Building up business
A new programme to build the financial skills for small businesses to prosper
Small businesses play a critical role in the UK economy. However, a lack of access to support with business finance skills and knowledge holds businesses back, creates a higher risk of financial difficulty and can increase the risk of business failure.
Drawing on our expertise from Business Debtline, and our experience as a training provider, we want to build the financial resilience of small business owners across the UK and help support more businesses to thrive.
Our Building up business programme aims to do that. Supported by Aviva, it provides vital insight and recommendations on how to close the business finance skills and confidence gap and improve support for small business owners.
View our latest blog post on the Building Up Business programme.
The business finance skills gap
Our findings highlight the challenges facing small business owners who contact Business Debtline:
- Half (51 percent) of Business Debtline callers surveyed were not confident in constructing a business plan before trading.
- Two in five (40 percent) did not feel confident calculating cash flow and profits.
- A third (35 percent) did not feel confident putting together a business budget.
Findings from the research will also be used to pilot a free, virtual learning resource for small business owners, to provide additional support to the small business owners who contact our Business Debtline service for help with their debts.
Share your views
Our briefing sets out some of our initial insight on the challenges small business owners face navigating their business finances, and the impact this can have. We are working with the University of Bristol, who will be conducting in-depth research with Business Debtline clients, as well as looking at the wider perspective of small business owners across the UK.
If you are interested in this project and have experience and insight to share, we want to hear from you. Please get in touch by emailing us at policy@moneyadvicetrust.org.
