Small and medium businesses see good prospects for their businesses in coming months and a majority are planning to invest for growth. However, a new survey has found that one of the biggest barriers to growth is finance.Trade and debtor finance specialist Scottish Pacific commissioned East & Partners to survey the SME market about business prospects. It found that 62.6 per cent of companies expected growth in their revenue over the coming six months. The average forecast for revenue growth was 8.6 per cent.Only 13.2 per cent of SMEs said their revenues would decline. The businesses surveyed have annual revenues between A$1 million and $20 million.Among SME owners who plan to invest in the growth of their businesses in the next six months, 83.8 per cent said they would fund the investment with their own funds, 40.2 per cent said they would borrow from their main financial institution, 11.2 per cent said they would borrow from another bank or a specialist non-bank lender, and 11 per cent said they would raise equity capital.Two-thirds of those (61.2 per cent) said "conditions of credit" were a barrier to growth and 51 per cent said availability of credit was a barrier. The credit condition that presented most problems was banks' requirement that business owner offer personal property as security for a loan. Sixty-four per cent of respondents said the provision of personal assets as collateral was a requirement for bank funding.Cost of credit was not much of an issue, with only 8.3 per cent citing it as a barrier.Other barriers were high taxes, government and regulatory red tape, cash flow security and competitive pressure.Scottish Pacific chief executive Peter Langham said the results suggested there was a lack of awareness of funding alternatives."If they were dealing with a debtor finance company or another specialist lender they would not have to offer personal security. We need to be more proactive in getting the message out," Langham said.