Alison Bradley sets up new business support agency

THE former head of a funding stream for small businesses in the West Midlands has set up a new business helping SMEs to achieve their growth potential.

Central Business Development Ltd is the brainchild of Alison Bradley, the former boss of The Arrow Fund – a £2m loan guarantee scheme backed by Advantage West Midlands and Birmingham City Council.

The Arrow Fund, which was partially funded by Lloyds TSB, was one of the first victims of the last year’s public sector spending cuts. It had offered loans of between £1,000 and £10,000 to help people expand their small business after being refused a loan from the banks.

Central Business Development targets entrepreneurs and small business owners across the West Midlands who need expert help in order to reach the next stage of their development.

CBD is to work closely with businesses and the finance community in the West Midlands to ensure businesses secure the funding they need in order to progress.

Firms are offered a free first advisory meeting, providing them with an impartial assessment of their finance requirements and are then given an indication of the range and type of finance that may be available to them. After this initial meeting, a transparent and guaranteed fee is agreed for all subsequent consultancies.

Ms Bradley said the scheme, which also offers advice on debt, the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme, commercial mortgages and a range of other issues, was being introduced at a time when support for new and small businesses was dwindling, particularly with the demise of Business Link and other support networks.

She said: “We acknowledge that finance can be difficult to arrange in the present climate – so business owners and new businesses will be calling on the services of finance specialists more than ever before.

“Our uniqueness is that we work with a vast range of lenders, banks included, but also utilise an array of private and public sector schemes to create a package of finance to make the deal work.”

CBD has helped more than 70 firms in the past 12 months, across a range of sectors. Turnovers vary between £200,000 and £26m and the companies can need help from anywhere between £20,000 to £4m.

Within the first few weeks of trading, the venture help find finance of £200,000 for a Tamworth bakery, a move that helped create 20 new jobs.

“This proves that even though finance may be more difficult to obtain, with the right people working on a proposal, a business need not struggle on without the money it needs to develop to its full potential,” added Ms Bradley.

Firms needing help should contact enquiries@cbdfinance.co.uk or call 07711 668587 for more details.