Tag Archive: small business
May 10, 2013 3:45 pm |
The UK’s small businesses have been given a boost in support after new research says investors could lose out if they ignore small companies.
In a report released by FundExpert, investors have been urged to turn to the small business sector as they could prove a beacon of hope for the future of the UK’s economy.
Brian Dennehy of FundExpert says that the UK’s SMEs ‘represent a rich vein of UK potential in this time of economic gloom.’
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March 12, 2013 9:16 am |
Businesses are being encouraged to take advantage of ‘cloud services’ because they not only aid business efficiency, but they also improve profitability.
Having all of your business documents and software stored somewhere on the internet, ready for you to pick out at any time, may seem a little risky at first, but more and more businesses are finding that the benefits of this system are more than outweighing the risk factor.
In a recent survey, it has been found that from a large number of both UK and US companies, up to 88 percent said that cloud services actually saved them money, along with 60 percent saying the cloud has helped to reduce the need to maintain their IT infrastructure. The majority also said the cloud has helped them expand their business and increase profits.
Cloud services can go further than just storing your files; they can also be used to take what are usually time-consuming jobs to a third-party, effectively outsourcing some of your work but on a virtual platform, saving businesses both time and money.
As risky as it sounds, having your data out of the office, there are many ways of keep your files still private to your company, letting you reap the benefits!
March 4, 2013 5:27 pm |
Small businesses may be highlighted specifically in the next Budget, if the Federation of Small Businesses has its way.
In an effort to restore confidence to small businesses, and ensure the future becomes a little brighter, the FSB has spoken out today to say that there must be a Budget dedicated to the UK’s smaller firms.
The organisation has outlined recommendations for the Chancellor to look at in order to satisfy the needs of small businesses, in turn, creating new jobs and boosting confidence.
These recommendations include increasing National Insurance Contributions holiday to firms with less than four staff members to create over 40,000 new jobs, cancelling the planned fuel duty rise to initiate a review of fuel prices and motoring taxation, and extending the amount of money available through StartUp Loans for those struggling to finance the setup of their businesses.
The FSB are calling for more focus to be placed upon small businesses after the little growth of the UK’s economy in 2012.
John Walker, National Chairman of the FSB stated: ‘What we need is not more small-scale policies which tinker at the edges but measures that will have a tangible affect both immediately and in the long-term.’
The Budget will be announced on the 20th March 2013.
February 5, 2013 11:15 am |
The future of small and medium-sized businesses that have been affected by the recession may have been given new hope, after Labour MPs have called for the creation of a British Investment Bank.
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls and Shadow Business Secretary Chuka Umunna have highlighted the urgent need for investment in the country’s small businesses, by proposing a government-backed bank to boost the country’s economy and provide much needed support and investment for small businesses.
Following a recent study, it has been shown that the UK is the only G8 member without a government-backed investment body to support the vital part of the country’s economy, which has stunted their growth.
‘The ideas, inventions and hard work of small businesses who build our economy are a vital component of growth. But too many of these small businesses are starved of the funding and investment they need’, Mr Balls stated in a speech earlier this week.
‘We believe that a proper British Investment Bank, designed to meet business’ needs would play a vital role in solving the small businesses funding problems in the UK’.
This has been an issue that has been raised in Parliament for months now, and it seems that it will continue to do so. Mr Balls has said that the party will work with businesses over the coming months in order to design a bank that will be most beneficial to those it is aimed at.
November 14, 2012 2:19 pm |
A new report created by economic consultancy Rocket Science, in partnership with the Federation of Small Businesses, has suggested that unemployment in Scotland could be seriously reduced if small businesses were given tailored support.
Nearly 94% of all businesses based in Scotland have few than 10 employees, known as ‘micro businesses’. The FSB states there are a total of 321,000 of these businesses in Scotland, which provide nearly 27% of all private sector jobs.
and this new report states strong evidence exists to suggest these businesses are not hiring as many people as they could.
The report calls for better help and support, including the practicalities of actually hiring a new employee. Earlier this year the government set up new national job creation schemes, but these don’t seem to be working well with micro businesses.
The report calls on the Government to introduce a new fund to provide constant support to micro businesses when planning recruitment, as well as obstacles associated with it.
A spokeswomen for the Scottish Government commented on the BBC: “Scotland is home to a wealth of ambitious companies, and small and medium enterprises are the bedrock of our economy – accounting for around 99% of enterprises and 54% of private sector jobs – and establishing a diverse base is vital to making our economy more resilient.”
Are you a small business looking to expand and hire more staff? Are you nervous about the current economic climate, or can you not find any funding to help you?
November 13, 2012 3:22 pm |
Yesterday the UK Government unveiled a new aggresive advertising campaign to back up current Government policy aimed at reducing the rate of tax avoidance.
The new campaign will cost £917 million and all the adverts have been designed by M&C Saatchi. Look out as they will very quickly be appearing on a buildboard near you.
The aim of the new ad campaign is to raise an additional £7 billion in tax receipts this year.
There has already been an instant reaction to the new adverts with many critics suggesting that HMRC continually put excessive pressure on certain tax groups, while taking in easy on individuals or organisations who may owe hundreds of millions of pounds.
Jennue Granger, HMRC’s new head of enforcement spoke The Guardian: “Our message to the small percentage who don’t pay is a simple one: the net is closing in. WWe will detect you if you haven’t put a job through the books, if you haven’t declared investment income, if you’ve hidden assets offshore or if you haven’t even registered for VAT.”
Do you feel that HMRC are looking for ‘easy targets?’, do they not put enough time into recouping revenue from serial tax avoiders?
October 24, 2011 3:29 pm |
Technically speaking: Is this bewildering to you or perfectly logical like it is to 08Direct's technical team?
Have you ever wondered how all of your telecoms technology works and who makes it all happen? One of 08Direct’s technical experts, David Shields, explains all here – and don’t worry, it is all in English so you don’t need a degree in engineering to understand it.
So, you use our telephone numbers. Thank you, we’re very glad you do, our business wouldn’t amount to much without you.
But what’s going on in the background, when you say you’d like the new super-duper 0844 number to end up ringing your mobile? Is there a bunch of hi-tech pixies plugging wires into a magical switchboard, like in the old nineteen-forties black and white movies? Unfortunately not, there are no magic pixies here. I wish there were, but it’s sadly not the case.
There’s only us.
‘Us’ is a bunch of programmers, engineers, and some boring black and beige boxes, sat in air-conditioned racks in some datacentre somewhere in Greater London. And I expect, given that you’re still reading this that you are expecting me to tell you what we (the programmers, the engineers, and the boxes) do.
The Engineers – I can’t tell you in detail what they do, because I’m not one of them. I do know they talk in insanely complicated acronyms (unlike we programmers), and that they know in some detail what the boxes with the blinking lights do, and how telephones happen. I also know that they are seriously smart at what they do, and they have so much knowledge and experience that they know precisely which boxes to poke with the engineering stick, and where to poke it, and how hard. And that’s seriously clever stuff. They also have to do dangerous tasks, such as talk to management about what the boxes do, and talk to programmers to tell us what to ask the machines to do. This is challenging.
The Boxes – they don’t say much for themselves, that’s for sure. Like some supermodel trophy wife, they are expensive to acquire and maintain, but they sure look impressive. And it’s not just looks, either, these things are smart. Smart, and Dumb. Smart because they make everything happen, callers reach companies, emails arrive pinging in inboxes, and messages are saved and recorded. But dumb, because they are generally obedient. They do exactly what we tell them to do. And we have to tell them really carefully what to do, because if we tell them wrong, they’ll do it wrong.
They sit in London because the pipes that flow data in and out of these boxes can be really fat down there.
They cost so much because we want them to deal with millions of calls, without a hitch, every time. They are not exciting to look at (unless you have a thing about blinking green lights), because no-one looks at them, in a dark datacentre miles away. But to we engineers and programmers, they are seriously cool pieces of kit.
The programmers – even worse than the engineers, programmers speak to each other in arcane technical shorthand, which to the outsider seems like babble. It’s not – it’s just a high-bandwidth communication between programmers, so they can share information and concepts without using way too many words. The problems only occur when they (we) try to speak the same way to non-programmers, who respond as readily to them if we had been speaking Dutch to some Amazonian tribesman. We try not to, but we slip up sometimes. Sorry.
What we do is tell the black and beige boxes what exactly to do with incoming calls, outgoing destinations and the like. And we tell our computer systems to play nicely with others, and let our commercial customer’s systems talk to ours, so their systems can do telephone things without them having to pay Rooney figures for their own black and beige boxes.
And on the communications thing, we programmers do have to be able to speak real English, to the real world, (hence this article), because the real world requires documentation that makes sense, and an understanding of what our systems can do for them. So remember, we are not some High Priesthood of Babel, we are ordinary people making complicated things play nice with others.
October 14, 2011 9:32 am |
The new T-Pylons
With the loss of one of the world’s greatest inventors (Apple’s Founder, Steve Jobs) innovation has been a topic of much debate recently. Lots of people have been pontificating about the increased pace of change and need for continual development so that things work better, faster, harder.
Sometimes, though, innovation takes time.
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October 13, 2011 9:32 am |
Carlos Tevez
The saga involving Carlos Tevez, the controversial Argentine footballer, drags on with today’s news that he’ll get a disciplinary hearing at Manchester City.
You don’t have to be a football fan to have heard about Tevez. He is one of Man City’s biggest stars and earns a ridiculous amount of money each week, but the press has been full of stories for months about how he isn’t happy and wants to go back to South America.
Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t go down well with either the fans or the club that is paying him so much money. When he then allegedly refused to play in a recent match (something he denies), this was the final straw and Man City launched an investigation. Tevez is now going to get a disciplinary hearing.
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October 12, 2011 8:41 am |
Blackberry is under pressure from all angles
BlackBerry users now find themselves facing a 3rd consecutive day of service disruption.
As a result, RIM, BlackBerry’s maker, whose recent financial results have disappointed investors (we blogged about it here ) is now under further pressure as it faces the prospect of losing subscribers who are disgruntled due to service quality.
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The UK’s small businesses have been given a boost in support after new research says investors could lose out if they ignore small companies.
