Recent news headlines relating to UK businesses, entrepreneurs, and sole traders.
Over recent years, the supply of funding from banks to small businesses has suffered as a result of the global financial crisis.
The government has taken various steps to try and improve this situation and while there have been some improvements of late thanks to schemes such as the Funding for Lending Scheme, lending levels to small businesses are still being described as subdued.
Over recent years, confidence levels amongst both consumers and small businesses have taken a knock, driven largely by the difficult financial and economic climate.
However, according to a recent report from the Federation of Small Businesses, there has been a notable increase in optimism and confidence amongst small businesses across the nation.
Over recent years, many people across the UK have decided to start their own businesses.
This has resulted in a new wave of small businesses that could potentially have a huge positive impact on the country’s economy.
However, for any small business that is still in the throes of growth cash flow can be a big problem and this is an issue that is being made worse by late payments.
For most business these days, particularly smaller businesses, being able to cut back on unnecessary costs has become vital due to the tough financial and economic climate.
However, according to a recent report many firms are losing huge amounts of money as a result of problems with suppliers. In fact, it is claimed that resolving problems with suppliers is costing companies in the UK in excess of £10 billion every year – money that businesses, especially small ones, cannot afford to lose.
In years gone by, one of the main forms of funding for small businesses was bank credit.
This was not only to help small businesses get off the ground as start ups but also to help them to grow and flourish through increased financial investment.
The government has been quite vocal about the fact that, as part of its drive to improve the British economy, it plans to focus on increasing UK exports over the coming years.
In fact, ministers have said that by 2020 they hope to have doubled UK exports by securing higher levels of foreign trade.
Over recent years, it has become increasingly important for small businesses across the UK to try and generate more trade.
With the record numbers of new small businesses being created, this has become more and more vital but with tough competition from the bigger players many small businesses struggle to raise awareness and boost business.
A new scheme that is set to be launched in December of this year could help to change all of this.
Over recent weeks, the leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has wasted no time in highlighting how the party will take steps to assist and aid small businesses if it comes into power at the next general election in 2015.
However, Prime Minister David Cameron is making sure he doesn’t rest on his laurels, outlining his own plans for aiding small businesses.
As the Labour party battles to try and win over voters in the next general election in 2014, Labour leader Ed Miliband seems determined to try and get not only individuals onside but also small businesses across the UK.
In a bid to try and get SMBs onside, Labour intends to become the party that works hard for small businesses, albeit at the expense of large corporations.
The Labour party is promising that if it is voted into power next year, it will be slashing business rates for small companies.
Britain is often slated by employees for the long and gruelling working hours that are in place compared to some other countries.
However, a recent report has shown that small business owners in the UK are actually enjoying workers fewer hours than many of their European counterparts.
The research was carried out by Hiscox, with 500 small businesses across six countries being polled as part of the process.