November 19, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 3:21 am
AXA’s business crime statistics show that the city with the most business crime is Halifax with Wolverhampton businesses most at threat of theft and businesses in Kilmarnock facing the threat of arson.
The Business Crime Index from AXA points to cities in the North and West Midlands as the hardest hit areas for crime due to the severity of the economic crisis in these areas.
The fear for these locations is that during the Christmas season crime in these areas will continue to increase, especially in retail locations due to the high amount of stock and cash that will be on hand.
During the first six months of 2009 the AXA report states that one in 16 Halifax businesses was a victim of crime with malicious damage the most often complaint.
On a regional basis, the Greater London area placed high on the list with six different postcode areas listed within the top twenty crime regions of Britain.
Included were the areas of North West England, Yorkshire & the Humber, and the West Midlands.
This reflects the belief by economic analysts that the North and the West Midlands has been affected by the economic downfall the most.
Scotland fared well on the list, with only one region, Motherwell, in the top twenty down near the bottom at 17th place.
Before Christmas shopping officially begins the AXA has recommended that to avoid becoming a victim of crime, businesses should make sure their stock is fully insured and that all alarms and security exits are not blocked by extra Christmas stock.
November 18, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 5:56 am
Even though £200bn has been added to the UK financial system by the Government, small and medium sized businesses are still have problems finding finance a report by the British Chambers of Commerce stated.
According to the report, about a third of all companies included in the survey said that they had a harder time finding finance access within the last three months. Out of those questioned, 3% said the finance situation had improved while an overwhelming 64% said that it had not changed.
Director of the BCC, David Frost, stated that their survey showed that the largest issue still facing British SMEs is high demand for services and products. He continued to state that it has become clear that despite the government’s attempts to pump money into the financial system the efforts are not aiding SMEs in finding funding.
This is especially true for businesses looking for money to aid expansion or future success.
Frost also called for the government to consider implementing a new set of measures that will help increase the confidence felt towards SMEs by the UK public. He stated that a great place to start would be by scrapping the increase in National Insurance that is planned for 2011.
Despite the concerns over finance, the report showed that the largest problem is actually the lack of customer demand in holding businesses back from expanding instead of trouble finding finance.
The BCC survey questioned 400 firms about their viewpoints on the lending situation that exists currently in the UK.
November 12, 2009
Filed under: Business Tools — admin @ 6:01 pm
If there is one thing you should do this year, it is upgrade your old and outdated CRM system to become a whole shiny new system. Choosing a system with a helpful CRM trial will be a good place to start, and will demonstrate to you just how many benefits a decent CRM system can give you. From exciting integrate systems through to easy and simple usability; there is something to tempt everyone in a good program.
Star CRM
Choosing your CRM system is consequently one of the biggest decisions you can make for your company. With the right system on your side, you should be able to integrate all your business components to work together efficiently and effectively. With so many businesses trapped in inefficient processes and with departments working on their own rather than together, a decent CRM trial has the chance to introduce you to a whole new world of technology.
That technology is quite incredible. As a CRM customer, you will be able to discover areas of customer relationship management that you probably haven’t though of before. In particular, professional CRM systems can work with Microsoft, one of the most popular computer systems on the marketplace today. During your CRM trial, you will be able to witness the synchronisation between your CRM system and Microsoft dynamics, tying together your database with Outlook, for example. Having done this, your company will be able to have everything working together, meaning that the maximum amount of useful information, including diaries and sales reports, are available to your sales teams.
Of course, being a CRM customer is useful for more than just your sales team. Your warehouse can manage sales and distribution, customer services can access relevant customer information, and marketing can access sales history and identify trends in order of effectively target their campaigns. Even better, a CRM trial will show you just how easy this technology is to understand, with the emphasis being place of CRM solutions that are logical, user-friendly and easy to learn. Keeping your training costs down because of this allows you to save money to use where it really counts, and even potentially allowing you to develop your business further through money saving efforts.
Not only does being a CRM customer keep your training costs down, but the new state of the art systems no longer require expensive installation and hardware costs. In fact, models like Star CRM, who offer free 14 day trials, don’t even come with any software to install, keeping your costs down to the bare minimum. Choosing a system like this that lets you meet your customer relationship management needs on a pay as you go basis immediately makes you life easier and your customer management better.
Taking action and realising the vast array of benefits on offer to CRM customers is probably enough to persuade you to take action and get involved in a CRM trial yourself, testing out the systems and understand the benefits they will offer you. After, the option to integrate customer relationship management seamlessly with your existing process isn’t one to be passed up.
A CRM system shouldn’t be just yet another complicated program to add to your business portfolio. No, a CRM trial should be the chance you need to give you business a new lease of life.
November 11, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 7:37 am
A new study shows that about half of all small businesses have managed to stay profitable in the face of the recession. The report comes in the wake of recent criticism from Lord Sugar, who stated that small companies that are struggling are simply ‘moaners.’
According to the study, which was completed by Kingston University, most small businesses have been able to get through the recession by using their own cash instead of loans and financing options from banks.
The results also showed that out of 343 firms surveyed, only about 25% of the SMEs saw their profits fall significantly.
The new finding is said to be a direct contradiction to the common thought that SMEs suffered considerably during the downtown. The study also showed that most SMEs that survived did so with the use of their owners own credit cards and savings accounts.
This proved that SME business owners were forcibly able to adapt to meet the new business conditions and terms of the past year.
The comments from Lord Sugar, the enterprise champion of the Government, in Manchester last week, publicly stated that many of the SMEs that are whining about poor financing opportunities are companies that even he would not loan to.
November 10, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 7:12 am
The new 2012 SME charter is aimed at addressing the complaints of both medium and small enterprises to help aid them find finance options despite current difficulties over securing finance.
The new commitment also aims at making strides to fulfil pledges made by Government to SMEs that will ease the constraints on SMEs from the recession and make recovery easier.
Lloyds stated that new charter will aid customers from the Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds TSB and will inspire discussions with Government ministers that will encourage all SMEs to getting better access to finance in exchange for agreeing to offer fairer pricing to its customer base who have a turnover of at least £15m.
Currently the group has around 18% of the SME market in Wales and England which places it behind the RBS and Barclays in the marketplace. Earlier attempts by the charter to drive up its SME customer base were limited due to the fact only businesses that were able to offer a turnover of under £1m were considered.
As part of the new charter the group will offer much stronger backup for about 300,000 start-ups and will also increase the amount of seminars that it offers from 120 to 200 per year over the next three years.
The aim of this charter is to provide online and personal guidance for SMEs that are just starting up and need aid with sustainability, finance, and employment.
Lloyds is also offering to guarantee that they will meet the finance needs of every reasonable request from customers that are deemed viable.
November 3, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 8:34 am
Wales businesses will soon get a break on their rates, with the announcement that the assembly government plans to decrease the amount many small businesses will owe in 2010.
SMEs were worried about upcoming bill hikes after it was recently evaluated that rateable values would soon rise.
Now the Welsh government is addressing the problem by lowering the rate at which SME’s bills are calculated at.
The Federation of Small Businesses stated that they are pleased with the new announcement and that many SMEs were worried after receiving revaluation notices that stated their bills would increase in the next year from the Valuation Office Agency.
The new rates will be lowered for SMEs from .489 to .409.
Wales’s chair of the FSB, Janet Jones, stated that the organization is welcoming the news but stating that they are still cautious to see what its results are. Jones continued to say that the FSB has worked hard to see a reduction in rates and they are glad to see the Government finally take notice.
A spokesman for the assembly government stated that they were not able to delay the revaluation of property, but can reduce the multiplier to make its results more suitable for business owners.
November 2, 2009
Filed under: CBI — Alan @ 8:38 am
When asked by the Government how to increase the capital funding of SME’s, Chris Rowlands stated that any measures will need to be taken on a large and significant scale.
According to Rowlands, who is the former chairman of the Asian operation of 3i, in order to fix the market failure of SMEs the industry will need to complete a massive overhaul.
Rowlands was appointed in the summer of 2009 to look into how government intervention could help provide more funding options for SMEs, which are currently having problems receiving finance options for growth.
The finished review is expected to be released by Chancellor Alistair Darling during November, or at the latest in December during the Pre-Budget Report. In particular the report is focused on companies that are seeking finance to grow their businesses in the bracket of £2m to £10m.
In order to back the report Rowlands has worked with large bodies such as the British Venture Capital Association and the CBI, as well as funding agents like Finance Wales and SMEs.
Rowlands reported that during the recession it is easy to see that SMEs have a much harder time finding financing, and added that there is a general consensus that when the recession ends SMEs will still have trouble initially receiving finance.
