Well, the good news is that funding has progressed way beyond the traditional bank loan or potential investors who might have a completely different agenda to yours.
SET
Peer to peer lending (or crowd lending) lenders take no share of a company, have no say in how it’s run and no voting rights – they simply provide “loans”.
Scotland’s first dedicated peer-to-business (P2B) crowdfunding platform, LendingCrowd, was launched at the end of 2014 and has already attracted a healthy number of borrowers. According to Co-founder Stuart Lunn: “Our aim is to challenge the status quo and open up new channels through which local SMEs can secure credit and grow their business. The days of solely relying on traditional banks are over. Business lending is changing for the better.”
Here’s how it works:
1. You sign up and complete your loan application.
2. LendingCrowd assess your application and, if approved, your loan goes live.
3. A "bid" process follows, where lots of investors compete to lend you money, so you can get the best rate possible.
4. Once you’ve reached your target, LendingCrowd takes care of all the admin and you receive the funds.
5. You make one repayment each month, which LendingCrowd collects and distributes to all your investors.
GROW !
Okay, let’s jump forward a little. Imagine you’ve secured your funding and your project is underway. These are exciting times – you’re doing something innovative that’s advancing your chosen field of industry or technology.
You’ll probably find that in order to get this far, you will have spent money trying to improve a product or service through a technological advance, using qualified staff and appropriate project controls.
Not quite so new as crowd funding, the Government’s R&D tax relief scheme was introduced in 2000 to encourage companies like yours to innovate by allowing you to reclaim money invested in qualifying R&D.
We say “companies like yours” because, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to have labs full of men and women in white coats to qualify. "Many companies don’t appreciate that the scheme applies not just to blue-sky research, but also to changes made to processes and systems that create better ways of operating,” explains Brian Williamson, Managing Director of Jumpstart.
The UK’s leading R&D tax relief specialist, Jumpstart has helped literally thousands of businesses, some of whom had no idea they would qualify, to recover over a whopping £50m in R&D tax relief benefits.
Grow on... visit LendingCrowd’s website or give Jumpstart a call on 0131 240 2900 to find out more.
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