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 around the world.
- Getting by with skeleton staff: Small business owners are still whittling away at their payroll, but the deluge of pink slips on Main Street is slowing down.
- Help Small Businesses Hire Again: In order to ensure that the economic recovery becomes a lasting expansion, the government must enact policy to deal with employment, particularly for small businesses.
- One in Four Businesses Calls the Owner ‘Ma’am’: More than a quarter of all businesses are women-owned, but a high proportion of those are one-woman shops. Organizations are working to help them size up.
- Small Business Crunches Numbers: Small business has fought the health-care bill as too costly. That made Saturday’s vote bitter to many of the nation’s roughly 30 billion such entrepreneurs, if welcome to some.
- Small businesses struggling as unemployment goes higher: Small businesses often lead the nation out of recession. Not this time.
- Niche Marketing Keys: Niche marketing is a common path to small business success. No large retailer can be all things to all people, and there are always going to be segments of the population whose needs for particular products and/or services are going unmet. Learn how your small business can capitalize on these unmet needs and find and master your own niche market.
- Don’t wait to Invoice: The quicker you invoice, the quicker your chances of getting paid. And shortening your cash flow conversion period is one of the quickest and easiest things a business can do to improve its cash flow.
- Think Global, sell local: As the North American economy transforms in the wake of the economic crisis, the power of place will prove to be ever more important for a broad range of small businesses.
- How to Make Social Media Useful: Lisa Barone reports that a Citibank and Gfk Roper study found that 76 percent of small business owners don’t find social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn helpful in generating leads and business.
- Government toughens up Franchising Code with new reforms: Federal Small Business Minister Craig Emerson has moved to protect franchisees from bullying by franchisors by toughening the Franchising Code and strengthening the unconscionable conduct regulations…
- Aussie jobs outsourced for $2 an hour: PERSONAL assistants on the other side of the world are working for as little as $2 an hour for Australian small businesses
- SMEs shouldn’t fear new eWaste scheme: SMEs will not be hurt from a new eWaste scheme that will see manufacturers and importers join a Government register in order to cut down the amount of electronic equipment…
- The double blow for SMEs: Buried in the Reserve Bank summary of what is taking place in Australia is a nasty development and yesterday I saw it being played out. If that nasty development continues…
- Small business accounts suffer miserly interest rates: Clubs, charities and small businesses must shop around to find reasonable returns from bank accounts
- London’s SMEs remain defiant: SMEs in the capital say that the recession is now having less of an impact on their business and levels of optimism.
- FPB and Accept Cards LTD help firms save money an merchant services: The FPB is helping small businesses cut adrift by the providers of credit card merchant services or struggling with the cost of processing card payments.
- Nottingham’s £2m Future Factory set to help SMEs meet sustainable challenge: DAVID Robinson, boss of hi- tech sportswear firm Speedo, will this week launch a £2m project to help companies secure their future through…
- Tories promise National Insurance holiday for start-ups: The Shadow Chancellor has announced a plan to implement a National Insurance holiday for new business start-ups should the Conservatives win the next election.
- As always this list is not exhaustive, but I hope it will give you a little overview. — ST.
