Getting money to start a new business is rarely a straightforward matter

BELFAST BRIEFING:GETTING THE money together to get a new business off the ground is never easy. But there must be more straightforward options available than getting into bed with your married lover's friends to the tune of £50,000.

As business plans go, this approach is unlikely to win the backing of any major financial institution. But there is little doubt that this unconventional approach did work, at least initially, for one young Belfast businessman – Kirk McCambley.

Together with his business partner Andrew Adair, McCambley runs the Lock Keeper’s Inn, a cafe in east Belfast which aims to serve “good quality, healthy food”, in beautiful surroundings. Last year McCambley and Adair won the eastern regional final of the Eircom Young Entrepreneur awards.

Castlereagh Borough Council claims the cafe is “being sought out by hundreds of customers every day”. Twenty-one-year-old McCambley might have remained just another award winner had his rather unorthodox route to securing funding remained, like the recipe for his cafe’s 8oz burger, a closely guarded secret.

But last week BBC Northern Ireland revealed that McCambley had a brief affair with Iris Robinson. The BBC also revealed that Iris was the woman who had secured loans of £50,000 to help McCambley get his business up and running.

Robinson appears also to have been the inspiration behind the business to begin with. She served on Castlereagh Borough Council when it first advertised for a potential tenant for a cafe in its area which was to be part of a new visitors’ centre on the Lagan Valley towpath. The BBC claimed Robinson helped McCambley secure the lease for the premises.

Castlereagh Borough Council has now launched an investigation into Robinson’s role and her business affairs in relation to McCambley and the cafe. What impact this will have on McCambley and his business is hard to predict.

The Robinson-McCambley saga is a sobering example of how affairs of the heart and business dealings do not make good partners. But it also shines the spotlight on the difficulties experienced by many young entrepreneurs in the North when it comes to finding finance to support a new business venture.

McCambley is unlikely to become a role model for aspiring businessmen and women in Northern Ireland, at least when it comes to securing capital. But his experiences are likely to prompt others to think carefully about how they fund a new venture.

One of the issues here is where else might McCambley have turned to in order to get the necessary cash. Banks seem an obvious choice. But Jonathan Walmsley from the Federation of Small Business says feedback from its members suggests even established businesses are having problems obtaining credit and additional lending facilities. Walmsley says he knows of businesses that have had their overdrafts withdrawn or converted to loans with no notice.

“Exorbitant charges and unfavourable changes to business account terms,” are part and parcel of daily life in the North at the moment, say the FSB.

High street banks in Northern Ireland maintain they are doing everything in their power to support business in the North.

A spokesman for Ulster Bank said the bank understood its customers were “facing challenges at this difficult time”. It says it has committed over £200 million of new funding to support more than 500 Northern Ireland firms and has also supported other companies with funding from the European Investment Bank and the UK Government’s European Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme to the value of £15 million.

According to Ulster Bank its lending criteria have not changed. “We look for good solid businesses with the ability to repay,” it said.

First Trust Bank said it continues to support all business clients. “Where a business encounters cashflow pressure, we assist them by taking an individual approach to restructuring their lending facilities,” the bank said.

According to Kevin Kingston, from Northern Bank, it provides “ongoing support and advice”.

“We consider proposals for finance on its own merits and are turning down very little on the business front. However, we are seeing fewer requests from businesses as many have cut back on investment. Our focus over the last year has been to support existing customers during the difficult economic environment.”

Bank of Ireland says demand for credit has fallen significantly, as has the value of applications. The nature of demand is also very different and has shifted considerably from investment capital requirements to short-term working capital.

“Our current rate of credit approval for business application remains at 80 per cent,” it said.

Kirk McCambley could not have imagined that his cafe would one day be the most talked about business start-up in the North. The question now is whether he will be able to enjoy it.