Access to Finance: What to expect from the upcoming financial planning event

Next up in Enterprise Nation Ireland's Access to Finance series, we take a look at financial planning for 2023, with a webinar on Tuesday 31 January.

Enterprise Nation is working with SBCI, BPFI, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Permanent TSB and Sage to support 30,000 small businesses across Ireland with information on funding options.

Conor Stanley is a chartered accountant and head of CFO Services at Outmin. Outmin is changing the way that small businesses run their finance and admin functions. Conor has kindly offered to lend his expertise on our panel for the event.

We caught a quick word with Conor to find out what participants should expect from the upcoming webinar.

Conor, what do you do at Outmin?

I help business owners to look at the day-to-day running of their business, both today and in the future. We'll then apply some sort of financial or commercial rigour to their business.

The difference between us and normal accountancy is accountants talk about last year. I apply chartered accountant skills to look at the future.

Why should business owners tune into the webinar? What will you be discussing?

At the minute, there's a huge amount of uncertainty around what 2023 looks like. People are talking about recessions, World War 3 potentially happening. There's inflation, interest rates are going higher, and people have stopped spending money. So businesses will feel all of that at some stage this year.

It's just about sitting down as a management team in a small business and looking at what you think is going to happen this year. What if your biggest client left? What if the bank took your overdraft away? What if instead of sealing three deals you only seal one? Or what if someone wants a 5% pay increase?

You won't have the answers for those questions now, but sitting down and having a think about this better equips you for when something bad does happen.

This year isn't going to be the same as last year. You need to consider all the different variables and how they will affect your business.

It's about trying to encompass everything in the business, putting it into some sort of plan and having a chat about it. What I always say is that it isn't necessarily the document that you have at the end of the process, it's the thinking and consideration that you give to something.

What is the biggest mistake start-ups and small business owners make when financial planning?

Business owners tend, by their very nature, to be positive and optimistic – this is asking them to take an alternative view to that.

Lots of businesses aren't realistic enough about how much work and cost it takes to win new business at the rate that they plan. Much of it is on 'hope' and not enough of it is a 'plan' to get new business.

About Access to Finance

Enterprise Nation Ireland has teamed up with a range of finance partners to show you which funding options are available and help you gain access to them.

Take part in interactive workshops, e-learning modules and free in-person consultations to move your business to the next level. Visit the Access to Finance Hub now