Fewer UK businesses are experiencing ‘critical’ levels of financial distress, according to the latest report produced from Begbies Traynor Red Flag Alert figures for Q4 2013, as increasing business confidence helped drive strong growth across core sectors.
The number of UK businesses with ‘critical’ financial problems reduced by 1% between Q3 and Q4 2013. The retail and services sectors saw the biggest falls in ‘critical’ distress as the ‘feel good’ factor of Christmas helped raise confidence across the board and led to increasing spending volumes during Q4.
Over the course of the last twelve months, 4% fewer businesses were experiencing ‘critical’ levels of distress with the service sector again seeing the biggest improvements. Car manufacturing and food retail also saw large annual reductions in ‘critical’ distress.
Julie Palmer, Partner at Begbies Traynor, said: “After a slow third quarter, the important UK services sectors finished the year strongly with increasing confidence, resulting in improved M&A opportunities, as well as a return of investor confidence due to an improving stock market, providing a boon to the professional and financial services sectors.”
In a separate analysis of Red Flag figures, it was revealed that more than 500,000 new businesses were set up in 2013. This is almost 20% of the 2.68 million firms currently trading in the UK and was significantly up on the 350,000 start-ups that emerged in 2012.
Already more than 18,000 new businesses have begun trading in 2014 (as of 17th January 2014), taking advantage of the improving economic conditions.
Invoice Finance for New Start Businesses
Unfortunately it is often the case that new start businesses may struggle to get their business off the ground due to a lack of cashflow in the early days of its existence.
Banks are loath to loan money to companies without a financial history whilst overdrafts have become more unreliable and costly.
Invoice finance is one option which is readily accessible for many new start firms that work on an invoice basis. Instead of waiting for customers to settle, invoice finance solutions such as invoice factoring and invoice discounting advance funds up to the value of 100% of outstanding sales invoices.
Why not find out more about how invoice finance can help new starts. You can also give us a call on 0845 602 9354 or fill in the handy form on the right-hand side for a free no-obligation quote for your business.