Lifecycle of a business: financing and growth

In the early stages of a business thought should be given to how best to encourage external funding in order to maximise the profit-making potential of the business. A key factor regarding which funding method to adopt will be whether there are enticing tax breaks on offer for any individuals who provide the finance. This article considers some of the options open to a business trading as a limited company (which is not a knowledge-intensive company) focusing more on the enterprise investment scheme as the regime most likely to be applicable to a trading business which has progressed beyond the start-up stage. The case study set out below illustrates an investment in a small trading company through the enterprise...