SME Growth | CFPro Ventures Ltd

6 Factors limiting SMEs from achieving their financing ambition.

In the world of business funding, startups appear to be well catered for through angel networks, crowdfunding campaigns, pitching competitions and more. Private and Corporate investors are keen to tap into new skill and innovation that would expand their own profitability and productivity. Great news for startups - but things start to change when these businesses "reach development capital stage – with a viable, revenue- generating concept and a clear line of sight to profitability. Business owners struggle to raise capital to fund business growth," says Alison Coleman, a business writer with a keen interest in the growth of startups, [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-06-18T12:29:03+00:00 June 18th, 2018|News, SME Growth|0 Comments

The secrets to long-term success – long after the good times have rolled (away).

The London Tech Week kicked off this week - bringing together creativity, talent and innovation from all over the UK. And with over 55,000 business professionals attending, one things is clear - we're all on the search for the new, trending, innovative. And while opportunities like this one to connect and inspire are plentiful, there is a silent killer threatening the longevity of many currently-successful SMEs. That is, unless they plan effectively with a long-term sustainable picture in mind. Figures published recently by the Centre for Business and Economics Research (CEBR) highlight the fact that the tide appears to have turned, [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-06-12T14:20:17+00:00 June 12th, 2018|News, SME Growth|0 Comments

Building a sustainable SME business through effective Corporate Governance

SMEs represent the backbone of the UK economy. In fact, many economies globally. They are positive about growth, they are planning for growth, and they're focussing on long-term business success. And when we look at some of the latest statistics coming from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, it is clear that SME business is strong, and isn't going anywhere, in a hurry. There were a record 5.7 million private sector businesses at the start of 2017. This is an increase of 197,000 since 2016, and 2.2 million more than in 2000. The number of employing businesses increased by [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-06-05T09:05:56+00:00 June 5th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

UK Industries poised for growth in 2018

Last week, in this blog, we looked at the driving force behind SME optimism in the UK economy at the moment. And with the first quarter of the year's results slowing down, there's nothing slowing down the entrepreneur spirit that innovates, and sees substantial growth opportunity in 2018, and beyond. There's no doubt that we're living in uncertain times - politically, economically and socially. But in the midst of the gloomy outlook on slowing economies, the SME business community is poised for growth. We look at a few key industries that are being singled out as UK SME growth areas [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-05-21T10:03:40+00:00 May 21st, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

Amidst a British economy slow-down, 2 major growth opportunities continue to boom.

As the news breaks on the results of the first quarter of UK growth, with economists fearing that Britain’s economy is losing momentum as growth falls to just 0.1% - the weakest since 2012, the blame game begins. Some blame the snow, some blame the government. Some blame a lack of funding support for emerging SMEs while others simply wallow in their economical slump and stagnation. The Guardian reports that the consumer has played a leading role in the significant slowdown of the services sector in the UK, with the considerable drop of services output and contribution to GDP growth [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-05-21T08:55:12+00:00 May 21st, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

Why are SMEs optimistic about the future?

2018 is set to be another spectacular year for growth for startups in the UK. So says Digimax - a leading digital marketing agency based in London. In fact, in a recent study, it was noted that, in the UK alone, "76 per cent of business owners said that they are currently working on new ideas, and 43 per cent aiming to launch this year – more than half (56 per cent) having previously moved from conception to launch within 24 months." That's a staggering amount of new growth, innovation, disruption about to hit our economy. And what's encouraging to [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-05-10T09:31:07+00:00 May 10th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

Time’s running out for SMEs and GDPR

There's a scary reality for a bulk of the UK's SME businesses. According to the Federation of Small Businesses, "a third of small businesses have not even started preparing for the GDPR, while a further third concede they are still in the early stages of preparations. Just 8 per cent of small businesses have completed their preparations for the regulation, which comes into force on 25 May." And time's running out, quickly. Most of us have suddenly, almost overnight, been inundated with "updated T&C" emails, or notifications when we log into our favourite platform or dashboard - all representative of [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-05-02T13:06:20+00:00 May 2nd, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

Why cyber attacks are focussing on SME businesses.

Just this morning, on the national news channel, the topic of business cyber crime was discussed at length - with specific mention made of the UK's SME market that remains continually under threat, and singling out the manufacturing sector as a current hot spot. And today, the news echoed previous sentiments even more with the boss of the EEF, the body that represents the voice of British manufacturing in the UK and Europe, Stephen Phipson reporting that results of a recent survey within the manufacturing industry astonished, with 48% of those surveyed reporting that they have, at some time, been [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-04-23T14:26:36+00:00 April 23rd, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

Entrepreneur vs CEO: You’re probably not the same person.

Some startup entrepreneurs are just not meant to be CEOs *hushed silence* Stay with us for a second. We've watched this phenomenon for years. Excited founders of startups that have discovered a market-challenging idea, built that idea into a business, developed a strategic plan that sees that idea deliver great revenue results. The team is growing, the culture is great. And things are just hunky-dory. Not always. Unfortunately, the cold hard truth of the matter is that many startup founders simply do not encompass the skills (often derived from years of experience) and innate leadership qualities required of a solid, [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-04-17T15:39:19+00:00 April 17th, 2018|News, RE:Focus, SME Growth|Comments Off

GDPR in 60 Seconds

Guest blog: Martin Norfolk The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) passes into UK law on 25th May 2018. It is a considerable advancement on the Data Protection Act (1998) and it affords significant new rights to individuals and places significant obligations on those holding personal data. New concept of personal data ownership The central theme of this regulation is that EU citizens shall own data about themselves. It gives the EU citizen rights over their personal data, even if the organisation that holds that data is based outside of the EU. Any organisation (commercial or charitable) holding personal data [...]

Katy Roberts 2018-04-16T12:28:53+00:00 April 16th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off