Opinion and thought leadership from freelancers, small business experts and solo entrepreneurs shaping the UK’s independent economy.
Zombie companies are labelled as businesses that may have been insolvent on an assets vs liability basis, but are able to survive on cashflow alone, partly because of low interest rates. Added to this, many banks are allowing these ‘problem’ companies to have capital repayment holidays, in order to ease the pressure and prevent – or perhaps just delay, a forced liquidation.
Why is the public sector procurement process so bureaucratic? Of course it’s partly governed by EC law to safe guard fairness (well in theory – but that’s a much longer article).
That is the opinion of David Kern, Chief Economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) when commenting on the choices facing the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) at its August meeting next Thursday.
Ahead of the government’s introduction of fees charged to those who wish to bring claims in employment tribunals, a leading employment law expert is warning that this could heighten Britain’s ‘pay-off’ culture.
Tom Ball, Founder of CEO of NearDesk discusses some of the hurdles that you may face whilst in business.
The current Wikipedia definition of digital marketing is: ‘marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers…’
Social media seems to have changed the way we look at things as marketers. I’m not saying social media is the centre of anything – certainly it shouldn’t be seen to be important as a channel in its own right, but it has shown brands that the consumer has a powerful say.
George Osborne’s Shares for Rights scheme was rejected twice by the Lords, before scraping through in April. Darren Fell, MD of Crunch Accounting asks just what the controversial new legislation will mean for SMEs.
The right attitude to work and a strong set of basic skills remain at the top of employers’ wish lists when it comes to hiring new recruits. That’s the finding of new research we carried out with our members.
It is encouraging to see increasing recognition of successful SMEs as the growth engine for the UK economy. Accelerate 2013, a business festival held in Liverpool at the end of June, hosted 1,000 delegates from SMEs nationwide, designed to promote discussion, knowledge sharing and operational efficiencies among fast-growing companies.
The University of Leicester School of Management’s Professor Martin Parker has fiercely criticised the BBC reality television programme
Intelligence isn’t simply a fixed quantity, a learning expert explained in a talk recently. How smart we are is powerfully affected by our situation, and that’s something we can control.
New data published recently around bank lending has confirmed suspicions long suspected, but have hitherto been unable to prove this year. And that is that bank lending is still in decline – or it certainly was up until the end of March.
So what were the Apprentices up to this week? Well it was choosing and selling two accessory products and one ‘high ticket’ product in the camping world at a one day event in Birmingham NEC.
Mark Garnier, Member of Parliament for Wyre Forest, has joined others in writing the book: Banking 2020 – A Vision for the Future. Here in an extract he looks at the relationship banks have with SMEs
