National debt is dominating headlines, but the detail that matters most for business owners isn't the Bank of England's policy rate - it's the 10-year gilt yield, which reached 5.06% in late July, pushing longer-term borrowing costs up all year.

At the SME level, debt isn't inherently good or bad, it is simply a tool whose outcome depends entirely on how it is structured and matched to your business.

From funding growth in complex sectors to slipping into high-stress debt stacking or facing enforcement, the difference between success and distress usually comes down to getting proper advice early

I have been writing about the property market for over 20 years, and this week it is worth taking a closer look at how Northern Ireland’s commercial property market is finding its feet again.

Investment in the first quarter of 2026 reached roughly £71 million - effectively double the £35.7 million recorded in the same period a year earlier - with full-year 2025 volume topping £308 million.

Scratch beneath the surface, however, and the picture is more complex: viability constraints, a shortage of modern industrial stock, and a shift toward fewer but larger transactions mean that a significant portion of real deal activity is now taking place quietly off-market.

Last week we looked at the gap between record bank profitability and stubbornly high SME loan rejection rates. This week the headline has flipped: new data shows SME lending is genuinely rising, with UK SME lending up 16% year-on-year to £5.3 billion in Q1 2026.

However, "lending is up" is not the same question as "who is lending to you, and on what terms". With market fragmentation, non-bank private credit moving centre stage, and credit union capacity expanding, finding the right structure before you apply is critical to avoiding high costs or unnecessary rejections...

If you've felt like getting a straight answer out of a bank regarding business finance has become harder work than it used to be, the numbers back you up - and tell a very odd story.

Half-year results confirm 2026 is shaping up to be one of the strongest years on record for Irish and Northern Irish banks, with profits and lending appetite soaring. Yet, SME loan approval rates have plummeted from 80% down to just 44%, leaving more than half of applicant businesses turned away with a 'Computer says No'.

The paradox resolves once you understand why these applications are actually failing

I've been looking at some new SME research this week, and one number caught my attention: 81% of Northern Ireland SMEs expect to explore M&A activity in the next 12 months.

That is well above the UK national average of 65%, making NI one of the most acquisition-hungry SME markets on these islands. Layer on top of that: 61% of NI SMEs expect overseas sales to grow this year.

Whatever you think about the wider economic mood music, local business owners aren't sitting on their hands—they are looking to buy, expand, and push into new markets.

However, Northern Ireland also has the lowest proportion of SMEs using external finance of any devolved UK nation. Put plainly, too many business owners have M&A plans in their heads and no funding plan on paper, creating a dangerous gap that kills deals at the worst possible moment...

We're just over halfway through 2026, and it's already been a year that has tested SME owners' patience and, for others, rewarded their discipline in equal measure. Rate cuts, geopolitical shocks, a refinancing cliff edge, and a genuine appetite to invest have all been in play at once.

Given we are halfway through the year, I wanted to share some thoughts and observations on how I see things right now for business owners.

These are my own observations of what I am seeing on the ground by speaking to several clients daily, and what it could mean for how you plan the rest of the year.

Last week, Ireland lost one of its greatest ever entrepreneurs with the passing of Martin Naughton, the visionary founder of Glen Dimplex.

Beyond building a global €1.5 billion manufacturing empire and sustaining thousands of jobs over five decades, Martin was a master craftsman who quietly proved that business, done right, can hold communities together when politics cannot.

Reflecting on Naughton's incredible legacy of resilience and extraordinary philanthropy, we explore what his life teaches the next generation of risk-takers, and why backing local enterprise with capital, nerve, and patience is essential for our future...

More than 17 years after the 2008–09 financial crash, thousands of ordinary borrowers, families, and business owners are still quietly carrying the heavy burden of legacy debt. With accumulating interest, sudden court enforcement actions, and loans sold off to aggressive investment funds without warning, these situations can easily feel completely unsolvable - but they aren't.

The window for taking action narrows the longer it is left unaddressed, which is why a thorough look at your original paperwork could uncover hidden paths and debt write-off options you didn't even know existed...

Last week, the Irish business world was stopped in its tracks by the landmark news that global software giant Salesforce agreed to acquire Fin (formerly Intercom) for an astronomical $3.6 billion. This historic deal represents the ultimate entrepreneurial journey - growing from an idea inspired by a Dublin coffee shop into a global tech powerhouse that successfully pivoted into artificial intelligence.

But this narrative of high-level ambition isn't exclusive to the South; right here in Northern Ireland, local companies like TES Group, Kingsbridge Healthcare Group, and Hospital Services Limited have quietly completed massive global exits over the last few years.

These success stories underpin a vital reinvestment cycle where capital and hard-earned expertise are funneled right back into our local ecosystems to back the next generation of business breakthroughs.

Whether you are currently focused on funding your next phase of growth, planning a strategic acquisition, or structuring your own eventual exit, the debt markets remain open and ready to support ambitious business owners...

Yesterday, the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee decided to maintain the base rate at 3.75%. While many business owners welcomed this as stable news, the 7-2 vote tells a much more significant story: two senior policymakers pushed for an immediate hike to 4%.

This shifting momentum means that the direction of travel within the bank is now clear, and waiting until the last minute for debt review, renewal, or refinancing could leave your business in a highly vulnerable position with fewer options.

Lending appetites and pricing move long before official rate changes, meaning that if your debt is up for review in the next 12 months, the time to act is right now...

Last week, David Solomon (the head of Goldman Sachs) dropped an op-ed that every business owner in Northern Ireland needs to read. He isn’t talking about a sci-fi robot takeover; he’s talking about the very real fact that AI is on track to automate 25% of work tasks over the next decade.

One in four hours worked, gone - not to replace your staff, but to completely move the bar on performance standards. For local SMEs, this isn't about spending billions on data centres; it's about using tools that cost less than a monthly fish supper to buy back your most finite resource: time.

But while AI can handle the heavy lifting, there is one critical edge it will never replicate, and it happens to be Northern Ireland’s greatest business strength...

Northern Ireland is currently in the grip of a housing emergency—but this isn't a crisis born from a sudden economic shock. Instead, it is a slow-motion collapse driven by decades of underinvestment, chronic wastewater infrastructure deficits, and housebuilding hitting an astonishing 60-year low. While over 15,000 planned homes sit stalled in the pipeline because the sewage network is quite literally full, developers are ready to put shovels in the ground—they just need the right funding structures to do it. From riding the coattails of the Celtic Tiger to navigating today's unique capital gaps, here is what it will really take to get Northern Ireland building again...