Navigating difficult waters

It’s a tricky time for businesses in the UK, both big and small, caused in no small part by the fact it’s impossible to accurately plan for the future when we don’t know what the business landscape will look like in the coming months and years.

As UK-based manufacturers put plans on ice until they know exactly what shape or form trade tariffs will take, other businesses ‘um’ and ‘ah’ about their overseas spend as exchange rates seem to fluctuate with reckless abandon.

But we’ve reached a stage where holding off from decisive actions means businesses could be more likely to cause themselves harm than they are to avoid it. Instead, measures can be carried out proactively to ensure that time and energy is spent effectively in ways that will benefit both long and short term.

Obviously each business faces its own unique challenges, but for those wanting to act now, here are a few points to consider:

Make the most of what’s readily available

The UK is in what is being referred to as a Transition Period, during which time all the finer details about how trade (amongst many other areas) will be regulated going forwards. The transition period will be active until 30th of December 2020, after which the new laws and regulations will come into force.

When this happens, it seems reasonable to expect the exchange rate will be affected (for better or worse) and that some industries may fare better than others when it comes to import duties and tariffs.

You can find out more information about important updates as they happen at the Government’s Transition page.

In the meantime, for businesses that rely on import or export it may make sense to make the most of duties as they are at the moment.

Working on your business is the best way to ensure its future

For any business to thrive, ongoing planning and work towards achieving an end goal is essential. Spending the time to plan out what you intend to do with your business in the future and planning ahead regardless of how outside factors may influence the market will help ensure your business stands in good stead in the future.

Any successful business owner will be able to tell you about struggles they have faced along the way and indeed most organisations will have experienced difficult times on some level in the past. Preparing for hard times is one thing, but making sure that you have a robust, sustainable model to work from is the only way to have some level of confidence that you’re able to deal with issues as they come along, rather than getting snowed under by them.

We firmly believe in helping people take control over their financial futures by giving them the tools they need to build a strong organisation, which greatly improves a business’ ability to weather a storm.

Find out more about our ongoing commitment to helping support your business by giving you these tools to reclaim complete financial awareness for your business.

EU funding is still available

Though the UK is no longer a part of the EU, Access to Finance continues to provide business grants as part of the European Regional Development Fund, which means there are still a number of ways you can help fund the growth your business needs.

We offer two grants to help your business grow and achieve its targets, whatever they may be:

The Financial Readiness Grant

This grant can fund 50% up to £7,500 of costs incurred if your business is preparing to access finance or post-investor support. This can include getting funding to create a crowdfunding or marketing campaign, or costs associated with finding angel investors.

The Significant Financial Employee Grant

If you’re looking to recruit a senior finance role to work on a specific finance project, you can claim up to 20% (or £10,000) for their salary for up to 12 months. By adding a dedicated senior finance member to your team, there’s the potential to grow your business in ways you may not have previously explored, while benefitting from the energy and experience that a new member of staff can bring.

You can find out more about the grants available from Access To Finance on our grants page.