Call us: 03330 113622

Blog home
Categories
Popular Posts
Recent Posts
Archive

• 03 Jul

  Bibby Financial Services Vision 2020

  We have just returned from an excellent breakfast presentation, hosted by Bibby Financial Services where Jon Charsley, the Head of Sales from their Hastings office, outlined the Bibby Vision for 2020 and shared some of their market research.

  The presentation was preceeded by an overview of the UK business environment and insolvency in the UK by Brian Johnson, Business Recovery and Insolvency Partner at Fisher Partners. Brian's presentation reported low levels of new insolvencies within the UK, despite numerous failed predictions by various parties of imminent increases in the past. It also identified many "zombie companies" operating within the UK that are on the brink of failure, but continue to stagger forward propped up, in part, by inconsistent levels of tolerance from the HMRC. This is unlikely to continue indefinitely and Brian predicted that we would see many of these "zombie companies" finally giving up their fight for survival from September onwards.

  The Bibby vision included growth in the number of smaller companies as businesses avoid the red tape associated with large numbers of employees and numerous small enterprises spring up within the UK with more people than ever working for themselves. They also forsee an increasing move towards "M-commerce" as their research suggests that more than 50% of small companies have now adopted the use of smartphones. Not unsurprisingly Bibby also see a growing emphasis on social networks in a business context, such as Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, with their team regularly "tweeting" new deals as they are completed.

  As ever the invoice finance sector stands poised to assist these new small businesses with start-up capital. Similarly, if businesses are under pressure from the HMRC factoring can release the cash that is tied up in their unpaid sales invoices for payment of outstanding PAYE and tax.

  Our thanks to the team at Bibby for a very engaging morning and thank you also for the great bacon muffin!

  By Glenn Blackman