Forward Financials

Interestingly, data from the British Chambers of Commerce Quarterly Economic Survey for Q1 2013, a survey made up of responses from more than 7,000 businesses, highlights for the majority of participants an improvement in business confidence, in particular, within manufacturing and service sectors.

The factors contributing to this boost in confidence may generally mirror those highlighted above. However, one key difference is on the availability of credit from Banks. Recent Funding for Lending data from the Bank of England, highlights Banks still aren't lending to SMEs. Fast-growing SMEs and entrepreneurs looking for finance have been looking at alternatives to traditional finance routes such as Crowd Financing and Peer 2 Peer lending (Funding Circle and ThinCats being among some of the options).

Given the longevity of the economic downturn, it may just be that more businesses are adopting such innovative solutions to enable them to make the most of opportunities as they arise.