"Absolute tosh!"

Our very own Steve Waud doesn't hold back on trickle down economics, but is one of the most passionate advocates for the trickle up effect of growing and supporting small businesses.

He covers launching BEF 21 years ago, initially as an 18-month project and his own journey from apprentice engineer to commercially-savvy business developer to CEO of BEF.

"I knew what it was like to go to banks and ask for money," says Steve, who is characteristically forthright about the new breed of 'alternative' high-interest short-term loan firms which, he says, are "bleeding SMEs dry."

Steve gives a horrifying example about a business which was paying £28k every month to a short-term lender – but now, after refinancing with BEF, is paying just £2.5k each month.

He talks about the impact of banks such as Lloyds working with community development finance institutions (CDFIs) like BEF, building on Unity Trust Bank's and Triodos' long-term support for the CDFI sector.

And he offers three important tenets for a successful and empowering leader.

Plus, Steve tells us why he is inspired by Robinson Crusoe and other social reformers and spills the beans on his five degrees.

What next?

• More about the Business Enterprise Fund (BEF): https://www.befund.org/about

FUNDED: Brilliant Entrepreneurs and Founders is a podcast by the Business Enterprise Fund a social enterprise dedicated to breaking the "finance shackles" faced by many small and medium-sized enterprises & social enterprises.
Find BEF online at https://www.befund.org and on LInkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/business-enterprise-fund/
• This podcast is produced and edited by Jamie Veitch https://www.jamieveitch.co.uk/
• The music is "Aerosol of my Love" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Artwork design by Research Retold https://www.researchretold.com