SME Business News

Funds of £115million, set aside by the government to help SMEs with staff training, has now been transferred to other budgets because of the lack of take up by small companies.
The money has been taken from the governments Train To Gain programme and switched to education and other training schemes, skills minister John Denham revealed.
“We […]

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Small businesses are getting the lions share of work from the London 2012 Olympics contracts, organisers have claimed.
Of 82% of businesses where employee numbers are known 71% are considered to be SMEs. Around 650 companies have benefited from the project so far worth a total of £2bn.  Almost half of the firms winning business are […]

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Experian have delivered a report into the ever growing crime of Identity Fraud in the UK, saying that more than 6,000 sought help from their victims of fraud team in 2007 , an increase from 3,500 in 2006.
It reports that London is the UK’s ID Fraud capital, where residents are twice as likely to become […]

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Hundreds of lorry drivers, many self employed or small business owners, have descended on London’s Marble Arch today, for a rally to protest at rising fuel costs that are driving many out of business.
In conjunction with Transaction 2007, the protesters intend delivering a petition to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, calling for the introduction of an […]

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It is often said that people have a short memory when it comes to politics, and so it should be no surprise that chancellor Alistair Darling should top a poll as the person most UK entrepreneurs hold responsible for excessive red tape and bureaucracy.
The survey by software firm Kashflow, showed 40% of small business owners […]

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Computer giant Dell is aiming its latest Vostro range of Notebook computers firmly at SMEs and start up businesses.
The Vostro range is available, as Henry Ford would say, in any colour as long as it’s black, and will dispense with some of the graphic processors that enhance games and simulations, to focus more on security […]

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A deal has been reached between the government and employers, that gives agency workers the same rights as full time employee’s, after 12 weeks.
While business secretary John Hutton sees the agreement as “the right deal for Britain”, small business owners are concerned over what they see as an already expensive option to hiring full time […]

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A survey of SME’s commissioned by Insuranz.com finds that many business owners are not aware what their insurance policies cover, with three in ten of new businesses admitting to having no cover at all.
It seems the small business owner considers the insurance question as problematical, being time consuming and complex.
The report also finds that as […]

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Doug Richard, former Dragons Den panellist and current head of the Conservative Party Small Business Task Force has called for drastic reforms of the Governments Business support regime.
The report found the current support system is ‘over complex, ineffective and undirected.’
Two thousand public bodies are currently spending £2.5billion on running three thousand support schemes, with Richard claiming […]

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Bus operator Stagecoach have revealed that eight buses on their fleet have been running on 100% biodiesel, manufactured from used cooking oil and other food industry by-products in an experiment, the first of it’s kind, started in October last year.
The project has cut CO2 emissions by 80% saving 550t of carbon.
The move is backed by the […]

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