Your money

Access to funds is critical for any business no matter what the economic climate is. But the assumptions behind borrowing have been most revealing.

Of those who responded, the most positive perceptions came from those who had borrowed money themselves, had known others to be successful with a request for a loan or felt the current climate would actually make obtaining a loan more likely.

But these people were in a minority with 79% thinking it would be hard to obtain a loan, principally because of the tough economic climate.

That suggests businesses are being affected in different ways by coverage of the economic conditions. When asked about what would need to happen before we recover from recession, some respondents said:

'For the country, a year of actual growth.  For the business, increased turnover this year and next.'

'A sensible and believable response as to how we are going to control spiralling national debt, and the conviction to do it, only then will things begin to improve in macro terms.'

Changes over the last 12 months

A year is a long time in business, especially in challenging economic conditions.  Here are some of the changes experienced by respondents to our survey.
 

Respondents to our survey have seen significant changes to the key areas of customers, sales and costs.

One respondent summed up the situation: ‘Customers are putting off buying and cashflow is becoming a problem’.

In our experience cashflow is just as important to a business as profit. That’s why the first hot topic in our online resource centre focussed on cashflow, providing useful information to help avoid the pitfalls of managing cashflow and apply some of the tricks of the trade. There are a number of other ways we can help our customers including providing a Barclays Business Manager for help and advice and our CREDITFOCUS service, which helps businesses to avoid late payment in the first place and recover any money that they are owed.