Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) always find it difficult to acquire the financing they need during an economic downturn – representing as they do a different value proposition to banks than large companies. During the whole of 2010, there was anecdotal evidence of just how hard it has been for SMEs to stay afloat, with reports of some businesses relying on their owners' personal credit cards to remain solvent.
But if SMEs have had it tough, for start-up companies the situation has been almost impossible.
