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Financial awareness and capability

Providing enterprises with the skills and expertise to secure private secure funding

Purpose

Increase levels of businesses accessing the most appropriate finance for their business.

How will this be achieved?

By:

• providing enterprises with the relevant skills to transform their business propositions into investable opportunities; and
• assisting enterprises in the introduction and interaction with potential investors where a business seeking finance understands the expectations of investors and can present a proposition which can attract investment.

Why offer public sector support?

To ensure that many more enterprises are able to take advantage of the increased supply of finance, it is important that they have the skills to develop appropriate funding strategies, understand what investors look for in an investment proposition and present robust investment propositions.

This lack of skills can impede the start-up of potentially viable businesses, and for existing businesses, constrain their growth potential or cause businesses to be undercapitalised, affecting their chances of survival. The intervention would address the failure of government to provide adequate awareness of the alternative sources of finance and the requirements to apply successfully for the best type of finance. The intervention will improve small businesses access to finance, and enable additional business formation and growth to be realised, that would otherwise be forgone.

What will be offered?

Support comprises a combination of specialist information and expertise, comprising:

• the provision of in-depth advice and specialist support, combining finance readiness (as a means of straightforward financial advice/business planning for enterprises, including debt finance) and investment readiness ( a more intensive service largely focussed on equity options).
• mentoring and intermediation, helping to introduce enterprises/entrepreneurs to appropriate financiers.

As a range (and by no means exhaustive), financial and investment readiness can be seen as:

1. adopting appropriate funding strategies;
2. understanding the expectations and requirements of investors;
3. transforming a business proposal into an attractive investment opportunity;
4. accessing finance providers to present investment propositions, in particular, accessing providers of modest amounts of equity based risk finance that are not part of the ‘everyday’ financing landscape of enterprises.

Who will be eligible?

Eligibility criteria are to be determined.