Treasury set to announce tax breaks for small businesses

The Treasury is set to announce that angel investors in small businesses will benefit from a £100 million tax break to support growing firms.

Recently, the government received the backing of Brussels to increase the rate of tax relief available from 20 per cent to 30 per cent. It is also set to double the annual investor limit to £1 million.

The ambition of the Treasury is to encourage investment in some of the UK’s smaller firms, thereby helping to stimulate wider economic prosperity.

Read more: http://www.taxassist.co.uk/News/Small-Business/Treasury-set-to-announce-tax-breaks-for-small-businesses-12361.html

From Business Cards to Branson

A business to business group buying site is offering start-up and SME owners a massive discount deal providing a once in a lifetime opportunity. SME Discounts, which was set up in June, has to date offered huge discount deals on website design and business cards. This month it will offer the chance to have drinks with Sir Richard Branson!

SME Discounts provides between 40 to 90 percent discounts on business to business products and services for SMEs. By building up a network of diverse B2B product and service users via social media it then pitches to providers to offer group buy discounts to win new clients.

There is no cost for users to subscribe nor for providers to create a deal. A discount is negotiated that will allow providers to make a healthy profit if a minimum number of people sign up for the deal, from which SME Discounts agrees a commission.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/13/prweb8774093.DTL#ixzz1ZcPj3BxW

Hackers talk their way into business computers

There has been a recent spate of events putting business computers at risk.

The scenario is basically a business owner receives a call from a so-called technical support company who indicate that there is a problem with the computer system and that they can install some software to remotely check and resolve the issue. If allowed in, they then proceed to either add viruses or hack into the system looking for confidential and financial information.

Does your business have the required policy in place to protect against any third party ‘intrusion’ into your business systems?

Every business should have a policy around allowing third party access to their systems whether remotely or on site. That policy should look something like this generically:

The Organization maintains the security of its information processing facilities and information assets in relation to external parties. All external parties who need to access any organizational information assets are subject to this procedure. The organization has (or may have) external party agreements with the following categories of organizations, all of whom are covered by this procedure; risks may be assessed for external parties as individual organizations or as categories, depending on the level of risk involved:

a) Service providers;
b) Managed security services;
c) Customers;
d) Outsourcing suppliers (facilities, operations, IT systems, data collection, call centers, others);
e) Consultants and auditors;
f) Developers and suppliers of IT systems and services;
g) Cleaning, catering and other outsourced support services;
h) Temporary personnel, placement and other (casual) short-term appointments.

A risk assessment should be carried out and appropriate controls put in place. It should not be possible for a third party to be able to repudiate any action or activity carried out. i.e. it should be traceable and attributable at all times. They should indemnify you against breaches of data protection act, computer misuse act and other acts eg copyright. Clear statements about what they can and can’t do with or without permission should be stated.

That is just a small example of an area most small businesses and some larger ones too are either ignorant of or take the view it will not happen to me. They rarely understand or recognise the need for a managed approach to IT Governance and Information Security.

For further information, contact Richard Harrison.

Simply Business SME Trend Survey – Have Your Say

SimplyBusiness.co.uk today launch a new annual SME Trends survey to gain insight into what challenges and opportunities are facing businesses in the UK right now and asking questions to gain insights into what the next twelve months will hold for this crucial sector of the UK economy.

In order to build this picture they are asking questions about marketing spend, cloud computing investment, projected revenue, funding sources and human resource changes. They will also be looking at what the priorities are for UK SMEs going forward with regards to finance, sales and cost saving.

Simply Business will be contacting a large sample of SMEs that they currently work with and inviting other small to medium sized enterprises to contribute too.  Findings will be published on the Simply Business website in October 2011. All data will of course be completely anonymised to protect contributors.

Any UK business owner who would like to take part can complete the survey online in less than 10 minutes: http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2011/09/2011-09-12-sme-trend-small-business-survey-uk/

Rural Broadband Turning UK “Not Spots” Into Hotspots

It’s going to be a case of Farmers on the Dell.

The idea of broadband-starved Cornish fishing villages and Cumbrian farmsteads uploading the “Catch of the Day” or “The Biggest Pumpkin” to video-sharing sites will one day become the norm in the U.K., with the £530 million government allocation to turn “not spots” into internet hotspots within four years.

Broadband services of up to 2Mbps – decent enough to enable browsing on the web, talking over Skype, and watching TV reruns – will be made available to about 25 million UK households. Another £300 million has been promised after 2015, which will enable 90% of homes to enjoy 24 Mbps and faster. This means multiple households can download videos from a single line at the same time.

With the network getting integrated, it is likely that cheap mobile broadband services will mushroom outside of that 90%. Satellite masts can always be built on reliable structures on the ground.

BT Group, the global telecom giant headquartered in London, has sweetened the pot by announcing they will lay down fiber optic connections that will reach about two-thirds of the households by 2015, even without government subsidy. Fiber optic connections are expected to reach towns and cities where the Group has projected to recover its £2.5 billion investments. It is going to be a challenge however to lay the groundwork in towns that have small populations, because this would mean extending longer cables to reach fewer subscribers. Once this happens though, this is going to be UK’s largest fiber network, and most likely Europe’s biggest, if all goes to plan by 2015.

Economy of scale will have an effect on whether broadband connections will remain affordable or become premium. The threat of higher prices where there is no competition is grounded on the fact that demand is inelastic where services are deemed essential. Speed can be addictive, especially when it opens doors heretofore unknown. To allay these fears, BT may have to partner with other cable networks that have already duct works for existing services.

One of the bigger networks who has access to 12 million homes is Virgin Media, and BT proposes it will utilize its existing channels to provide top-speed internet connection, making them the sole provider in the area. Infrastructure will not be as expensive compared to rolling out an entirely independent network, but the increase in price will most likely come from what marketers call “market skimming” – the practice of charging premium prices once a new product or service, perceived as indispensable, is launched.

The BT Group however is not assured that it will win all of the contracts. Fujitsu, the Japanese electronics firm – has proposed to reach 5 million homes in 3 to 5 years, if it outbids BT to win £500 million in government subsidy.

But what about cottages that are spread so far apart? Fiber is not going to make sense to connect only a handful of farmers spread over a very large area. Huawei, a Chinese telecoms firm, has offered to supply network equipment and software to reach the 10% by a combination of satellite and mobile phone masts. This is another opportunity for cheap mobile broadband service providers to cash in on.

Despite fearless projections, analysts in the tech space believe that the most UK can achieve is to bring high-speed internet service to 75% of homes. Government subsidy may not be enough to spread the hot spots around, so the connections will most likely be made available to the village center, where people can go to schools, libraries or post offices and share the service with the other town folk. Nevertheless, this backbone will enable other forms of data transmission over the airwaves to enable people to connect via broadband services.

This is going to be a boon for rural residents who could certainly benefit from going online, and fast. Users who have endured dial-up connections – because that’s the only thing they can get -only lasted so long because it is better to shop or file government forms online than to travel to the urban center to do the same.

Despite the formidable challenge that plugging the whole of the United Kingdom into the hotspot zone presents, investors who are looking to cash in on this inevitable trend are confident that there will always be demand for services that improve lives by leaps and bounds.

Blake Sanders is a tech writer at UK broadband comparison site Broadband Expert, with a specialty in finding cheap mobile broadband deals and writing on industry news and information.

Note: Photo courtesy of powi via FlickR Creative Commons.

The rise of the older-preneur: It’s never too late!

More than one in four small business in the UK are started by individuals who have either recently retired or been made redundant, according to Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank.

In fact, its research suggests that more than 1 million so-called older-preneurs aged 55 or over have used retirement or redundancy as an opportunity to set up their own businesses.

Findings of the research, which involved more than 500 small business owners around the country, include that nearly a quarter – or 23% – of ‘older-preneurs’ set up their businesses after being made redundant, while a further 12% did so on retirement.

Outsourcing Can Help Your Business

Entrepreneurs and small business should no longer fear accessing the professional skills required in getting a new venture off the ground.

That’s the message from OutsourceMyProject.com, a web based marketplace which allows small businesses to outsource work and business functions to specialists in the UK and aboard.

OutsourceMyProject launched at the start of 2011 and has already helped over 1,000 entrepreneurs find a freelancer or professional in service categories such as web design, e-commerce, graphic design, copywriting and administrative support.

Recent research carried out by OursourceMyProject.com illustrated the strong demand for its service as 74% of entrepreneurs claimed that they would have found it easier to launch their business if they had access to a network of experienced professionals to outsource specific functions to.

Read more: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=143779

Related articles: http://www.paulgreen.biz/articles/tag/outsource/

Removal of Time to Pay Threatens the Life Blood of our Economy

Time to Pay has been a major help to small businesses, and its withdrawal will threaten the survival of many small businesses, just at the time that the economy is looking to them to help pull the country out of the slump.

Time to Pay is a government initiative by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) that enables businesses to spread tax payments over several stages.  It has been particularly helpful to small business with smoothing out quarterly VAT payments.

Three small payments are much easier to manage than one large one.However the latest HMRC stats show that the Revenue are only granting Time to Pay at a third of the level in 2009. This is because they have made it clear that they will not allow repeat applications. HMRC have now announced that they will no longer publish statistics on this important safety net, further threatening the survival of this scheme.

Read more: http://ukba.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=189&Itemid=1

How Do Businesses Survive A 23% Rise In Costs?

With tight margins that many businesses experience; often with bottom line profits in single figures, it is amazing that over the last 5 years more businesses have not gone under with costs rising by 23%.

A study by ‘savings advisor’ Make It Cheaper and the Centre for Economic and Business Research found that small business overheads have risen by a staggering 22.8% in the past five years, with as many as 55% of SME bosses now warning that their company won’t survive much longer if things keep going at the current rate.

Cashflow, or lack of it, is the main killer of businesses.

If you are a struggling business, then a review of your finances may be in order.

Read more: http://www.managementtoday.co.uk/news/1081971/smes-rising-costs-shocker/

You’ve Got To Be Kidding Me – Small Businesses Waste £30.8M Per Day

This is unbelievable as well as being totally averse to looking after one’s carbon footprint!

Small businesses are leaving computer equipment on standby overnight and at weekends, wasting energy, as well as increasing their utility bill unnecessarily.

The survey by E-On of 1000 businesses revealed that more than a third of small businesses don’t turn off their computers at the end of the working day, with 10% falsely believing that standby uses the same amount of energy as shutting down.

Furthermore, one in five small business owners admitted to only switching off their computers properly at the weekend.

Read more: http://www.growingbusiness.co.uk/uk-s-small-firms-waste-30-8m-a-day.html