There’s a new investment fund  – no, not one of these government schemes that are exactly the same as the old government schemes, but something that might be genuinely useful (maybe.)

It’s aimed at women business owners, so if you’re female already, then you’re off to a flying start.  If you’re male, don’t worry because you can team up with a lovely woman and still take advantage.

The Aspire fund is for businesses which are already on track with getting equity investment from an angel investor.  The Aspire fund will match the equity investment from your angel, as long as this is between £100k and £1m.  They won’t just give you the money though.  You knew there was a catch, didn’t you. They will want the same amount of equity as your investor, so you need to be able to give away more shares.

I would use this as a way of encouraging an investor to come on board, because they only need to put in half the money, if the Aspire fund will match them.

As this is a government scheme, there’s a whole bunch of hoops which you need to jump through, and word on the street is that the scheme has been launched without any procedure for getting people through it, but don’t let this put you off.

As usual, if you need help in putting an investment package together, it’s much easier if you have professional help to do this – so you’ll remember where to come, won’t you.

It has become more and more difficult to raise money for your business in recent months and I’m spending more of my time helping people to get the investment they need to take their business to the next stage.  I’m noticing some big changes in the investment environment, so I thought I’d pass these on.

Banks – At the moment, the banks don’t know where they are.  Frontline staff are being given different targets, and different instructions every week, so all the rules are being rewritten, and then written again. I’m finding that the bank staff are being overruled by lending departments, and that even if a loan is agreed in principle, this can be changed a few weeks later.  Frustrating for them, and even more irritating for the business.

What to learn from this – always have a back up plan about where you’re going to find the money.  Talk to several banks, be able to come up with some matching cash and don’t expect to do a deal quickly or easily.

Angel investors – The amount of money being invested by business angels has gone down recently.  Partly this is because less small companies are being sold to bigger companies or going for floatation, so the serial investors aren’t getting their money back to invest in more companies, and partly it’s because everyone’s too scared to do anything and is waiting to see what everyone else is doing.  However, there is still money out there, and with interest rates going so very low, I’m guessing that investors will be unlikely to keep their money in a bank for 3% interest.  They might even see investing in small businesses as a safer investment than, say, Royal Bank of Scotland.

What to learn from this – consider bringing in an angel investor, maybe as part of a deal, where the angel money entices the bank to lend.  Try flirting with several angels at once to make sure someone is really going to get into bed with you.