Category: Freelancer Opinion & Insights

Two thirds of SME’s did not seek outside sources of finance last year and relied instead on the personal savings of business owners and entrepreneurs according to new survey data.

Anthony Pearlgood, commercial director of PHS Datashred and chairman of the information destruction section of the BSIA, discusses how irritating office habits can affect the security of your organisation.

With another recession looming, the Forum of Private Business is calling for the spotlight to be placed squarely back on small firms’ finances in the form of tax breaks for private lenders.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s statements that he is going to get ‘tough on exec pay’ in the private sector are ‘ludicrous and totally unrealistic’ according to Will Davies – co-founder of one of Britain’s fastest growing property maintenance companies.

George Osborne’s budget speech promised that Britain would be “carried aloft by the march of the makers” and yet it would appear from the latest Purchasing Manager’s survey that manufacturing activity has declined unexpectedly during July reversing a two year trend. Terry Green, the author, innovator & entrepreneur looks further.

With Global Entrepreneurship Week upon us, we looked back on the recent roundtable discussions between some of Europe’s top entrepreneurs. According to them, the market should be seen as a place of opportunity, offering scope for investment, acquisition and even growth amongst small businesses, despite ongoing reports of uncertain times.

Richard Hillgrove, the PR guru who built the profiles of BBC Dragons’ Den stars James Caan, Duncan Bannatyne OBE and Simon Woodroffe OBE has come out with a stinging attack on the programme’s producers today for “chasing the lowest common denominator”with their current panel.

Around a year ago, l noticed that a few business owners dipped a tentative toe into the world of twitter.

Many then didn’t quite know what to do with it, tweeted a few random things and then decided it wasn’t right for their business and didn’t seem that useful.

Maybe it was more for celebs to tell the world about what they are up to.

Some decided that it was all about people who thought the world wanted to know their opinions on things the whole time *yawn*.

However, other businesses have been using it a lot.

Norman Burden, Chief Executive of True North Human Capital, the Human Capital Management Consultancy poses the question ‘Where have all the good guys gone?’ and why has the service culture evaporated?

For years now, raising money for charity by taking part in a sport-related event or challenge has been de rigeur.

I think it’s time for change. We should look to the business world for inspiration on how to raise money for charity by giving people who sponsor something back.

The feel-good factor that comes from sponsoring people doesn’t really cut it in a time of recession when we’re all watching the pennies.

If people sponsor something, they should get something in return, even if it’s having their car washed or their lawn mowed or receiving some baked treats. I think it’s time to re-think the current charity sponsorship model.

Coalition policy is failing to deliver the public sector innovation that could dramatically boost value for money and benefit the economy beyond the public sector, argues a recent report published by The Work Foundation.