The Confederation of British Industry has been complaining for years that small and medium-sized businesses need access to finance to enable them to fulfil their growth aspirations. Although constraints on lending, resulting from the financial crisis, are beginning to ease, a 'new normal' has emerged that means traditional forms of finance, such as overdrafts and loans, will not be the solution for all businesses all the time.

The new CBI guide entitled, 'Ripe for the picking: a guide to alternative finance sources', is designed to raise awareness among growing businesses of the range of financing options available to them. This report contains an excellent decision tree on how to use the different types of financing:

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This report could also be useful to larger companies and groups, particularly the decision tree.