growth | CFPro Ventures Ltd

When business growth is about so much more than just investment

We are growth specialists. Which means, we, together with our network of highly-experienced individuals, specialise in helping business grow. And although you wouldn't be alone in thinking that the biggest driver of growth was funding from outside, there is a lot more that businesses are doing to influence their own growth - quite often, without a capital boost from an investor or a corporate venture - but rather, through making some critical changes internally. So, including investment, here are a selection of the ways that we help businesses grow. Growth through: Assessing how ready you are A huge part of [...]

Katy Roberts2018-07-18T11:56:01+01:00July 18th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

2019 Business Growth Survey: The Results

In a recent survey launched by our team, to understand more about how SMEs are gearing up for growth in 2019, we surveyed business owners and asked them about what they felt most confident about, where they felt they should be paying attention within their business, and what they thought 2019 held for them. The initial results of the survey speak for themselves - there are a number of business owners out there, and you may be one of them, who are optimistic about growth, who are ready to grow, who probably have the right products and services to grow, [...]

Katy Roberts2018-07-12T14:52:11+01:00July 12th, 2018|News|Comments Off

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 Roberts2018-06-18T12:29:03+01:00June 18th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

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 Roberts2018-06-05T09:05:56+01:00June 5th, 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 Roberts2018-05-21T08:55:12+01:00May 21st, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

The SME powerhouse: The industries driving the British economy

In a recent blog post, we discuss the phenomenon that is the Brittelstand: a name-sake to Germany's Mittelstand: A powerhouse of SMEs driving the Germany economy through innovation, agility and long-term growth focus. And in the UK, the same trend is fast developing. Delving into industry-specific characteristics of this growth, in Germany, Mittelstand firms often manufacture and sell niche products, and as a result, the growth of construction and manufacturing businesses surpasses that of IT start-ups for example, as they "have less venture capital", according to Winfred Weber, professor of management at Mannheim University of Applied Sciences. But things in [...]

Katy Roberts2018-04-12T10:15:49+01:00April 12th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

From the Inside – Out: Growing your SME towards exponential growth

Talk about under-productivity, and an awkward hush settles over the room like a giant, white elephant. Let's get back to semantics for a second: Productivity: A measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system or department in converting inputs into useful outputs There's a reason why CFPro Ventures, and our extended specialist partner network have built up years of experience in delivering exponential growth results for those we have worked with: We've focussed on building businesses that are agile, can cope with fluctuation, established the right business culture armed with a team of people who are driven to deliver [...]

Katy Roberts2018-04-04T12:18:47+01:00April 4th, 2018|SME Growth|Comments Off

Angry Societies and the growth of Socially Responsible Investment

Angry Societies: A growing phenomenon steeped in socio-political turmoil and economical unhappiness. Reto Hess, Head of Single Security Research Equity, Industrials & Utilities at Credit Suisse describes the phenomenon as this: "The years of hyper-globalisation helped reduce inequalities across countries but raised inequalities within them, especially in the developed ones," and as a result, today we're seeing the birth of a new kind of economic trend - business for good. But when you're looking for a funding partner that shares your vision to deliver positive impact, are you looking in the right places? From Oliberté (the world's first Fair Trade [...]

Katy Roberts2018-03-14T12:15:06+00:00March 14th, 2018|News, SME Growth|Comments Off

How does your business fit into the business growth spectrum?

The progression from startup to mature business is a long, and sometimes arduous, journey. Businesses in all stages of growth face problems, but they all have the ability to look forward and learn about where they will be heading if their success continues. This CFPro Ventures guide explores the various levels of growth and helps you understand where your business may, with the right planning and the right support, be heading! Stage one: Development of your idea Referred to by some as the ‘seed’ stage, this is the time when you are exploring the possible avenues in which you [...]

Katy Roberts2017-12-21T11:43:19+00:00January 18th, 2018|News|Comments Off

Is your Telecoms business ready for the disruption ahead?

Our economy is in a constant state of flux. Disruptive technology is transforming antiquated business strategies to speed up towards business fitness for tomorrow, consumer behaviour is dictating internal change management and business transformation operations, and organisations all over the world are doing their best to keep up, while trying to carve out a growth strategy that outplays, outwits, outlasts. When it comes to the Telecommunications industry, tech disruption is no longer the new kid on the block. The industry as a whole is being driven by mobile money, machine-to-machine intelligence and cloud-based intelligence, to name just a few. But [...]

Katy Roberts2017-08-30T10:09:21+01:00August 30th, 2017|News|Comments Off