210,000 SMEs now have the ability to get funding from NACFB commercial broker members, thanks to a new system powered by Commercial Keeper.

Launched by Business Secretary Vince Cable in Whitehall on Monday, the Small Business Finance Directory gives businesses access to a website that enables them to put in details of the amount of funding they need and what they need it for.

The website will then direct the lead to what the underlying deems the most appropriate commercial broker in that area.

The broker will receive an email the second the business request has been submitted, and details of the lead will also appear as an alert on the broker’s Commercial Keeper CRM system.

The lead details, plus any follow up action taken by the broker, will immediately populate their CRM system.

Commercial Keeper system will also dynamically update the NACFB, so that they can inform the FSB and the government on the value, type and geographic distribution of the leads being received, as well as the reason for the success or failure of any application.

The Commercial Keeper system was designed specifically for commercial finance brokers in conjunction with the NACFB. It is provided by the eKeeper group, which also provides the MortgageKeeper and SENRO systems.
Rick Watkin, managing director of the eKeeper group, said: “This is a revolutionary new system that will put small and medium sized businesses that are members of the FSB, directly in touch with the brokers that can give them the funding that they need.

“Access to business funding has been one of the key factors that has held back growth of the economy in the past few years, so this system should be a really positive factor to increase business expansion and help to power the UK economy back to a position of positive growth.”

Adam Tyler, chief executive of the NACFB, added: “The NACFB wasn’t set up to provide brokers with leads or to extend a hand directly to small businesses. But we have grown over the last 21 years, and we are delighted to be able to create such an ambitious lead generation scheme and to start playing such a big part in enabling commercial funding.

“The Small Business Finance Directory offers small businesses a quick and efficient route to gain funding via our one thousand brokers. Now we need to spread the word around and make sure SMEs are aware that funding doesn’t have to be hard-to-find any more.”