SME survey

Did you take advantage of any of the Government schemes to support small businesses during COVID-19?

Whilst not every business owner had access to financial support, there were various funding options available for those that were eligible. The intention of this survey (39 respondents) was to explore which streams of funding were taken up, what the money was to be used for and to discover whether there was a liability from businesses not being able to pay back any loans received.

As you can see from figure 1, the Bounce Back Loan (BBL) was popular with 65.7% of those eligible taking advantage of this low-cost option for funding. With 80% of those who took advantage using it to bolster cashflow (figure 2).

Reassuringly, from all the answers provided, the funding was used for legitimate business use as it was intended. Not as in some cases using the funding to purchase a new car or house extension!!

From figure 3 you can see that the majority (80%) are confident that

they can repay the loan. However, that leaves 20% that are either a no or unsure. This is of some concern if you extrapolate these results across the country for the amount of loans taken out and the potential bad debt that it leaves the lenders.

Hopefully the potential extension of the initial five year pay back term to 10 years will help ease the ability to repay. This “Pay as you Grow” scheme also allows businesses to delay their repayment start date by a further six months.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Get involved

To take part in the next survey – Are you going to increase your sales over the next 12 months? – visit here: https://forms.gle/ vqViFtFx9udHzN1c9. The results will be shared in the next edition of this magazine.