The number of applications being rejected for the government backed tax schemes SEIS and EIS has skyrocketed. The schemes offer generous tax reliefs to incentivise investment and are a great way of bringing together businesses requiring equity investment and investors who can protect the downsides of investments. The most recent…

Many of you may know that I am an avid reader of business books. So, it takes a lot to make me wax lyrical about any particular book, but this book certainly hits that mark and has instantly become my book of the year for 2019. The book is ‘What…

After receiving a £46bn taxpayer funded bailout, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was ordered to switch 120,000 businesses to other banks by August 2020 and it has been offering various incentives to convince businesses to move. So far it is understood that around 18,000 businesses have switched but those…

Snowball Alternative Finance is delighted to announce a strategic partnership with Currencies Direct, a leading specialist provider of foreign exchange and payment solutions to both private and corporate clients. Currencies Direct transact over £6.5bn and make in excess of 400,000 payments a year. They operate a global business with 22…

The bridging market hit various records in quarter 2 of this year based on the most recent ASTL (Association of Short Term Lenders) figures: A record £4.62bn loan book at the end of the quarter An increase of 14% on the same quarter last year Growth of 11.7% on the…

The most recent Bank of England Credit Survey reported their findings on the major banks and perceived demand from their clients for funding. The overall position for Q3 from the major banks was a slight decrease for small and large businesses and a decrease for medium businesses. In the next…

Alternative finance consultancy business, Snowball Alternative Finance is delighted to announce its inclusion in the Northern Powerhouse Partner Programme. The programme now has over 300 partners who are working together to showcase the North as a great place to do business. Speaking about their involvement, Peter Black, managing director of…

Big Data has been around for a while now and there is a big move to manage teams, departments and businesses with dashboards containing the major KPIs (Key Performance Measures) bespoke for that business. This is all good business practice and we are already doing this with some of our…

Funders will often add as a condition of providing business finance, the requirement for directors to provide personal guarantees. Without the personal guarantee the funding may not even be available. By signing a personal guarantee, a director places his or her personal estate at risk and if the business fails,…