December 29, 2009
Filed under: CBI — Alan @ 9:14 am
The director of CBI Scotland has accused the government ministers of ‘disappointing behaviour.’
Iain McMillan stated that actions on behalf of the Holyrood ministers created some questions about how sincere they are in their efforts to help business and the economy.
He did however say that the government should receive some credit of their policy triumphs in 2009 such as changing the way that planning happens within the system.
However, McMillan said that despite the changes the government needs to focus more on the economy and helping out the business sector if they want to get close to the main goal of increasing Scotland’s growth within the UK.
In order to get there ministers will need to enact policies that help to promote the growth of the economy instead of hinder its further growth.
McMillan pointed to building up the rail infrastructure, speeding up invoice payments from suppliers, and keeping the business rate parity all as beneficial ways to make this happen. In the midst of these helpful policies he still stated that many moves were made that hurt the economy.
One such failure was the cancellation of the Garl project (Glasgow Airport Rail Link) that made it impossible for the private sector to deliver public services.
Chancellor Alistair Darling also faced criticism for refusing to let Scotland accelerate their funding next year in a move that some say could harm the progress of the economic recovery. The CBI message was later described by many as a harsh critique of the ministers.
December 21, 2009
Filed under: CBI — Alan @ 8:57 am
Even though the British economy is thought to have made it out of the recession during the last quarter of 2009, it still will not reach the GDP of pre-recession before the close of 2011, according to a new report by the Confederation of British Industry.
The CBI predicts that even though Q4 of 2009 saw a .5% growth it is likely that in the first half of 2011 there will only be a .3% increase. This will likely be followed by a meagre .5-.7% increase by the end of 2011 making any growth fragile according to the deputy general of CBI, John Cridland.
Cridland added that to think that Britain will be out of the recession before 2011 would just be ‘kidding ourselves.’
The CBI also stated that in 2011 the UK GDP growth will only be about 2.5% following its prediction of 1.2% in 2010.
Cridland also stated that households and businesses will continue to struggle in the next two years and that it will be especially hard during the beginning of 2010 since several stimulus plans such as the scrappage scheme and VAT cut will end. He stated that with these factors in mind the CBI is not as upbeat about the growth rate of the GDP as the Chancellor is.
Alistair Darling stated in his pre-budget report that the GDP may grow as much as 3.5% in 2011 which the CBI counters by stating their main wish of the New Year was to get a better grip on the state of public finances.
December 18, 2009
Filed under: IT, Legal — Alan @ 8:52 am
SMEs are facing large penalties for failing to follow new procedures that were set in place to protect the credit card details of their customers.
The rules state that all businesses must be able to prove that debit and credit details are kept in a central location that is safe from fraud, such as in an approved electronic database.
However, most small business owners say that they would be happy to follow the rules, if there was more information about how to regulate or implement an appropriate system.
SMEs that are in violation of the rule must pay fines that are around a few pence for every transaction that comes through their store. This of course adds up to a much larger amount by the close of the year.
The main complaint is that the fines are not properly being assessed, with some banks failing to flag the fines, and other businesses facing fines even though they are in compliance with the new regulations.
National chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses John Wright stated that the new measures were put in place to help improve data security but that small businesses were not considered when they were first introduced.
Even more disturbing perhaps is the fact that the banks that provide processing services to UK businesses have full discretion over how much they want to charge SMEs for breaking the rules. Among the banks in the UK that asses fines are Lloyds, RBS, and HBOS.
December 15, 2009
Filed under: Employees, IT — admin @ 2:41 pm
Research commissioned by the security division of Bell Micro, has identified that 67% of organisations believe there is a greater threat to IT security from within their organisation as a result of redundancies being made. Yet, when questioned, just 8% of organisations had processes in place for removing employee credentials and details from its IT system which were 100% effective.
In fact, only 34% said processes were ‘very good’ at removing employee details whilst just 4% confessed to not having any such process in place. Additionally, the findings also identified 2% of organisations were unsure of any issues.
“Despite the research showing 94% of organisations have formal processes in place regarding staff dismissal and redundancies, a staggering 92% admitted to having processes which are far from fully competent,” said Ed Callacher, Divisional Director at Bell Micro. “These findings clearly show that there is still a need to educate the market which presents an opportunity to broaden security offerings in the Channel. The fact that 19% of organisations will openly say that the process they have in place is ‘poor’ is simply unacceptable in today’s climate.”
Despite the economy showing signs of improving, the market is still unstable and the risk of having a security breach remains a threat for many organisations.
“Increasing awareness in the market should be high on a reseller’s agenda particularly when you consider only a small minority of companies have secure, effective and appropriate processes,” concludes Callacher.
For more information on Bell Micro’s security services please access:http://www.securethedeal.com/
December 14, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 7:01 am
A new poll suggests that Enterprise Finance Guarantee or EFG may perform poorly due to a lack of publicity. The EFG is the new initiative by the Government that was created to help SMEs get through the economic recession in the UK. However, research denotes that the effort was a flop.
A poll conducted by Clifton Asset Management showed that out of the 1,000 SMEs polled; only about 37% of the managers had heard of the EFG. Of the 63% of managers who had heard about the effort, 89% stated that it would not help them to apply for help.
The new figures from the study were announced directly after Alistair Darling the Chancellor stated that the scheme worth £1.3b would be extended to help stimulate lending by banks for loans that are under £1m. It has been extended past its March 2010 by six months.
The Treasury stated that the scheme was an important funding source for businesses after the bailout of the banking industry.
Director at CAM, Anthony Carty, stated that their figures show that in just a quarter the amount of SME managers who knew about the scheme reduced by a 5% margin.
On the other hand, Business Secretary Lord Mandelson told the House of Lords that so far the EFG has been able to secure 6,855 SMEs with loans that amount to about £692m.
Carty stated that while the figures are encouraging, the study shows that the scheme is still not as effective as the Government claims.
December 10, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 2:35 am
VAT registered SMEs throughout the UK are missing out on a quarter of VAT reclaims due to their messy business practices, according to fuelGenie research which is the first fuel card that can be used at many supermarket forecourts.
Warwick Business School professor Stephen Ropper of the Centre for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises stated that SMEs are missing their reclaims of about £1.2b in VAT, because their records are not properly kept.
fuelGenie’s Sarah Keane stated that petrol is the largest expense that SME employees can claim but around one out of every four SMEs reports their fuel use without a receipt to show for it. She continued to state that SME owners need to fix their attitudes because they are risking the loss of major cash returns at a time when businesses do not have any profit to spare.
The calculations from fuelGenie show that the average VAT business that has at least five cars could get back about £1000 of petrol each year but are missing out on about £250 of savings due to their lousy record keeping.
By region, Scotland SME employees had the highest incidence rate of lost receipts with around 40% of employers never submitting a receipt. The South West and South East followed closely behind with 32% and 31.8 respectively.
The top SMEs were found in Northern Ireland where an impressive 100% of all VAT SME’s submitted a receipt.
December 7, 2009
Filed under: CBI — Alan @ 4:25 am
A new report released by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) warns that thousands of employees in the private sector that have been contributing to the final salary pension schemes may soon be forced to change their pensions into defined contribution plans.
As increasing deficits are hindering competitiveness, directors of eight out of ten companies told the CBI that their final salary schemes are going to come to an end.
The official report from the CBI said that as firms are starting to restructure to get ready for recovery from the poor economy the attention is turning to widening pension deficits since they are impairing recovery efforts.
Most of the final salary pension schemes do not accept new members with membership closed earlier in the decade, but now even those who are already existing members may see a change in their terms.
The CBI reports that 73% of businesses in the UK are fearful that they will need to increase payments in order to continue funding the schemes already in place.
Deputy General of the CBI, John Cridland, stated that firms are not ignoring their obligations to those who are enrolled in pension schemes, but that the firms need to get themselves back into a fit shape in order to take an active role in the economic recovery.
Cridland added that the cost of running such pensions is damaging the UK business’s ability to compete in the market and that the cost of continuing to run final salary pensions is unpredictable and high.
December 5, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 7:51 am
When it comes to distribution the SME sector is still the European golden child based on new figures that were released from the GTDC (Global Technology Distribution Council).
Although the GTDC reported that revenue levels are low when compared to the same time periods last year in both Europe and the USA, members of the organization stated that some specific industries are faring better.
The SME market in particular has seen improvement in just the last few weeks and has started to stabilize again when its performance is compared to the larger business market, which is taking more time to recover.
The sales reported by GDTC were tracked by several different firms including Context SalesWatch in Europe and by NPD Group’s Distributor Track in the United States.
Both of these tracking centres showed that in the third quarter of 2009 the sales improved by a two percent increase in Europe and by about 11% in the US. This is the first time that improvement has been seen two Q’s in a row since the close of 2008.
Chief executive of GTDC, Tim Curran, stated that although it is too early to say that businesses are out of danger due to the fact that it will take some time for the tech industry to recover, the figures are encouraging particularly in the regions of distribution and the SME market.
The report also showed that certain technology industries are helping to drive recovery including cloud computing, mobile solutions, storage, wireless networking, PoS, and security.
December 4, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 5:17 am
RBS and NatWest are taking new measures to increase the support they are able to offer their million customers by introducing a new customer charter for SMEs.
The new charter will not only offer support to businesses, but also will help extend the initiatives that are available now to help customers grow their businesses as well as sustain them.
Chairman of the Small Business department Peter Ibbetson said that over the past year they have been hard at work listening to what customers want and are going through, so that they could develop initiatives that will make an impact and help guide customers through the recession.
The new charters are created to be aligned with customer needs and as part of a wider commitment they hope to increase their transparency and openness.
To fulfil these goals key industry bodies and customers will be consulted on within the charter and any issues that come up along the way will be immediately addressed. The progress of each of these commitments will be kept track of regularly.
Over the past twelve months RBS and NatWest have already implemented several new initiatives that have successfully helped businesses trade even in the midst of the recession’s fallout.
They also proved their commitment during the first few months of the credit crisis when they were the first companies to offer both a price promise and overdraft protection to abet the fears of businesses that their credit would be affected.
December 3, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 8:39 am
Yesterday, the government embraced the report findings that called for an additional fund to help fill the gap left in funding for SMEs that are growth-focused.
The report which is referred to as the Rowlands Review and was headed by Chris Rowlands, a member of the Principality Building Society; shows that market failure is common for SME’s who need financing for growth in the up to £10m range.
Officially the report is titled the Provision of Growth Capital to UK SME’s and shows that the gap in funding is not because of the recession, but because funding due to structural lending is usually much easier to get in the bracket below £2m and in the bracket above £10m because of higher venture capital activity.
The report also states that SMEs would have better chances of finding funding in a solution where the finance can be turned into equity later instead of through straight equity or debt finance conventional solutions.
Additionally, the report adds that SME growth works best with mezzanine finance due to the fact that it is middle ground financing that is not high risk and holds the possibility for a high return.
Currently the research from the report estimates that there are anywhere between 25,000 UK businesses and 32,000 businesses that would benefit from the additional funding options that would allow them to proceed with capital growth.
Rowlands stated that the review shows that the provision of capital to SME’s appears to be permanent which is why the UK needs to act to help these businesses out as they try to come back out near the end of the recession.
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