THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG

Lord Sugar’s – the government’s enterprise czar – outburst last week where he allegedly called small business owners moaners and said:

“I can honestly say a lot of problems you hear from people who are moaning are from companies I wouldn’t lend a penny to. … They are bust and they don’t need the bank – they need an insolvency practitioner”

is an unbelievable insult to all small business owners in this country.

Small business owners were being squeezed by this government even before this recession started, now they have to endure this recession, which was started by the very same people who pay themselves billions in bonuses while asking for more tax payers money (30 billion) to bail them out even further.

As if this was not enough they now have to endure a verbal onslaught of a – in my opinion – half educated and half witted Sir, Lord, Czar or whatever Mr Sugar.

It is this community of small business owners who keep this country together:

• over 50 % GDP is being produced by this sector
• over 50 % of employment is generated by this sector
• over 60 % of innovation comes out of this sector

Given these numbers may I ask what percentage of the money that this government has wasted so far has gone to the SME community? It is most certainly not anywhere near 50%! These ‘moaning’ SMEs have probably paid more in taxes, which then have been used to bail out the banks and the government, than they have received in financial aid.

SME don’t borrow money anymore because they cannot trust the banks and they cannot afford to borrow the money. While the Bank of England has lowered the interest rate to the lowest level on record, the banks have doubled the interest they demand from small business owners, up to almost 20% for certain loans – that is a 19.5% spread.

As I mentioned in my CNBC interview last week, these high interest rates take all the profit margin out of the business that can be done out there. Let me spell it out for anyone who really has not got the picture, businesses go bust because:

• The banks will not lend money to them;
• Even if they lend the money it is so expensive that it takes any profit out of the deal;
• They run out of savings.

I am furious that Sugar is insulting the SME community in this country in this way, like the rest of this government, he has lost any sense of reality. The spin coming out of the Brown government is as unbelievable, as it is insulting to the general public.

Who the hell made Sugar a Lord anyway any why? Sugar certainly is the icing on the government’s cake of incompetence, if nothing else, IMO. -ST.

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From today to October 18th is National Identity Fraud Prevention Week – so why should you care?

One of the side effects of electronic commerce is the identity fraud, and as of yet nobody has come up with a secure system to do business electronically. To make electronic transactions as safe as possible requires knowledge of the the problem and some advice on how to behave in certain circumstances and this is exactly what this campaign is aiming for.

You should care enough to read on @ stop-idfraud.co.uk.

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China and India are to play a bigger role on the economic world-stage. This development has been under way for a few decades now and this recession has accelerated the trend. This shift is certainly well deserved and needed, as it will help global dialog about global issues. But what does this mean for small business in Europe?

The BBC cites a White House Statement announcing a new role for the G20:

“The G20 leaders reached a historic agreement to put the G20 at the centre of their efforts to work together to build a durable recovery while avoiding the financial fragilities that led to the crisis,” it said. “Today, leaders endorsed the G20 as the premier forum for their international economic cooperation.”

This move represents a clear sign that economic power and influence is moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and the disunited Europe is likely to lose out. This going to have an impact on the economic future of Europe’s small business community. The time has come for Europeans to understand our joint interests and for our politicians to finally act in all our interests.

Small business needs access to these emerging economies in the same fashion bigger business is being given access. If this access is not provided we will find one day that all these multinationals have decided to leave good old Europe behind and move to new shores.

SMEs on the other hand will always maintain their national identity and their positive impact for local national economies. This will be the source of jobs and national wealth in all our futures.

I hope our politicians can finally overcome their inability to understand SMEs of all sizes, all our futures depend on it. Time for indecision and failed small business policies is over.

Read more about the G20 summit on the BBC.

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Yesterday, Robert Scoble posted “The post iPhone world” – you should go and read this post, it is as scary as it gets. He begins by asking people at Microsoft to imagine a post iPhone world and apparently only gets “blank stares”.

Well Robert, the reason for these “blank stares” is that everyone in Microsoft is just beginning to imagine a post Microsoft world! I told the Microsoft boys back in 1994, that there will be a day when most people will only need “One Window” and not “Windows” – this day is getting closer and closer – and Microsoft seems to have no answers or plans for this world. No constructive discussion about these issues is possible with Microsoft people, they see anyone asking about these issues “literally” as an enemy.

Robert, in my humble opinion, really loses any grip on reality by suggesting Microsoft should rule the twitter sphere and send via its .Net technology and twitter, commands to the hospital intravenous drip machine where his new baby will be born.

Robert, you should check with your wife first – maybe she has never heard about Vista.

Seriously, there is so much wrong with this, that I hardly know where to begin, but her are some of my concerns:

• real-time polling and feedback, unless the twitter client, your IV-drip, can report back, how can you know what really happened,
• would I trust Microsoft to get this right, I guess not, given the fact it can’t get even its own OS right,
• internet security,
• internet reliability in last mile situations,

Our internet protocol has a long way to go, i.e. QOS routing, real time routing, before we can even begin to think about these kind of potentially life threatening remote manipulations.

Sorry Robert, but this is complete wishful thinking in general and for Microsoft especially – let’s try small steps first and get the next OS right. – ST.

PS. Congratulations on your son Ryan, Robert.

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As the local election results come in, this government is disintegrating in front of our eyes, enormous damage to the democracy of this country is done as voters switch of in resignation, and a never seen level of incompetence is displayed by the cabinet, this prime minister is retreating into fairyland with his reshuffle.

Sir Alan Sugar will take a position of government tzar for enterprise – for those who do not know, a tzar was a totalitarian ruler in Russia and the socialists got rid of the tzar. It’s kind of funny to see this labour government to want to bring them back! What is Sir Alan going to do, he knows nothing about home & small businesses, the backbone of our economy. Hasn’t he got a company to run and a ‘TV show’ to host? Maybe he could fire the PM, that would get his ratings up!

On a more serious note, so far it is clear that Gordon will keep his Darling, despite all that went on with him. I, along with most descent people in UK, must feel like being slapped in the face, or worse by Gordon Brown. The sleaze will go on and this time Gordon Brown is condoning it.

On an even more serious note, this duo will continue with it’s assault on the middle classes and SMEs, to pay for the failures of Brown’s years at the Treasury followed on by his catastrophic performance as a prime minister.

To see how this government has brought this countries financial fortunes down in less than 18 month is staggering:

• Innovative and entrepreneurial people leave the country in droves, taking all their wealth & ideas with them and setting up shop elsewhere.
• The policy of “Quantitive Easing” – is nothing but an attack on the middle classes and SMEs, by redistributing wealth away from the middle classes and SMEs.
• The pound has lost between 30 to 40% against reference currencies, this has nothing to do with a global recession, this is UK government failure.
• The financial services sector in the City is fatally damaged, because this government and especially Mr Brown, did not take action.

The latest policy seems to be the TV celebrity policy, the motto here, ‘If you can’t convince them – entertain them!’ For the sake of this country we need a general election, now more than ever. –ST.

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I’m not sure if we have forgotten, that we are in the midst of a global recession. Thousands of jobs are being lost everyday, many small businesses fail and we have to endure this daily dribble of greed, dishonesty and slow disintegration of the ‘new’ labour government, of underachieving and power hungry politicians.

We have to get back to the business in hand and fix this economy. I have long argued that the Blair/Brown government got us into this mess. I’m not sure that Brown/Darling have made it any better or can get us out of this downturn. Talking about “taking action”, or in Mr. Browns case even “taking action”, has clearly not helped, but made our problems only bigger.

In reaction to my post ‘Is Gordon Brown’s Darling In Trouble?, I received a comment about the Queen taking over the government business, and the fact that it stuck in my mind shows how desperate my thinking is, when it comes to the economic and now political future of the United Kingdom.

BTW, why does nobody ever ask how much this invasion of Iraq has cost and still costs the taxpayer – where is the mainstream media if you need it?

I, like many others in this country, think it’s time to cut our losses and have a general election. Ms Smith – the home secretary – is to step down, that is not enough – the whole government and all MPs need to step down and be reelected. We need a fresh start, and we need it NOW! –ST.

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