If you’re an SME looking to secure a loan you first need to ensure you know exactly what the market has to offer you. With more and more SMEs looking for financial assistance, here’s a brief overview of what’s available.

Collateral based lending

Many traditional banks and finance companies are willing to offer collateral based lending to SMEs. Often this type of credit consists of a combination of asset based finance, contribution based finance, and factoring based finance. Put simply, it means that you secure your loan with an asset, which is taken as collateral should you be unable to make repayments.

Of course, a majority of SMEs aren’t able to acquire a collateral based loan, as they lack the security and high level of returns required.

Information based lending

Usually, information based lending incorporates financial statement lending, credit scoring and relationship lending. In essence, this means providing your possible lender with as much information on your business as possible. This information is incredibly detailed and includes your business’ operations, profitability, credit, and its financial health.

This is a fairly invasive process, so it means exposing your business’ most sensitive information to a third party with varying success. Depending on your lender and the accuracy of the information you give, this process should be relatively fluid.

Viability based financing

Viability based financing is most closely associated with venture capital and sees lenders or finance providers becoming involved in assisting the business itself and providing detailed reviews and helping develop a business plan. The aim here is for potential lenders to ensure they reduce risk and maximise productivity and returns.

A hesitation some SMEs may have with this is relinquishing control in this way, and allowing a third party to come in and assist with the actual running of the business. This is often a cause for concern from many SME owners and can cause friction.

Small ticket loan

A small ticket loan is exactly what it sounds like and can be useful for all types of SMEs. Many banks don’t tend to offer small ticket loans, as they usually cost the bank more to process than they get back in return, but there are many start-up companies operating today that have the availability to offer this type of financial assistance.

As risk may be the reliability of the loan and the lender, and a downside to a small ticket loan is that it is indeed small. SMEs that are looking at this type of loan as an option need to carefully plan exactly how it should be utilised.

GIC offers a range of secured and unsecured loans designed to give SMEs the boost they need to thrive. You can view the services we offer here and contact out team to discover which finance option best meets your needs. 

The world is a big place and there are innumerable businesses all looking to find and secure their markets. When corporations have huge sums to invest in technology and outreach to customers, it can feel like there’s no place for the smaller organisation.

But this doesn’t have to be the case. There are many ways that small and medium-sized businesses can compete on the biggest stage – if they embrace and use technology to its fullest extent.

We’ll look at some ways your SME can harness these possibilities and cultivate a global outlook.

Mobile is Key

It’s obvious to all that mobile is now the pre-eminent platform for most tasks in life. This is especially true when it comes to the modern consumer’s shopping habits. Yet, many smaller businesses don’t plan and implement any kind of mobile strategy.

This means, at the very least, ensuring all business sites are mobile-optimised. If a potential customer must wait for a slow site to load, they will simply go elsewhere. On a deeper level, there is nothing stopping smaller firms from embracing the use of apps. A well-designed app for researching and buying products is not the exclusive preserve of big business. Integration of Augmented Reality, for example, can place products in a user’s home before they buy.

Digital Advertising

It’s no longer enough to sprinkle a few keywords and product names on a site and expect it to appear anywhere near the top of a search engine ranking. Targeted solutions like Schema – a way for search engines to more accurately find search results for users – are the future. Understanding and using these new methodologies is the forefront of SEO along with practises such as local search optimisation, mobile and voice search.

Smarter Working

The old model of doing business is firmly out of style. Today, there are ways to streamline almost any task and redirect efforts to more pressing areas. Workers do not need to be in the office to contribute fully. Additionally, smaller businesses are in the enviable position of being able to make quick, strategic changes to everything from how they handle pay roll to marketing. The tools are there to streamline, hand off and prioritise tasks which, in turn, enables businesses to turn their attention to the areas that need focus.

Social Media

One of the best things about social media is that it represents a potential audience of billions for a business. And what’s more, a fresh and authentic approach can pay real dividends when it comes to engaging new or existing customers. Aside from traditional advertising on social media platforms like Facebook, venues like Instagram and Twitter can build a real connection between customers and businesses. It all depends on the time you invest and how much you care. If you take the time to cultivate a quality presence, the rewards are there. 

Hiring high-quality staff is a problem for all businesses and it seems that at the moment SMEs are faring pretty badly when it comes to recruitment and retention.

With statistics revealing that one in five SMEs have problems with high levels of staff turnover and recruitment, what steps can businesses take to ensure that they get the right talent through the door and hold onto them to?

Look for more than a technical ability

When it comes to hiring new staff, one of the most important things to realize is that while technical skills can be taught, morals and values cannot. You need to find people that have the same attitude that you are promoting within your company as this will ensure that they can integrate well into your team. To achieve this, be open and upfront about your company culture and invite them to meet the other members of your team so you can get a feel for how well they are likely to fit in. Someone who is a good match and shares the same core values that you do regarding business is much more likely to stick around than someone who doesn’t.

Consider the future of your business

When recruiting, it can be easy to consider the here and now and think about what skills you need to fill today’s requirement, but if your business is dynamic, it’s likely that you’re always thinking about growth. In terms of recruiting, you need to look for people that will be able to develop with your company, and this is particularly important for junior roles. Consider the skill-set of every person that you interview and think about how you could build on these to fit the needs of your company in the future.

Engage with learning and development

If you want your SME to grow and prosper, you need to make sure that you are constantly encouraging your team to develop their skills. Be sure to mention that this is something that is part of your culture at interview stage. Ambitious candidates will be excited by the opportunity to work their way up through the ranks.

Keep it consistent

If different people are conducting interviews throughout your company, you need to be sure that there is a level of consistency being applied. The same questions should be being asked, as well as information about the company being presented.

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With an increased pressure to sustain growth and concerns over the stability of the UK economy continuing to rise, it’s no wonder that 1 in 4 British workers have admitted to dealing with mental health issues in the workplace.

SMEs are the backbone of the British economy and in order to continue to provide jobs and key services across a plethora of sectors, consideration must be taken into how mental wellness can be boosted across organizations. 

Read on to find out how you can promote positive mental wellness within your SME.

Improve the communication channels

Social isolation is a prevalent issue at the moment in Britain, with the Prime Minister having recently appointed a Minster of Loneliness to combat the problem. Whether your team is small or large, you need to ensure that everyone feels as though their voice is heard and that communication is constant and open. To support this, you could arrange daily or weekly meetings where collaboration is encouraged between staff. Ensure that everyone gets involved and ask questions to elicit responses from the quieter members of your team. 

Offer a more flexible working environment

While it might seem counter-productive, giving your employees more freedom when it comes to the way that they work can actually help to boost morale and is likely to make them feel that their needs are more valued. You could give staff the opportunity to work remotely for a few days out of the week, which could in turn save you some money in terms of the cost of office space.

Encourage continued learning and development

We all want to feel as though our job role is evolving and changing as we get older, so to facilitate this, you need to encourage your staff to continue learning and developing their skills. You could offer in-house training or even fund staff members to go away and take a course to boost their credentials. Remember, doing so will be mutually beneficial. Having a highly-skilled workforce will give you an edge over competitors and is also going to make your staff feel more productive and accomplished in their job role.

Plan social events outside of work

Everyone needs some downtime where they can forget about the responsibilities of their job and arranging activities outside of work is a great way to encourage staff to get to know each other. If you are keen to do this, consider getting everyone to partake in a sporting event. Friendly competition is a great morale booster and a little bit of light exercise is also good for releasing endorphins.