Small Businesses Wait For Boost

New Zealand Herald:

An accountant is pushing for a government subsidy to help small businesses get off the ground.

Paul Kane, partner at Auckland accounting firm Grant Thornton, says the lack of support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) should be an election issue.

He points to Britain’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme as a system New Zealand could emulate.

It lends money to SMEs unable to obtain a normal loan because of a lack of equity. “Lots of small businesses are people starting out. They’ve bought the family home, are heavily in debt and struggling to take on more debt.”

The only option was to get a loan secured against property but many didn’t have that option and there needed to be another method, he said.

Graeme Tait, managing director of cafe franchise Columbus Coffee, welcomed the idea of a government scheme but said capital needed to be matched with competency.

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