SME Business News

A Survey carried out by Barclays in Wales found that 48% of Welsh SMEs experience problems with late payment.
This isn’t really news to small business owners across the UK and I think it is fair to say that Barclays would find a similar result in any part of the country.
More disturbing for me, was to […]

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Post Office owners in some parts of the country have received a shot in the arm from local County Councils. Portsmouth councillors have become the latest local authority to throw a potential lifeline to local Post Offices, faced with the threat of closure.
Gerald Vernon-Jackson, leader of Portsmouth council has backed ideas put forward by Essex […]

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The first Budget speech presented by new Chancellor Alistair Darling, was generally received pretty well by the small business community.
There were no real shocks to be had, after a bevy of blunders earlier in the year by the Chancellor over various tax reforms.
Some of the things that were particularly welcoming news for small businesses are […]

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Peter Jones, businessman and tv Dragons Den judge, has teamed up with the government to launch a network of ‘enterprise academies’ across the UK.
The purpose of the academies will be to identify the next generation of entrepreneurs. The first of the institutions will be launched in September 2009, and will be in the South East […]

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Last week I posted a report that suggested that new business owners were choosing to take advice from banks and accountants rather than use the Governments Business Link scheme.
In a report today from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) it appears that most small business owners have lost any confidence that they had in the […]

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The Institute of credit management have today unveiled a league table that charts how long it takes for every UK PLC to pay suppliers.
For SMEs, this is great news as late payment by large companies is often damaging to the smaller business that relies on regular cash flow. The government talked a lot of hot air […]

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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has hit out at the government over the complexity of the legislation on employing foreign workers in the UK.
Parts of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act, which come into force tomorrow (Friday February 29), will require small employers to understand and verify up to thirteen different forms of identification […]

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Alistair Darling must be ruing the day he accepted the position as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Almost every proposal he has made, has been hit by criticism from all quarters. As he attempts to refinance the treasury after Gordon Brown’s terrible book keeping the Chancellor has become the Labour party scapegoat for their financial failings […]

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For many years in the UK, we have witnessed the massive growth of supermarket chains decimate the competition from small businesses. By being allowed to develop massive stores out of town, High Street trade in some towns is practically non existent. Not content at that the stores have in a short time turned grocery shopping […]

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The Professional Contractors Group (PCG) has urged Chancellor Alistair Darling, to pay as much attention to small business owners over his  proposed outlawing of “income shifting”, as he has done to those that forced a u turn on his Non Dom policy towards wealthy foreign workers.
The call came after pressure from the City forced Darling […]

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