SME Business News

Current economic conditions are having a significant impact on the availability of capital, resulting in traditional financiers changing their approach to risk and tightening their lending conditions. Consequently, SMEs are finding it increasingly difficult to access the finance they need.
In response to these challenges, SME Invoice Finance is delighted to announce that it is now [...]

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SME Invoice Finance, leading specialist invoice discounting company for smaller businesses, is delighted to announce its 10th Anniversary of delivering much needed finance to the owner managed business community.
Ten years ago, SME Invoice Finance saw a gap in the market to offer invoice discounting to Small and Medium Enterprises. Today, after two successful major acquisitions, [...]

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Banks that have received bail-out support from the government are still unwilling to lend money to businesses, a House of Commons committee has claimed.
According to the Public Accounts Committee, government ownership of some banks has still not resulted in improved rates of lending to small firms.
Despite commitments made under the terms of the Asset Protection [...]

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As the debate continues as to whether Britain is still in recession, there is no doubt that the lion’s share of job creation will come from SMEs.
Piers Linney, chief executive of Outsourcery, which supplies 10,000 SMEs with IT solutions, notes “We have a large customer base of SMEs and we are well aware of the [...]

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Small and medium-sized manufacturers are starting to benefit from the relative weakness of Sterling, with overseas orders stabilising after seven quarters of decline, according to the CBI. Manufacturing production also steadied, but is expected to fall in the next quarter as overall demand remains weak.
Of the 418 firms surveyed for the CBI’s quarterly SME Trends [...]

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Small business start ups are relying more and more on help from their family and friends, according to new research. In fact, more than half of those businesses surveyed by CreditPal said their family and friends were the most supportive group when it came to setting up their business.
Jill Pincott, a small business owner, explained: [...]

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A new deal for entrepreneurs to stimulate social enterprise as a “recession buster” solution for the UK;
A redistribution of all government support from ineffective business support activities to direct credits for angel and family investment in small businesses;
A broad commitment to apprenticeship support across all forms of business to help people be employed rather than [...]

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We stand at a crossroads. The United Kingdom has the potential to remain a central economic and political power amongst the world’s nations or it can sink slowly beneath the weight of its problems and the impotency of its remedies.
We are a nation that has everything it needs to enter the 21st century on a [...]

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And what it held
stood ready to be loosed
with all the power that being changed can give.
Philip Larkin

A spectre is haunting the United Kingdom – the spectre of Capitalism.
As a nation we fear that nothing has changed; that greedy bankers will continue to be rewarded for their failure, that amoral corporations will continue to put profits [...]

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Former Dragons’ Den panellist and founder of School for Startups, Doug Richard has published The Entrepreneurs’ Manifesto in which he calls for a radical overhaul of the way the government supports entrepreneurs.
The Entrepreneurs Manifesto is a public declaration aimed at supporting the UK’s 4.4 million small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The document consists of two sections:
The [...]

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