Here is this week’s news round-up for home business, micro business, sole-traders, freelancers, self-employed and any one who is interested in small business news from the United Kingdom and Ireland:
- FSB Conference address setting the economy in motion: The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) will consider whether to call for a fully nationalised bank next month at its annual conference in South Wales.
- Online crime and fraud costs small businesses £800 each year, says FSB: Small businesses lose up to £800 a year to fraud and online crime, according to a survey by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), which is calling for more action to tackle online crime.
- Beef up your small business, lay off with care: BUSINESS IDENTITY CRISIS: You’re basically a one-man operation run out of your garage, and you can barely afford to hire a receptionist to answer the phones. So how do you create the illusion that you’re a successful agent with offices on Wall Street or Rodeo Drive?
- Millions lost by firms who ignore the internet: Small businesses are losing millions of pounds in potential sales because they are wary of using the internet to sell products or services
- UK business loan scheme ‘not working’:Leading business organisations attacked the ‘trickle’ of funding from the banks under the government’s £1bn loan guarantee scheme for small business
- The credit crunch, IT and the small business: With the economy in recession and credit hard to come by, mangers of small businesses could be excused for battening down the hatches and cutting all non-essential expenditure. But could they be missing a trick by failing to invest in IT?
- UK small businesses unhappy with state help: A survey of 4,000 enterprises shows that government support schemes have either flopped or failed to take effect, reflecting growing despondency at the scale of the economic decline
- Business leaders condemn Darling’s response to crisis: Business leaders have delivered an overwhelming vote of no confidence in the Government’s efforts to prevent recession-hit small firms from going bankrupt.
- ISME wants Government to guarantee business loans: The business group ISME is calling on the Government to guarantee the loans of small and medium businesses.
- London SMEs ‘hit hardest by crisis’: Businesses in the capital report sharp falls in sales and are cutting jobs at the fastest rate in the country, a recent survey of small and medium-sized enterprises found
- Bank loans still being denied to small firms: Small firms are being starved of money pledged by ministers to save them from collapse, placing more strain on the ‘lifeblood’ of the economy
- Small business pays cost illegal software: Online crime and fraud costs small businesses £800 each year, says FSB
As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.
