Review

This is the third year that the Directory has been published as ? A comprehensive guide to the best sources of Finance and Funding? and there is certainly a great deal of information grouped around more traditional forms of finance.

The information is grouped in 10 main chapters, from Invoice Finance, through to Turn Around Funding, each one closing with a small telephone book style mini directory of the companies you may wish to contact. It also has a handy all singing all dancing alphabetical reference at the back, with over 1000 names addresses of relevant financial institutions you might want to call, or just peruse their website, also given.

The final chapter gives information and full details of the support organisations that you may need for assistance in preparing your initial bid for funding and of course improving your chances of getting it.
At £25 it is not a bad outlay for a 170 pages of information to keep handy as a reference tool. It has value to companies at all stages from startups to companies with staff in the hundreds but it is not as complete as it could be.
Peer to Peer Finance is gradually facilitating commercial Loans, the consumer being their main market and isn?t represented as yet. Neither is Crowd Funding, that has successfully provided finance for a lot of charity projects and is gradually creeping into mainstream commerce, providing finance for substantial borrowing requirements.

It has to be said that individual chapters are not heavy on information but it is a directory not a romantic novel, so you buy this to be pointed in the right direction, not to read on the beach, or to pass exams with and yes you can find the information on the net, in due course but nothing beats having it ready to hand as your first port of call.

Mark James
Editor