Honest Interest, in people, in business - Challanges for growing a businesses and a sustainable sector

Below is an abridged version of an FFC press release posted to all the regional media a few months previously, we think that their is still value in the piece. In brief it contains some links to independent research carried out on behalf of Panasonic and also describes the necessary collaborations that can assist in closing the finance gaps which are a result of market failure, to help the regional sector grow supplying a third tier of business investment:

'FFC implemented an awareness drive at the beginning of 2006 with funding support provided by Advantage West Midlands, Barclays and European Funding (ERDF)...

...The majority of members can lend from 10K up to £50K with finance designed to help new and established small businesses who wish to grow; diversify or remain competitive...

George Keenan Head of Development for the FFC said “A recently published YouGov poll (SMEs in the UK: Seizing the Growth Challenge, Panasonic) of 800 small businesses found the key challenges to business growth is lack of money for investment. To progress the regions prosperity, we are now urging the regional finance community such as Banks, Accountants, Finance Brokers and Business Consultants, to signpost their small business clients to a FFC member when mainstream loan finance becomes unobtainable.”

Steve Williams Chief Executive of Impetus an active member of FFC highlighted the need to raise the profile; Steve said “In the last 18 months Impetus has lent over £400,000 to enterprise in Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire much of this financial assistance being packaged alongside other mainstream suppliers.”

Their were several regional variations comments from the our Birmingham member...

...Steve Walker Chief Executive of Aston Reinvestment Trust (ART) an active member of FFC highlighted the need to raise the profile; Steve said “ART has now lent over £5 million to enterprise in Birmingham and North Solihull much of this financial assistance being packaged alongside other mainstream suppliers.”

Including The Black Country...

Paul Kalinauckas, Chief Executive, Black Country Reinvestment Society and chairman of the FFC added “BCRS is able to help when the banks have done all they can by providing risk finance to SME’s across the Black Country and Southern Staffordshire region”

Does continuous engagement with the professional sector hold answer to the future success and sustained growth of the CDFI sector? and will engaging directly with the network of movers and shakers have an immediate and profound impact on the deal flow that is crucial to FFC development.

Many of our loans have been dispersed by working with banking partners members are keen to expand this type of cost efficient relationship, let hope our event can double our outputs, which includes our brand and PR profile. We meet again early August to agree on our agenda, we shall keep you posted.

Is blogging the marketing solution for 'Not for Profit' financial institutions?

June was, for the best part a complete nightmare, my lovely wife took seriously ill and for a normally very healthy individual it was a great shock. The majority of the awareness plans for June were shelved, thankfully home life is now returning to reasonable levels of normality. A massive thanks goes out to my employees, consortium members and funder's for the genuine support they all provided. Oh and the wife is out of hospital, back home and feeling much better.

During July we have been revising the look and feel of the Blog we do of course use a Blogger template which I think are great, we've also been testing out promoting the Blog via site targeted marketing through Google. During the first week we have received a large number of visitors for a very small investment in comparison to the cost of ads running on Search engine pages. OK maybe not all are all potential clients, or are targeted as accurately as the search engine campaigns, but that said site targeted ads are great awareness tool. Linking to other relevant blogs is the next stage of the plan.

I was also reading the BAD New Network yesterday and came across the Let’s Talk Starting in Business seminars to be delivered on a national scale in the UK and Wales By Barclays Bank and National Federation of Enterprise Agencies (NFEA). The West Midlands will get its fair share of FREE seminars they are designed for people looking to start a business. FFC really want to get involved especially call the free phone numbers to book your place.

I am in the process of evaluating our quarter one direct marketing campaign I am interested to see the level of interest that was raised from the campaign, I also have plans for a second email broadcast this time it will be region wide and the development team will be selecting the market segments. While I am on the subject have you looked into email broadcasting really cost effective way of getting your message across it certainly raised some initial interest, for very little spend indeed were talking £20 to £25 per 1,000 emails.

Now in the process of seeking approval for the FFC networking event, I have written the agenda, verbally invited the proposed speakers, selected the location , roughed out some dates , just need to lobby for some sponsorship and then draft the proposal. I am really keen to shape this, I am still keen to web cast sector and the event. Of course waiting for the members to approve all the above then off we go, If you are visiting this blog and work in professional capacity preferably at decision maker level drop an email across to info@fair-finance.net and we can reserve you a place for October.

Finally missed the CDFA conference due to the home emergency I was disappointed not to be able to attend, maybe next year I am sure I will be able to make it now they (AWM) have extended our teams contract until December 2008, excellent.

Welcome World- Who Are We?

Having tracked a fair number of new visitors to our blog we thought that it would help if people knew who we are, and what we do right away. Fair Finance Consortium is a collaboration of 11 CDFIs located in the West Midlands (Part of the UK). The members are small business (Not for Profit) who offer loan to either businesses or individuals who are or would be unable to gain financial support from their bank or other traditional financial organisation. For business, our products are designed to appeal to Startup, Micro Businesses and SMEs, loans range from (£1,000 up to £50,000). As a final note CDFIs are also designed to regenerate parts of the region where opportunity and investment is more difficult to obtain and to assist specific types of businesses in particular the social enterprise. The individual element of their lending is the provision of small personal loans at fair and reasonable interest rates for people who are unable to access affordable finance from their bank or who may borrow money from door step lenders or unlicensed credit brokers.

There is a lot more skills our members supply to the regional business communities these include professional business support, while working with long term banking partners. The individual organisations are operated by professional with high levels of financial management experience who’s voluntary Board members range from Corporate Lawyers, Barristers, Directors of Banking institutions and CEO of International Insurance Groups, Senior IT and Accountancy professionals.

We all strive to provide the best possible service to our potential clients, awareness and promotion is paramount to the growth of our unique sector, so regardless of where you reside it is highly likely that there is a similar type of organisation in your part of the world if not then you should be asking your local government rep "Can we have one of these CDFI thingy ma jigs down our street"

Spread the Word, Thanks.