WE are all aware of the current pressures for businesses, especially small and new businesses striving for growth.
But there is support out there for small business owners. Before the fall of Stormont, economy minister Gordon Lyons launched a programme to support the growth of local SME businesses across Northern Ireland.
Ambition to Grow is a £1.8 million regionally focussed support programme developed by Invest NI to support innovative, export-driven SMEs to create jobs and sell outside of Northern Ireland.
Moreover, The British Business Bank, which is a government-owned business development bank, dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses, recently announced the expansion of their start up loans programme in Northern Ireland.
It now includes start-ups that have been trading for up to three years and second start up loans are now available to eligible businesses that have been trading for up to five years.
The scheme has already delivered more than 1,000 loans, worth more than £12m to new business owners in Northern Ireland, over the past ten years.
This means many businesses in Northern Ireland will have the financial opportunity to grow from a start-up to a scale-up business.
Insurance is the main way for businesses to reduce the financial impact of a risk materialising.
Running any kind of business involves a certain amount of risk and it is especially important to review your policies if your business is growing.
Whether it’s the loss of equipment, risk of liability to a third party or the risk of cyber-crime, these incidents and more will have a financial impact on your business if they occur.
One of the main considerations for entrepreneurs and small business enterprises as they grow is to continually assess their insurance needs.
As you hire more employees, move to larger premises or upgrade your computer system, it is important to review each policy in place.
You might also reconsider policies around certain specialist insurance products such as cyber insurance, and cyber-crime insurance to name a few.
Inflationary pressures also mean that the sums insured you had on your property insurance or stock last year is no longer adequate.
Protecting your business assets as your business up-scales will provide future resilience should an insured loss happen.
It is important to talk to a specialised insurance broker to ensure all elements of your business are covered when your business is undergoing significant growth.
:: Jackie Elliott is commercial director at AbbeyAutoline (www.abbeyautoline.co.uk)
