Raising Finance for SMEs
Are you thinking of raising finance for your small or medium sized business?
Before you make your move, and there are lots of moves to make, listen to the guy that helps firms raising finance. Colin Cowap is helping SMEs to raise finance in a way that every business owner would appreciate. With a complete absence of BS. Colin joined us on The Next 100 Days podcast. He hails from Dublin but lives in Milton Keynes. It's accessible, he says, but too industrial! He is the founder of We Raise Any Finance. Colin is an ad hoc consultant to accountants. His Proactive Accountants network is very large. And if you are wondering, you pronounce his surname like Co-op. His background is sales and marketing. He markets for accountants, solicitors, IFAs, and book-keepers. As long as it is financial services or legal. Professional service companies are his niche.

http://www.weraiseanyfinance.co.uk/getquote















Colin Cowap's History
Colin has been involved in marketing, advertising and lead generation for a number of companies. He moved slowly into the accountancy sector. As he says, everybody needs an accountant. On top of that, so many people want to collaborate and partner with accountants.
Accountants
As his network of accountants grew, people would approach Colin to access his accountancy network. He has formed some considered views about accountants. For accountants, it is never about value. It is mostly about how much will this cost us and what am I getting back in return. Ring a bell for you too? :) So what makes an ideal accountant? Someone that isn't predominantly all about numbers. Colin prefers the role of accountants to be known as business consultant. If you ask 100 Business Owners what qualification does your accountant have...? They wouldn't tell you. Another thing. Most accountants become quite stale when in their 2nd and 3rd year onwards. If you are just one of 200-400 clients. What do you look for from your accountant?

Business advice?
Good competitive fixed fees?
A numbers coach?

This last area is where Colin says accountants need to be.
We Raise Any Finance was a reaction to helping accountants
Colin recognised that Accountants were a conduit to businesses who required specific help with raising finance. He'd spent a lot of years promoting so many companies to accountants from banks, insolvency practitioners, brokers, solicitors and software companies. They all wanted to work with accountants, collaborate with them or tap into their account base. Colin knew that no-one was offering commercial financial solutions for raising finance. Yet, it is the one value that everybody wants and needs. Finance, working capital and cash flow is required in just about every business.
What does We Raise Any Finance do?
It was built as a concept for some insolvency firms about 12 months ago. The agonising factor was that insolvency firms, or recovery specialists, was that they are all competing for the same business. They all rely on accountants. Referrals are very few and far between. There is not a lot of marketing and advertising around helping someone that is facing financial pressure. We don't like to admit that we are struggling. He did a survey for insolvency firms, asking WHO would be the first point of contact, if your company was struggling? Most people don't know when they hit the point of insolvency. Or they don't admit to it. The idea was to be that first point of contact for struggling firms. If your firm is not good enough to get credit, then maybe you need to talk to someone-else. Someone who can HELP your business before it gets to the point of no return. We Raise Any Finance soon became liked for raising finance. People liked the site and would recommend the site. There was a great influx, predominantly from accountancy clients, through business networks on facebook, twitter and linkedin. Even though it was built as an aggregator,

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