Surge in copyright infringement claims hit UK businesses
Small business owners are being urged to check the images they are using on their websites in order to guard against costly copyright claims.
The Forum of Private Business issued the warning after a noticeable increase in calls to its member helpline on the issue in recent months, with several businesses receiving letters demanding payment for unwittingly using copyrighted pictures.
Often, small businesses entrust web design companies to source and upload images to their websites, on the presumption that the design company will have secured permission to use them.
However, all too often this is not the case and liability for any copyright infringement lies with the small business, rather than the design company which developed the website.
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Cable increases pressure on banks to lend to SMEs
UK business secretary Vince Cable has announced that he wants all banks to publish lending figures to SMEs and to give full details of why customers are turned down for loans.
Cable warned that any banks who do not meet lending targets for small businesses are going to face new taxes on bonuses, profits and balance sheets. He told MPs that Project Merlin was a one-year project and that banks must ensure that targets for the year are met.
He said to the House of Commons that extra pressure would be put on banks to ensure transparency in their actions towards SMEs. Banks in the UK have insisted that the current low lending rate to small businesses is due to lack of demand, not loan refusals. However, Cable argues that banks have discouraged applications by offering high rates and not showing interest in lending.
Read more: http://www.inspiresme.co.uk/news/general/cable-increases-pressure-on-banks-to-lend-to-smes-02847/
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Should the Green Investment Bank support SMEs?
We are told small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hold the key to our economic recovery, yet lack of credit continues to be a major barrier to small business growth.
It’s also clear green innovation isn’t the silver bullet for meeting tough carbon emission reduction targets in the UK. Indeed, much of our success in moving to a low carbon economy will depend on adoption of existing green technologies. So should the Green Investment Bank (GIB), which is being established to address “market failures” in the green sector, tackle these ones?
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Outlook positive for UK smaller companies
While concerns over bank lending to small and medium sized companies have grabbed the headlines recently, Alex Wright, manager of the Fidelity UK Opportunities fund, believes that the outlook for small caps in particular is very positive.
Alex Wright commented: “I still think we are early in the current economic recovery, which only really began in mid 2009. As we move into an environment of greater certainty this should be good for small caps which have historically performed well in times of positive economic momentum”.
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Earning money online
Earn money online is definitely an interesting topic that plenty of Internet users desired to learn about. The cyberspace is full of programs of making money opened to people. What you got to do is to find out about the various opportunities and select the correct one.
When you just get into it, you will have to learn as well as gain the right knowledge. There would be plenty of ways of generating revenue online where you have to spend a period of time to research them and go for the best one for you. There are helpful blog sites that help people so much about creating revenue online as well as message boards that discuss frequently about this subject. So you can study from such resource websites to understand most of the aspects.
You will soon join an opportunity and subsequently you’ll have to understand thoroughly about it in order to successfully generate income online. Moreover, the Internet is filled with tons of free guides released for guiding the novices to start properly on the web to create wealth. It would be a good idea to join a few of these e-classes. Not all areas are simple to understand, you may have a couple of problems and the ideal websites to obtain your solutions are the discussion boards. I believe that there will be experienced e-marketers which would offer you some advices.
Apart from that, another section that you have to have knowledge on is the technical area; you have to take the time to get the basic of it. At the time when you are prepared to earn money on the online world, most probably you would be required to set up a niche site and an autoresponder. These tools can’t be configured effectively without technical expertise. Fortunately, the modern technology has made website construction so much easier that even newbie who lack of expertise on site building can build a new site. Only a little fundamental HMTL insight would probably enough. Through making use of the quick site builder software, you will be able to establish a new website with a bit of website building understanding. The modern site building tool lets you to build a modern site by only mouse clicking and including some website information.
There already been tons of websites released on the Internet that promise you could earn fast money online. These opportunities generally present to the newcomers, however you are suggested to stay clear of these opportunities especially when they like to charge you a registration fee to get started. The World Wide Web is definitely a place to generate income nevertheless only if you are willing to devote time and effort in or you hardly succeed online. Keep growing your business and over time you can become a successful e-entrepreneur on the online world.
By Steve Cheng
Source: http://www.thewebmoneyworld.com
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Interest free loans from £500k upwards
No really – this is not a joke! Loans are available from £500k upwards with no interest charged. As you would expect there are associated fees and charges to access this funding.
However, using a £500k loan as an example – if you were to raise this through ‘conventional’ routes at let’s say a 5% interest rate, this would cost you £5300 per month from your cashflow and you would end up paying just under £640k back + the relevant bank charges for setting the loan up.
Through this alternative route, it would cost you £53k and the loan only needs to be repaid at the end of the term (or in full before the term is up).
The process and associated costs are outline below. To find out more, please email me with an outline of your project.
Stage 1 – A business plan is prepared in the format required for the next step, including an ROI report, financial spreadsheet, broker questionnaire and other associated documentation in preparation to present to the fund brokers, as well as managing the process throughout. For this they charge £2,500+vat. (This is refundable if the loan is eventually granted).
Stage 2 – Documentation is submitted to the fund broker to seek outline approval. The broker prepares all financial information relating to the loan requested that clearly outlines to the client company what commitment is required.
Stage 3 – Once the go ahead is given by the client company, £3,000+vat is payable to the broker to undertake due diligence and make necessary arrangements to source the funds. (This is non-refundable).
An agreement to assign a 10% equity stake to the facilitator of the loan at this stage.
Stage 4 – When the loan is agreed, an insurance premium of 5% loan value is to be lodged in an escrow account – this is insurance for the value of the loan should the company be unable to repay the amount. Once the funds are in transit, this fee is then paid over.
A joint and several personal guarantee is also required from the company directors (typically £100k for a £500k loan, but this will be assessed case by case and advised at Stage 2) as the insurance does not cover all aspects of ensuring the loan is repaid.
Stage 5 – The loan is delivered. 5% loan value fee becomes due.
This process takes between 12 and 16 weeks.
The loan is repayable in full at the end of the 10 year term. It can be repaid earlier but as one lump sum, not staged payments.
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Invoice funding from 0.9% to 2% interest
If your clients are looking for competitive funding against debtors, please consider the following unique proposition:
:: 70-90% advance
:: 0.9-2.0% interest
:: Min £5k invoice (although lower value invoices with the same debtor can be grouped together)
:: Per invoice funding – no requirement for whole debtor book
:: No tie in contract – ‘pay as you go’
:: Terms set by seller:: No ongoing monthly service fees
:: No upfront arrangement fees
:: No personal guarantees required
:: Single transcation fee charge 0.5% of face value of invoice
The only proviso is that invoice is from a ‘guaranteed’ payer i.e. government department, corporate, recognised brand, etc.
If this is of interest, please email me in the first instance to find out more.
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