Financing your business

Posted: 10th April 2014

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BiS) is running a campaign to make sure SMEs are aware of the range of access to finance schemes available to support them.

In particular to ensure more SMEs know what is available to them if they are turned down by the banks. There are four government finance and SME support schemes at present:

  • Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG)
  • Regional Growth Fund (RGF programme funding)
  • Space for Growth aimed at entrepreneurs

Also see the Govenment Finance Finder HERE

The Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG)  is a Government loan guarantee scheme to enable lending to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). All of the main high street banks plus a number of other lending institutions offer EFG loans, which are provided with the support of a Government guarantee. Businesses should ask about EFG during their loan application.

EFG is principally used to support loans of between £1,000 and £1 million, and repayment terms between three months and 10 years. EFG loans have already helped over 20,000 businesses gain access to essential funding you could be next!

If your business is not eligible for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, or your loan application was unsuccessful, there are a range of other finance options for small to medium sized businesses. More details can be found at HERE