According to a report from Nesta, the innovation charity, 40 per cent of British entrepreneurs have admitted that managing their finances and dealing with banks have become the most stressful aspects of running their business.
With the stress of having to work evening and weekends to balance their books, one in six (17 per cent) said this stress is making them unwell.
“For many small businesses financial admin is unnecessarily burdensome,” said Chris Gorst of Nesta. “There are thousands of products and services available to small businesses but no easy way for them to match these to their needs and circumstances efficiently.”
A new £5m Open Up Challenge prize fund has been launched by Nesta to encourage individuals and businesses in the fintech sector to create new technologies to help small businesses manage their finances and banking.
The scheme has been welcomed by Mike Cherry, national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses.
“Accessing the right banking products and managing finances is often seen as a complicated task for small business owners and one that takes up a disproportionate amount of their time,” Mr Cherry says.
“The Open Up Challenge has the potential to change all that. If we can genuinely support small businesses, both in terms of saving them time and providing them with access to the right financial products and services, then we have the opportunity to bring something game-changing to the economy.”
Business owners can gain control of their finances by putting processes in place for effective business administration and sound management accounts which will enable better control of your financial situation and awareness of the business in real time.
This can be effective not only in detecting and countering fraud, but also in enhancing planning for the peaks and troughs. In turn, whilst many companies do not need an audit due to rising thresholds, an audit can give comfort to business owners and act as a fraud deterrent.
At Beavis Morgan, we work with our clients to put processes in place which make it easier to run your business, reduce risk and maintain effective management of your company’s working capital.
Contact Steve Govey or your usual Beavis Morgan Partner for further information about how we can assist you and your business.