Businesses Plan IT Spend

The survey by O2 of 3,000 small firms found that while many companies are planning redundancies or downsizing their premises to cut costs, 20% expect to expand their business and nearly half plan to invest in new IT to become more efficient.

Although nearly 50% of SMEs surveyed said confidence was at a record low, 66% were determined to make it through the downturn and 7% of bosses said their firm was unaffected by the recession.The report also revealed that financial issues have now replaced red tape and competition as the greatest cause for concern amongst the UK's small business community.

Concerns over cash flow were cited as the greatest threat to survival, closely followed by a lack of support from the banking sector.

www.ukba.co.uk --Posted By UK Business Advisors to Boost Your Business on 4/29/2009 02:47:00 PM

2009 Budget Summary

Many thanks to accountants Faust Loveday Bell for providing us with this summary of the important parts of yesterdays budget statement by The Chancellor.

Having acknowledged the depth of the recession, he hinted that the Budget measures would enable the UK economy to begin to grow 'by the end of the year'.As always the timing of the changes needs to be carefully watched – some are immediate but some are delayed to 2010 and beyond.Our summary focuses on the issues likely to affect you, your family and your business.

Main Budget proposals::

Introduction of a 50% top rate of tax for those with income over £150,000 from 2010 and phased reduction of personal allowances for those with income over £100,000.::

Increases in ISA limits from October this year for those aged over 50 and for everyone from April 2010.::

Enhanced relief for trading losses extended by a further year.::

Short term increase in capital allowances on most plant and machinery.::

Extension of the furnished holiday lettings scheme to properties in the EEA but then the removal of the scheme completely from April 2010.::

Names of deliberate tax defaulters to be published where default was tax in excess of £25,000.

Previous announcementsMany of the changes detailed in this summary have been the subject of earlier announcements. Here is a reminder of some of the more important ones:::

Removal of the £12,000 'expensive car' limit for capital allowance purposes::

Availability of non-repayable tax credit on overseas dividends received by any individual::

Removal of tax charge for companies on overseas dividends::

Extension of HMRC compliance powers across all the taxes dealt with by HMRC.

For more details in the different areas the budget covered - click on the relevant link below:

Introduction Alistair Darling presented his second Budget on Wednesday 22 April 2009.

Personal Tax Details of the changes to personal tax.

Corporate and Business Tax Details of the changes to corporate and business tax.

Employment Issues Details of the changes to employment issues.

Capital Taxes Details of the changes to capital taxes.

VAT Details of the changes to VAT.

HMRC Powers Details of the changes to HMRC powers.

Other Matters Details of Child Trust Fund, Charities: substantial donors, Landfill tax and the Business Payment Support Service.

Source: Faust Loveday Bell www.ukba.co.uk --Posted By MGBA for UK Business Advisors to Boost Your Business on 4/23/2009 11:01:00 AM

New Help For Business Owners From UKBA

A new resource centre to help owners and MD’s of small and medium sized companies (SMEs) has been launched by UK Business Advisors (UKBA™).

The resource can be found at http://www.ukba.co.uk/ and is specifically aimed at helping those owners and MDs. These people have the same problems as people running large companies, but without having the luxury of employees who can cover all the areas. The materials and advice available covers all key aspects of running a business including strategy, marketing, sales, human resources, finances and processes.

The big difference from most such information bases, is that all this material has been produced by people who work in SMEs, and in many cases actually run them. They are based on real life experiences, and not theoretical or academic papers from people not actually running businesses. The information is continually updated to reflect the changing economic environment and evolving technology. The information is backed up by access to the 80+ specialists in the UKBA™ organisation.

Posteb by The Midlands Group of Business Advisors (MGBA)

Small Businesses Are Losing Out On Government Contracts

According to a new report by House of Commons All Party Parliamentary Small Business Group (APPSBG), small and medium-sized businesses are disadvantaged when it comes to winning public sector contracts by complex, expensive and outdated tender processes.

The report - supported by ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) - recommends that the government does more to remove barriers that are preventing SMEs from winning public sector contracts, "The procedures and practices used in many tenders disadvantage SMEs over larger companies. Many small businesses and contractors believe that days spent preparing tenders with a low probability of success are better spent earning, and therefore do not bid for public work all," said Professor Robin Jarvis, head of ACCA's small business unit.

www.ukba.co.uk --Posted By Martin Parry for MGBA Ltd and UK Business Advisors to Boost Your Business on 4/22/2009 05:57:00 PM

Rate of Business Failure Slowing?

Businesses are failing at a slower rate new research suggests for Crimson Business suggests.
According to a new business failures report, 35% more businesses went bust in the first quarter of 2009 than during the same period in 2008. However, the failure rate appears to be slowing. Early 2009 figures are up by just 3.3% on the fourth quarter of 2008.

Nationwide, the picture differs. The North East suffered the biggest percentage rise in year-on-year business failures, at 82.9%, while London failures increased by 21.9%. Neil Munroe, external affairs director of business information provider Equifax, said: “At the beginning of last year we were only just starting to see the impact of the credit crunch and certainly the word ‘recession’ had not yet been uttered. But obviously things have been very different at the start of this year with consumer confidence really struggling to lift. However, what we do seem to be seeing is a slow down in what was a run-away train of failures at the end of last year.”

The construction sector suffered the greatest instance of business failures, year on year, with 65.2% more businesses folding in the first quarter of 2009 compared to the same period last year. Manufacturing and retail sectors also saw quite significant year on year increases in failures at 44.4% and 44.8% respectively.

The services sector is performing better, with business failures increased by just 15.7% year-on-year for the first quarter of 2009. In addition, there was a 9.4% drop in service companies going under when compared to the fourth quarter last year.

© Crimson Business Ltd, 2009

http://www.ukba.co.uk

job Cuts Appear To Be Gathering Pace

Around 37% of the UK businesses surveyed reported that last month they had cut back on staff - almost double the figure from November - and 38% have implemented a pay freeze.UK companies also reported a much small average base salary increase, an average of 1% compared to 2.8% worldwide.

Despite these figures, British companies are more optimistic about the future then many other nations - possibly reflecting the fact that many UK firms have already taken the action they feel they need to survive the recession, such as salary and wage cuts.

www.ukba.co.uk --Posted By UK Business Advisors to Boost Your Business on 4/15/2009 04:31:00 PM

Expert claims flexible working will benefit most companies

Employers need greater support to help them effectively train staff during the recession, it has been claimed. According to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Nord Anglia, over half of employers want to target their training more effectively, so they get a maximum return on their outgoings."

During turbulent times, it would be understandable if firms have to reduce their training budgets but this survey shows that they are most concerned with getting more value from their training, to ensure they are better placed for an upturn when it comes," comments the CBI's director general Richard Lambert.

The research also highlighted that firms want more help from the government to improve their workers' skills, with 42 per cent of those questioned saying the flagship Train to Gain scheme has had "no impact" on their business and three-quarters saying its training brokerage service is 'poor' or 'mixed'.Last week, the government launched a new hotline for businesses to improve the skills and qualifications of their staff members.Provided by Train to Gain and Business Link, the service will help firms identify where they are missing key abilities.Skills minister Lord Young said it was a sign of commitment from the government to help firms survive the recession.

http://www.ukba.co.uk

Crime Against SMEs Rockets - AXA

Crimes against small business have risen for the second six-month period, according to figures from insurance gaint Axa.

The research revealed that there had been a 10% increase in crimes against small firms in the UK, with the number of arson and malicious damage claims rising 23% and 14% respectively."

Both malicious damage and arson tend to go up in a recession as premises are left unoccupied and unprotected by failed businesses, making them easier targets for vandals," said Gregor Elrick, head of property at Axa.

www.ukba.co.uk

Internet Advertising Up By 17%

The total amount spent by advertisers on the internet in 2008 was £3.35bn - accounting for one fifth of the total UK spend. Online advertising sales overtook newspaper and magazine advertising in the second half of 2008. "These are really tough time and advertising budgets are being slashed. More than ever, marketers have to demonstrate a clear return on their media investment, and accountability is online's trump card," said Guy Phillipson, IAB chief executive.

www.ukba.co.uk

Take Control of Your Sales

Growthbusiness.co.uk and Sage have produced a whitepaper to help SMEs understand how contact management systems can improve their business and sales. Take control of your sales and download this free guide.

Download here.

www.ukba.co.uk

£300m wasted on idle computers!

A new report published today claims that British businesses are wasting £300m a year powering idle computers. However, the survey of more than 6,000 UK, German and US adults, most of whom use PCs to do their jobs, found that the UK actually emerged ahead in terms of environmentally friendly PC power management.

Some 78 per cent of UK workers use a PC to carry out their jobs, and the country has the largest proportion of workers (27 per cent) who cited environmental concerns in switching off PCs and/or monitors when away from their desks for long periods. By contrast, 18 per cent of German respondents said that they turn off their PCs to cut electricity bills, and 21 per cent of US workers did so to comply with company policy and make sure their PCs worked properly.

Despite these good intentions, 63 per cent and 67 per cent respectively of UK and US employees believe that their employers should be doing more to reduce power consumption.The report calculated that, if the 17 million workers in the UK who regularly use a computer turned it off at night, carbon emissions would be reduced by 1.3 million metric tonnes, or the equivalent of removing 243,440 cars from the road.

The annual PC Energy Report was sponsored by PC power management vendor 1E in partnership with the Alliance to Save Energy.Sumir Karayi, 1E chief executive, said that awareness of the impact of idle PCs on the environment and IT budgets is growing, but that much more could be done."Around 50 per cent of the respondents questioned in 2007 powered down their PCs at work overnight, during the weekend and when away from their desks for long periods of time during the day, even it was just switching off their monitor," he said.But this figure had only risen to 60 per cent in the latest report, which belied the fact that many solutions had been developed to manage PC power more efficiently and intelligently from a central point.

Source: http://www.vnunet.com

www.ukba.co.uk

NI Reduction Is Key To Recovery

According to Newbusiness.co.uk Small business owners believe that a reduction in employers' National Insurance contribution rate in the forthcoming Budget would provide the biggest boost for their business, according to a new survey by Intuit.

More than 45% of those surveyed listed this as the number one measure that they wanted to see the Chancellor implement, followed by 33% who called tighter government controls of bank charges and 27% who want a further deferment of the rate of increase of corporation tax.

Small firm owners are pessimistic over the budget, with only 10% of respondents believing that April's Budget will include measures that will have a positive impact on their businesses.Read more: http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/news/ni-reduction-tops-small-firm-owners-wish-list-april-budgetwww.ukba.co.uk

Small Businesses Should Watch Their Energy Costs

Many thanks to UK Business Advisors for this piece of information:

More than seven out of ten small businesses think that changing energy suppliers will save them money but only 43% have actually taken action, according to research by uSwitchforbusiness.com. The research found that cost is the number one factor that small firms look at when choosing an energy supplier, with concerns over customer service and environmental issues becoming less important in the recession.The survey also revealed that the average small company pays more than £2,500 a year on electricity and faces gas bills of over £3,200.

www.ukba.co.uk

Despite Everything Business Start Ups Are On The Up!

436,600 new start-ups were launched in 2008, compared to 432,300 new businesses in the previous year."These figures may seem surprising given the current economic climate," said Steve Cooper, local business managing director at Barclays. "There could be a number of reasons for the robust start-up market, including individuals made redundant opting for self-employment. We should also remember that there are always opportunities, even in more challenging times."A large reason for this growth in new businesses is entrepreneurial women - female-only starts ups increased by 9% to total more than 90,000 in 2008 up from 83,000 in 2007, compared to male-only start-ups which showed a slight increase of less than 1% to 300,000.Download our free start up guide: click here.

www.ukba.co.uk

Business Still Not Serious about Business Continuity.

According to The BCI (Business Continuity Institute) who have researched key findings across 17 causes of major disruptions to calculate the cost impact to the UK economy.

The figure shows that organisations are still not looking seriously at Business Continuity Management to provide a framework for managing the impact of potential disruptions to their businesses."In the current economic downturn, customers and suppliers will inevitably go out of business and it is vital that an organisation understands its dependency on critical suppliers. The lack of availability to essential products can have a serious impact on business," said Lyndon Bird, Technical Director of the BCI.

http://www.ukba.co.uk/