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Is Running a Business "A Juggling Act"

10th May 2019
Brought to you by
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ICPA is a professional organisation for accountants in practice.

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Running a business is a circus of a different kind, says iwoca’s Richard Sutton.

This blog is taken from the ICPA website. Dedicated to supporting and promoting the needs of the general practitioner. You can find us at www.icpa.org.uk or email [email protected] or by phone on 0800-074-2896.

Why did iwoca surprise commuters at Manchester Piccadilly station with a flash mob-style juggling act, highlighting the daily hassles facing the owners of Britain’s 5.6 million small businesses?

As a business owner, do you ever feel like you have a lot of tasks up in the air at the same time? If you do, well you’re not alone – we asked 1,000 small business decision-makers which circus act best describes their personal experience of running a small business and 57% identified most strongly with the juggler.

Not the lion tamer, controlling a powerful living animal, nor the acrobat moving swiftly and dynamically between new opportunities, but the circus’ most masterful multi-tasker. We found that a fascinating insight into the minds of small business owners, and we think it hints at the daily extra hassles they are needlessly put through each and every working day (accessing finance from a bank, for example).

Speaking about the research our CEO, Christoph Rieche, said: “I can absolutely resonate with this feeling; there are so many balls we as business owners need to keep in the air. If you drop one you risk that all of them come crashing down, it’s really stressful but also a lot of fun at the same time.

“Access to credit to manage cash-flow gaps or to seize growth opportunities is just one of these balls and it’s iwoca’s mission to make it an easy one to keep in the air.”

The YouGov study also found that affinity with the juggling analogy was strongest in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, where 63% in each region compared themselves to jugglers. It was revealed that bookkeeping was the task most small businesses considered the biggest hassle, chosen by over a quarter (27%) of all decision-makers.

Echoing these findings, one of iwoca’s existing accountant partners has provided their perspective to the juggling act of running a business.

Michael Ogilvie, Director of OBC The Accountants, told us: “In my experience small businesses don’t fully understand the financial situation they’re facing. They’re good at what they do as their core business, but turn to their accountant for support in financial planning. Understanding your cash flow is essential. For some small businesses cash flow problems creep up on them. They need to be looking a year ahead, and this is where we [accountants] can start to play a more active role in forward-thinking. But the unexpected can result in a short-term funding need.”

When putting a client forward for business funding, “iwoca exceeded my expectations,” said Ogilvie. “It was very easy to organise compared to the form filling and arrangement fees associated with traditional lending. Because of their technology, I was able to provide iwoca with all the information they needed in just a few clicks.”

For information on becoming an introducer to iwoca call 020 3778 0324 or visit www.iwoca.co.uk/accountants.

• Richard Sutton is iwoca’s Head of Accountant Relationships. iwoca is an ICPA partner.

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