The economy is preventing six in ten small businesses from achieving growth this year, new figures from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) show. In the ‘Voice of Small Business’ Member Survey of 11,000 respondents, some 58 per cent of small firms say they are looking to grow over the next 12 months – 43 [...]
Archive for Small Business News
Small businesses shun graduates
Small business owners are turning their backs on the graduate employee market and instead choosing to hire school leavers and other non-graduates, research finds. Some 54 per cent of small business owners that had hired graduates in the past find that they represent less value to their company than non-graduates, according to a study of [...]
HMRC punishes late tax returns
Some 850,000 penalties for late tax returns will be issued over the next fortnight, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced. The £100 late-filing penalties are being sent to those who failed to send their 2010/11 self-assessment returns to HMRC on time. Companies that still haven’t sent their return to HMRC risk further penalties if [...]
‘Walking dead’ SMEs threaten economy
‘Zombie companies’ making little or no profit could be the reason for the prolonged economic stagnation, says an insolvency specialist. As government insolvency statistics for the fourth quarter of 2011 revealed liquidations and administrations are up by 7.2 per cent on the same period in 2010, solicitor Oliver Ward-Jones believes these negative figures are masking [...]
Businesses join internet age
The number of small businesses using the internet to sell their products and services has risen year-on-year by almost a third. According to research by PeoplePerHour.com of 1,300 small and medium-sized businesses (SME), the past year has seen a 31 per cent rise in the number of small businesses selling online exclusively, and a 27 [...]
SMEs fear the worst
More than a quarter of small businesses expect to fold by 2014, research finds. Additionally, one in six business owners believes their company will not last even last the year, according to a new report by Francis Greene, associate professor of enterprise at Warwick Business School. More than a third (37 per cent) of micro-businesses [...]
Small businesses dip into savings
More business owners are resorting to drawing on their own personal savings to keep their businesses afloat compared to this time last year, research finds. According to a study by Bibby Financial Services, using personal savings to raise required finance accounts for 12 per cent of small and medium-sized business (SME) owners in the UK, [...]
Hiring on the agenda for SMEs
Almost three quarters of small businesses intend to recruit this year compared to 48 per cent in 2011, finds a survey. Only 20 per cent say they may make redundancies this year compared to 51 per cent in 2011, according to a study of more than 1,000 small companies by Peninsula Business Services. Despite their [...]
Internships ‘ripping off young people’
A campaign calling for the fair treatment of interns has been launched following concerns that interns are being exploited through unpaid work. The Trades Union Commission (TUC) and National Union of Students (NUS) will also launch a free ‘Rights for Interns’ Smartphone application, which will offer tools to help people evaluate their own internship, as [...]
SMEs shun bank loans
Almost two thirds of small business owners believe they will have to look for an alternative to bank funding when raising money in 2012. Some 65 per cent of small enterprises do not trust the banks to lend, according to a study of 1,000 respondents by business deals site Huddlebuy. The survey results follow the [...]