New UK research has revealed that over half of new businesses used personal credit cards to get off the ground – as lending to new SMEs tumbles by £400 million in a single month. Research by Experian discovered that almost one third of those that used personal finance had used a mortgage to fund their business, putting their home at risk.

That is why Business Secretary Vince Cable declared that the Government’s Funding for Lending Scheme was not working. He warned that the Treasury had to make considerable changes to the scheme to boost lending unless financing to credit-starved small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Britain shows imminent improvement.

The situation sparked an opinion piece by Christian Langg in The New Statesman.

The inability to connect with other organisations, especially enterprises, is proving to be the biggest impediment. Collaborating with other businesses and their respective processes, whether it be procurement, payment or lending, has become a mammoth task. It’s putting a major strain on SMEs’ time, resources and funds and, put simply, it’s breaking business.

The lack of connectivity is genuinely hurting SMEs’ ability to access cash – they aren’t getting paid, and with no cash, they cannot evolve their respective propositions. The fact we are seeing, for example, this criticism of the Funding For Lending Scheme, demonstrates that this connectivity needs to be addressed. When you add further challenges into the mix, you can see that SMEs need all the help they can get.

New research reveals that over half of new businesses used personal credit cards to get off the ground – as lending to new SMEs tumbles by £400 million in a single month.

Source: http://blog.tradeshift.com/business-is-broken-but-we-can-fix-it/