Category: News

Ministers are understood to be keen on promoting mentoring by experienced business owners and professional advisers as an effective means of helping companies to grow.

Gerald Thompson of McDonald’s in Manchester and Oldham has been crowned the 2010 bfa HSBC Franchisee of the Year.

Thousands of small companies risk losing rates relief worth £200m because they are in danger of missing the end of month deadline for submitting claims leading business organisations.

Time has virtually run out for UK businesses to register for the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme. Most public and private sector organisations using 6,000 Megawatt hours or more in 2008 have until the end of September before they start paying hefty fines of up to £45,000, warns international law firm, Simmons & Simmons.

Business owners have delivered a real vote of confidence in Britain by saying that it is the best place in the world for their business according to new research released today.

New rules being drawn up following a meeting of central bank governors and regulators from around the world in Switzerland at the weekend could see even less money being lent to small businesses.

Mark Prisk MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise, has announced a major boost to the North East’s economic prospects. The British Library, NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), Newcastle City Council and Northumbria University have agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to examine the set up of a new business support centre in the North East based on the British Library’s critically acclaimed Business & IP Centre.

Britain’s manufacturers have notched up the strongest year of growth for more than a decade and a half as they recover from the deep slump triggered by the financial crisis, according to government figures released today.

The one year National Insurance holiday for start ups, announced in the budget, is set to begin on September 6 but now the Government has now said that some sectors as well as regions of the country will be exempt.

Bank fees and costs for SMEs have risen sharply since the end of last year according to a report by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. The report also says that many small businesses are unable to borrow from banks, because their lending criteria are too restrictive.

When Sharon Wright, wanted to increase the profitability of her fledgling business Talpa Products, which produced the award-winning Magnamole product, she did what many entrepreneurs dream of and walked up the famous steps in TV’s Dragons’ Den and walked back down again with a deal done and with the two dragons that she had wanted, for more money than she had asked for. Sounds perfect doesn’t it? However without the cameras, the deal became anything but perfect. We talk to Wright about what went wrong and why the perfect deal turned so sour.

The bosses of six of the UK’s leading banks are joining forces to form a taskforce designed to help get lending to businesses back on track.

Claims by the Government that UK banks are failing to lend has challenged by the head of RBS today as he detailed their efforts to get cash to small businesses as he announced the banks first profit in three years.

New report by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development claims UK economy has lost nearly 1m full-time jobs since the start of the recession

A new report out today claims that more than half of headhunters believe that women will have to forsake a career break in order to reach the top senior executive positions.