Thats quite an evocative image – someone handing you a bag of cash. But it also raises a few questions such as who would be so generous and why would they give you money?
As businesses we have to ensure that we have the cash to operate which includes so many different elements. Salaries, rent or mortgages, rates, NI, taxes, energy, equipment, raw materials, insurance and so on and so forth.
Where financial help exists we would of course accept this and in many cases will actively seek it to support business development of new products and ideas. But where does the cash come from?
It frequently surprises me that so many businesses are only aware of the traditional routes for sourcing investment in their businesses such as lenders like our affiliate Lloyds Banking Group who do an incredible job of providing so many flexible and alternative solutions alongside traditional lending. These are of course invaluable but there are also other routes to funding your next business project or growth.
The northeast is split between two Local Enterprise Partnerships, North East Local Enterprise Partnership and Tees Valley Combined Authority who between them provide an incredible array of funding and funded support to help our regions grow. Engineering & Manufacturing Network work with both of these on a wide range of business support initiatives like Peer2Peer and skills into which we engage our members to support their plans. This could also include grant funding, which is usually matched investment into your business.
It’s also worth remembering that most of the funding currently accessed still comes from the EU which will continue until the end of this year and into next with some extensions already being sourced. This includes huge amounts of cash available to develop your workforce through training and upskilling working with many of our regions great colleges and universities.
If you were unaware or are looking to support a new business activity or grow what you already do then please get in touch and we can help you find the right solution.