How to use the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLG) to raise cash for your business

This is the first of a series of articles that has been written to provide some practical support for the small and medium sized businesses in the UK that require additional funding for their businesses but struggle to qualify for traditional commercial lending due to a lack of security.

At a time when the financial markets are going through unprecedented upheavel we wanted to shed some positive light on a government scheme that has been in existence since 1981 which helps smaller businesses raise business loans regardless of their ability to provide traditional security.

The SFLG scheme could benefit your business if you have been:

If any of the above applies to you and you are willing to invest some time and effort into actioning an SFLG application your prayers may just have been answered.

Not because we are financial geniuses or that we have an unlimted supply of surplus funds waiting to be doled out to anyone with a reasonable business case.

But simply because there is a government scheme designed to help businesses with just these challenegs that has been around since 1981.

However the Small Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLG) is still cloaked in mystery, complexity and a belief that it is virtually impossible to access successfully.

We're not saying that the business loans available via this scheme are available to everyone but we are saying that once armed with the background information and insider knowledge about the scheme it will maximise your chances of taking advantage of an extremely useful method of adding much needed pounds sterling into your business bank account to expand your business and do your bit to assist the UK economy.

The Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme (SFLG) is important for the general health of the UK economy because it supports entrepreneurs with viable businesses and business plans that do not have the traditional security required by the banking industry when raising business finance.

Why have we written this SFLG report?


The Diverse Finance Company has been supporting businesses up and down the country to raise business loans and equity finance from a variety of sources.

The Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme has been the topic we have discussed with more businesses and bankers than any other. Largely due, we believe, to the mystery, suspicion and ignorance surrounding the SFLG scheme.

During the last five years we have raised money by using the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme for many businesses.

Our business has been liasing with banks, talking to business owners and coordinating activities with our client’s accountants to ensure that SFLG applications have the best chance of being successful.

However the fact that total SFLG lending has almost halved in recent years against a backdrop of lenders not even reaching 50% of their SFLG allocation from the government is a clear indication that something is wrong with the way the scheme is promoted both externally within the SME community and internally within the banks.

So if we can help as many small businesses as possible persevere with this vital UK small business support scheme, attract a few more clients to the Diverse Finance stable and make our small contribution to the development of the economy we will feel that the extra long nights in compiling this series of articles have been worthwhile.

How this report can help you raise finance for your business


In writing this report we tried to think about the wide variety of questions that we currently answer and the range of support we provide our clients. For those interested in taking advantage of this scheme this report is designed to provide the following help:

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