Advice on growing your small and medium sized business, SME, in the UK. Hiring and managing staff and finance plus marketing all on one website
Small business owners are taking the lead to ensure their firms stay afloat despite the recession, new research shows. The nationwide survey of businesses with a turnover of up to £1 million shows that 59 per cent of business owners have frozen their pay in the past year, while just 33 per cent have frozen the pay of staff.
A free online public procurement course designed to help smaller firms bid for the £220 billion of public sector contracts awarded each year was today launched jointly by Small Business Minister Lord Davies and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne.
From today every young person who is unemployed for six months will be guaranteed the offer of a job, training or work experience, supported by up to 470,000 opportunities over the next 15 months through the Government’s Young Person’s Guarantee.
One in ten mums surveyed by Netmums and BT Business, aspire to have their own business, with one in 5 looking to have more flexibility on choosing the hours they work.
Have you invented the next Dyson vacuum cleaner? Concocted a successor to Innocent Smoothies? Discovered the next Protect and Perfect face cream? Then the BBC wants to hear from you!
Are you a small business with big goals? Are you frustrated by the speed of your company’s growth? Would you like someone to inject some energy into your trade?
Do you have a killer idea or a ‘must-have’ product of the future ready for investment? Do you have the powers of persuasion needed to part Dragons from their cash? Well the BBC has opened the application process for the next series of Dragons’ Den.
Huge numbers of Britons dreaded the first day back at work after the Christmas and New Year break because employers are piling on the pressure. Companies desperate to stay ahead as the recession bit last year are keeping people at work longer and increasing workloads, causing 8.4 million Brits to lose sleep in the past year, according to a study by insurer RSA and You Gov. RSA has dubbed the phenomenon has WAWAW – wide awake worrying about work.
Paddy Power has opened a book on which airline will go bust next, and claims that the UK’s largest charter airline, Monarch, is favourite to fold.
With Christmas just around the corner, children and adults will soon be getting into the festive spirit decorating their homes and wrapping up presents. This year there is one great way to ensure your present stands out from the rest whilst under the tree; by using a Sharpie marker!
Whether personalising your wrapping paper with a festive silver snowflake or putting colourful finishing touches to that perfect tag, Sharpie markers are available in 13 stand-out colours making them the ideal Christmas creative companion.
We have teamed up with Sharpie to give 10 lucky readers the chance to get their hands on a goodie bag of Sharpie markers – the ultimate Christmas design kit worth £35, which will ensure your gifts really stand out this year. To enter just email us at: sharpie@bmmagazine.co.uk
With Christmas around the corner, retailers are already enjoying ringing tills and an uplift in sales, however recent research has revealed many are concerned that long queues may hinder sales over the next few weeks.
After digesting months of feedback and suggestions, Smarta, the free online business resource has launched a new, easier to use, and a more functional website. From the feedback Smarta learnt that there are three things users wanted from the site: Advice, Networking and Tools.
A recent survey of small to medium sized businesses reveals that the three worst qualities an employer can exhibit during difficult times to their staff are ‘hiding the extent of problems’, ‘making the problems appear worse than they are’ and ‘being distant with staff’ – indicating that SME employees want honesty and straight talk from their employers about the state of the business.
BT people are being freed up to tackle the issues that are important to their local communities and to communities across the world. Some are helping make local community areas cleaner and greener. Others are working with a whole range of charities and social enterprises to enhance their operations.
Cyclescheme, the UK’s number one provider of cycle-to-work schemes, has been given top billing in the Sunday Times Virgin Fast Track 100 and as such is the first company from the bicycle industry to gain entry.
