SME Business News

Most small businesses never see their bank managers, according to a recent survey. Research by Bank of Cyprus UK found that 64 per cent of small to medium sized enterprises fall into this category.
The bank’s survey of 500 senior managers in UK SMEs revealed this sector has little contact with their banks, with only 11 [...]

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The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is challenging what it calls “a potential monopoly of power being built up by high street banks over small firms seeking finance”, two years after the credit crunch started.
The FSB is warning that bank mergers, recapitalisation and schemes targeted at the big banks to stimulate lending as a result [...]

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Probably the best payers in the world - possibly not!
Carlsberg, the world’s fourth largest beer-maker, recently introduced standard payment terms of 95 days from the end of the month in which an invoice is sent out.
This means that businesses supplying the multi-national company can expect to wait well over 120 days before Carlsberg settles a [...]

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The Bank of England published its Quarterly Inflation Report today. Commenting, David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said: “The inflation report acknowledges the present fragility of the British economy and indicates that any recovery will be slow and protracted. We believe this is the correct view, and it reinforces the [...]

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SME Invoice Finance has commissioned independent research into the views of professional financial advisers to identify when they predict the recession will end. The findings track that of our current online poll at the SME Business News blog almost exactly. The research shows that 56% of advisers considered that UK businesses will emerge from the [...]

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The British Chambers of Commerce said the findings of a study of 450 companies showed that the Government had to continue taking measures to stimulate economic growth and boost jobs.
One in 10 firms polled said they were certain to make staff redundant in the coming months and a further 41% replied that they were considering [...]

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Owners underestimate the amount of time it requires to sell their businesses, new research reveals.
Research carried out by Coutts, the private bank, revealed that many entrepreneurs who sell their businesses lack a well-prepared exit strategy.
Almost half of those owners who took part in the survey (46 per cent) believed that it needs less than 12 [...]

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Employers have been expressing worries that the swine flu outbreak may be encouraging absenteeism.
People who think they may have contracted the H1N1 virus can phone a NHS swine flu hot line or visit the corresponding Department of Health website.
If their symptoms are diagnosed as swine flu, they are given a course of antiviral medicine and [...]

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