A recent Daily Mail article (15 November 2014) reports a low awareness and take-up of the Government’s Growth Voucher scheme to date. The Voucher scheme was designed to encourage small businesses to seek professional advice, across a wide range of services to help them grow.
Growth vouchers will cover half the cost (capped at £2,000) of professional support across areas including finance and cash flow, management skills and sales and marketing.
The scheme was introduced following the findings below:
- 69 per cent of small firms seek advice from family and friends but only 57 per cent take advice from a professional.
- 36 per cent say they are most likely to trust guidance from a professional above other sources.
- Four in 10 businesses that have not taken professional advice felt that it was too expensive.
- Of those taking advice from friends and family, 43 per cent said they did so because it was free
- 60 per cent of small business leaders said they would gain from some form of professional advice
- The most commonly identified advice which firms thought they would benefit most from are sales and marketing and digital technology.
Awareness of the scheme, which has been running since January, is low. But one company that has made use of it is Bath Boutique Stays, a holiday rentals business in Bath that counts Jane Austen’s former home among its properties.
The article quotes Managing director Bath Boutique Stays, a holiday rentals business, Marcus Whittington, who took advantage of Growth Vouchers and says it has given him the confidence to invest further: ‘Growth Vouchers helped our business massively. We’re on a strategy to quadruple our enquiries, triple our turnover and double our profits. I would advise others considering using the scheme to do it.’
Businesses must be based in England and employ fewer than 250 staff to be eligible. Apply here.
Seeking hospitality finance?
If you are a small business in the hospitality and leisure sectors, seeking financial advice, commercial property finance or advice on financial restructuring for the hospitality sector, specialist professional advisors, Stewart Hindley and Partners are in a unique position to help you.
The Stewart Hindley team are specialists in raising finance for the Leisure, Hospitality and Care sectors. They have developed strong long term relationships with key decision makers in all the leading Banks, Institutional and Specialist Lenders, all of whom have helped their clients fund and develop their businesses.
Consequently lenders have confidence and trust in their judgment to deliver the lenders credit team professionally collated and presented funding applications. Contact Stewart Hindley & Partners now to see how your business could benefit from our hospitality finance advice.
