March 26, 2010
Filed under: Business Finance — Alan @ 2:30 am
The chancellor announced a new set of measures that will aid grassroots economy in the recovery effort that includes additional lending for SMEs that totals up to around £45 billion.
The funding will come from the state controlled banks Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds under the terms of setting a capital growth fund so that firms that are growing fast may eventually increase their worth up to around £500m.
Alistair Darling stated that the measures are central to the new budget plans and ultimately they would help the government better back the finances of the nation. Darling said that the country cannot afford to take growth for granted and need to start acting as a launch-pad to help businesses grow and succeed.
Darling pledged that it would award more contracts to SMEs by 15%, reduce business rates so that 345,000 SMEs will not have to pay, double the threshold for entrepreneur relief up to £2m, and make the annual investment allowance £100,000 which is double its previous rate.
Additionally, the government will support SMEs by creating an appeals process that SMEs can turn to if they feel they have been rejected for credit unfairly.
Small firms for the most part applauded the new announcement and proposals but there was some disapproval shown at the fact that the government will still move forward with the plan to increase the amount that firms need to contribute in towards national insurance. According to the Federation of Small Business, the increase in national insurance could cause redundancies that total around 57,000.
March 19, 2010
Filed under: Business Finance — Alan @ 6:30 am
UK SMEs have developed a new spirit fighting to navigate through their upcoming prospects in 2010, as well as the overall state of the economy. However, some may fall into the lower tier of the SME economy in terms of customer service according to research released from Cisco.
The 2010 Cisco Customer Kings report looked at how small firms deal with their customers and found that out of the 1,000 businesses surveyed, 61% reported that they are optimistic about the coming year with another 77% expecting the economy to take an upswing this year.
However, even though the UK SME landscape has developed a DIY attitude, many are in danger of becoming split between modernized firms and customer centric firms that will go up against those that are not willing or ready to be flexible to the needs of their customers.
Overall, 57% reported that they had begun to focus in on their customer service in order to make it through the recession, but a stunning 43% stated that they had not looked into better customer service which means that they may soon start to reap the repercussions.
The large gap between businesses that are not consumer centric and those that are becomes more dangerous due to the fact that now customers are willing to look for new suppliers compared to last year.
Five other attributes of successful SME businesses were also outlined in the report as being customer focus, e-commerce, business model, social media usage, and technology.
January 25, 2010
Filed under: Business Finance — Alan @ 7:16 am
Within the next three years over 35 countries will start to follow the same international accounting rules for SMEs, which will increase pressure on developed nations to implement the new set of standards.
Many of the counties that have pledged to utilize the standards are either emerging or developing economies and have noted that they would like to use the new financial standards for SMEs fully by the year 2013.
Director of standards for SMEs for the International Accounting Standards Board, Paul Pacter, conducted the poll during a meeting in 2009 after the new rules were in force for two months.
The project, which is based on a seven year timeline, is aimed at producing a consistent set of rules for use by SMES that were published in July of 2009 in a 230 page booklet. The booklet was met with approval from the World Bank and many other international organizations as a positive way for emerging economies to increase the capital within their counties.
The goal of standardization of accounting is that investors will better understand how much a company is valued at, regardless of where it operates, which may prompt them to invest in a company they otherwise would overlook.
Some of the most eager countries to start using the new standards were Brazil, Swaziland, and El Salvador, which all are considered to be emerging nations.
Pacter said this is due to the fact that the smaller counties want to have better access to potential capital which the consistency will allow them. He now feels that the time is right for the EU to take a positive lead in implementing the same rules within the Union
December 1, 2009
Filed under: Legal — Alan @ 8:07 am
Over 75% of businesses in Britain do not have a written policy about how employees with disabilities should be handled.
Research from Remploy and ComRes found that only eight percent of all SMEs that do not currently employ disabled people have any interest about learning if disabled people could work at their companies.
Since SMEs make up about 99% of all the UK businesses the research is disappointing for those who may have learning disabilities or mental health issues since it shows that SMEs are not likely to employ them.
Today only an estimated one out of every five SMEs will hire a disabled person, but out of those about two thirds reported they would not hire someone with mental health issues or a learning disability.
Two thirds of the employers in the survey reported that they do not need support on the legal ramifications of the disabled laws, and also do not need any information about hiring people with disabilities. Out of these only half even knew the provisions outlined in the Disability Discrimination Act.
Chief executive of Remploy, Tim Matthews, stated that in general businesses are usually worried about the reliability of people with disabilities versus “normal” workers but that in his experience with Remploy those with disabilities are often more likely to take fewer days off work and stay at their jobs longer.
He continued to say that the amount of people with disabilities who currently hold a job is scandalous when compared to how many people would like to have a job.
October 13, 2009
Filed under: Loans — Alan @ 7:58 am
The RBS and Lloyds Banking Group are currently under investigation by the Government after allegations surfaced that the two groups may be purposely increasing loan costs to small business enterprises.
An unidentified source from the Government stated that investigators are not focused on forcing the banking institutions to make uneconomic loans, but current research shows that they may be increasing the price of credit past realistic levels.
Both banking institutions are members of the Government Asset Protection Scheme, under which they agreed that they would lend an increase of £39 billion in loans to SME’s above the previous norm.
Although both of the banks will be able to reach the target of mortgage loans by March, the banks have admitted the same target will not be achievable in terms of corporate lending.
At the same time as the investigation, SME’s have also reported an increase in anxiety when it comes to finding loans.
September 24, 2009
Filed under: Small business — Alan @ 10:49 am
Over half of all small business owners across the UK believe that the recession will continue to last well into next year, according to a new survey by Amplify Communications.
The results showed that 58% of all SME owners believe that the recession will be around at least until spring of next year, with about the same amount stating that their company’s overall health is dependent on the economy.
Additionally, out of these 25% stated that even once the economy enters a recovery stage their business will still feel the aftershocks of the recession.
Along the lines of the old adage hindsight is 20/20, if businesses could foresee the recession and change their response 32% said they would have reduced the amount of employees they hired and 43% said they would have put more time into their marketing and sales efforts.
According to the survey, in order to deal with the results of the recession 58% of the businesses surveyed were cutting costs. 42% were improving their website and online business fronts, and 38% were attempting to find new partnerships.
Thus, over half are focusing on marketing techniques to beat the recession as of the survey date.
