The latest news affecting small and medium sized (SME) businesses in the UK
Business Link, the governments small business advice service, has said the decision to mark the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on April 29 with a public holiday has left employers wondering if they had any wriggle room, especially as, coming off the back of Easter it creates four 4 day weeks.
Business Secretary Vince Cable has defended his decision to increase tuition fees in favour of preserving apprenticeships and skills schemes. With unemployment in the UK is rising and with tuition fees set to increase, skills training and apprenticeships are vital in ensuring that core skills remain.
New data published today reveals that out of all the jobs created by small and medium sized enterprises in the UK over the last 10 years, 4.4 million were created by fewer than 10 per cent of SMEs. According to the analysis of the data produced by Experian, these ‘champion’ high-growth firms created two thirds of all the jobs within the SME community and The Midlands and North East of England have some of the healthiest levels of ‘future champions’
Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has said that is is essential that central government becomes a better buyer of goods and services from small and medium sized companies and also looks to ‘buy British’ as much as possible.
Employees in businesses with fewer than 49 employees will lose the right to ask for paid time off for training following a decision to exempt small firms from the provisions.
Vince Cable has announced, during the event held in London to mark the opening of Global Entrepreneurship Week in the UK, that the government will be creating and backing a new business mentoring scheme.
The business secretary Vince Cable has announced the creation of a new forum featuring high profile entrepreneurs to advise the government on business and enterprise policies.
On a night of triumph for UK plc, the best British businesses gathered to celebrate excellence, innovation and ethics at the ninth annual National Business Awards in partnership with Orange at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
One of the UK’s leading law firms Mishcon de Reya has partnered with The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) to produce The Entrepreneurship Report; a joint venture aimed at providing entrepreneurs a voice and a platform to express their needs and lobby for change.
SMEs have a new champion in Westminster as Prime Minister David Cameron has asked Lord Young, the former trade and industry secretary to take up Lord Sugar’s old role as Government enterprise tsar.
Business Link, the publicly funded advice network founded in 1982 by Lord (Michael Heseltine) during his time as head of the DTI, is to be scrapped by April 2012 and replaced by a website and call centre, the Government has confirmed.
Sales on the high street were higher than a year ago in October, according to the latest CBI monthly Distributive Trades Survey. The figure was positive for the fourth month in a row, and retailers predict a slightly faster increase in sales next month.
Having an efficient and effective sales strategy is key to the success of all SMEs – particularly as they battle to build a strong customer base in their critical early years. Unfortunately, they are often held back by expensive and unwieldy IT systems that drain their resources and make the process of converting sales slow and unwieldy.
According to the latest Insolvency Index from business information specialists Experian business failures in the North East of England more than doubled in the space of two months.
Small business will see the comprehensive spending review as a double edged sword as funding pledged for loan guarantees and equity schemes, but significant cuts to training and other business support announced
