Positive Signs Of Business Growth But NI Needs To Attract More Investors Says Business Guru

Investment guru Justin Urquhart Stewart was very bullish about the economic prospects in Northern Ireland when he spoke to Ulster Business recently. He believes there has been a very positive change in the air, in fact more than most other regions in the UK, but he did point out that NI businesses need to look at more innovative ways of funding if they are really going to fulfill their potential.

Stewart is a British investment manager and business commentator who was the co-founder and Head of Corporate Development at investment fund 7IM. He has appeared on various TV programmes, more often than not wearing his signature red braces!

Northern Ireland Firms Cannot Rely On Traditional Finance Methods

Here is what he had to say, as copied from an article by John Mulgrew on the Belfast Telegraph website:

“Northern Ireland has to go out and market itself and bring [investors] in and cannot rely solely on traditional finance methods.

“Ulster has to go through this and realise that this isn’t just a change, but a continuous process. The youngsters realise have to realise, they don’t just join a company, they have to be changing. Everyone will be working for themselves in one form or another.

“I haven’t seen a change like this in other areas which I’ve been at talks. There has been consistent change over a decade.”

He went on to say that:

“You’ve got people who have been doing it and learning from themselves,

“For a lot of the small businesses here, they can sit down and actually say ‘we can do some of this’.

“[Firms] are using proper technology and developing things themselves. They’ve actually matured into something which can be a larger size – scaling a business.”

Businesses Have To Get More Finance In

Finally, talking about getting funding, he said that:

“The next thing they have to do is get more finance in. There’s lot of money which can be used… there are more methods of funding these days so we need to make sure we are bringing those in. So more companies can get local funding, faster.”

He said Northern Ireland should be looking at attracting investors from elsewhere in the UK and outside our shores.

“How do they funnel in? If there’s a mechanism, whether it’s crowd-funding or whether it’s through a form of electronic exchange, to be able to get them into that so they can invest and exit in due course.

“That’s the bit that is missing at the moment. Relying upon traditional methods of finance isn’t going to be good enough, so that’s going to take some initiative.”