Philip Bingham, a Business Link Adviser, the workshop took the participants through the identification of the good and bad reasons for financing through debt or equity, the criteria lending institutions and equity funders need to make a decision and gave guidance on how to prepare the business and its documentation before approaching lending institutions or equity funders.
Areas identified for small businesses to secure finance in south London included the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, Access to Finance, Gateway 2 Investment, Croydon Enterprise Loans, banking institutions and venture capitalists. He also pointed out that limited grants are still available for energy efficiency and environmental issues.
Chair of Sutton Chamber, David Duncan commented that it was great to see that businesses in Sutton were considering expanding and were now preparing their businesses to raise finance. Sutton Chamber, whose ethos is Building Local Business, holds workshops, seminars and networking activities for businesses in and around the London Borough of Sutton. The next workshop, Managing and Motivating Your Staff, will be held on 22nd January 2010 at the Holiday Inn.