With more than half of small business owners in the UK concerned about their ability to get bank loans, many are turning to alternatives such as crowdfunding and P2P lending, according to a WorldPay survey.
Of 1000 small biz owners quizzed by WorldPay, more than half say that they are planning for growth in 2018, yet 52% admit to being concerned that the traditional routes to finance, such as bank loans, are not going to be as easily available in the coming year.
With this in mind, many respondents, particularly younger ones, are looking elsewhere. While 21% of business owners aged 44 or under say they’re still most likely to apply for a bank loan when looking for funding, nearly as many respondents (17%) say they’re more likely to look at crowd-funding, while 11% prefer P2P lending, and six per cent say they favour business cash advance.
Worldpay found that while younger small businesses owners are comfortable to shop around for finance outside of traditional channels, older business owners are not, leaving them potentially vulnerable should lending levels drop.
James Frost, CMO, Worldpay UK, says: "A lot of business owners will remember the credit crunch of 2008 and the difficulties they faced during that period. We’ve come a long way since then however, and today small business owners have an incredible number of options available to them in order to support growth."