UK small business confidence is increasing

Discover Financial Services reports that UK small business owners’ economic confidence rose in August, improving from a 22 month low in June.

The Discover® Small Business WatchSM reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and more than 15 points higher than June.

The number of small business proprietors who think the economy is getting worse dropped to 60 percent from 71 percent in July.

23% of small business owners feel the USA economy is getting better, which is the highest rating since August 2007.

51% rate the economy as poor, a decrease from 54% in July; while 15% ranked it as good, up from 11% in July.

However, 42% say they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, a significant increase from 33% in July 2008.

30% of owners say economic conditions for their business are getting better, up slightly from 28% in July, while 44% say conditions are getting worse, up just a point from 43% in July.

So the darkest part of the economic gloom may have passed. Small businesses are a very good indicator of changes in the state of UK business, since they experience variations quickly and clearly.

Our UK Business Directory, with 1.6 million businesses listed, most of which are small businesses, connects prospects to those businesses with no cost for the business.

UK small businesses need to improve their cash flow management skills

HSBC Commercial Bank reports that 18% of small businesses said that suppliers are billing quicker and an additional 20% said that fewer companies are paying within agreed payment terms.

The survey of 596 small and medium-sized companies, found that they rely on their savings and overdraft to fund both cash flow and purchases.

40% use savings and 24% rely on overdrafts to manage their everyday finances.

18% use their overdraft to fund big purchases, such as business vehicles and equipment.

11% use their credit card for business investment.

10% are using invoice finance to actively manage their cash flow.

9% use leasing finance to help capitalise on their assets.

At the same time, the Federation of Small Businesses reports that large companies are delaying invoice payments to smaller firms.

So cash flow is tight for small businesses at this time. We are assisting by providing the 1.6 million businesses listed in our UK Business Directory, with prospects, with no cost for the business.

UK small business confidence is increasing

Discover Financial Services reports that UK small business owners’ economic confidence rose in August, improving from a 22 month low in June.

The Discover® Small Business WatchSM reached 86.9 in August, up 2.3 points from July and more than 15 points higher than June.

The number of small business proprietors who think the economy is getting worse dropped to 60 percent from 71 percent in July.

23% of small business owners feel the USA economy is getting better, which is the highest rating since August 2007.

51% rate the economy as poor, a decrease from 54% in July; while 15% ranked it as good, up from 11% in July.

However, 42% say they have experienced cash flow issues over the last 90 days, a significant increase from 33% in July 2008.

30% of owners say economic conditions for their business are getting better, up slightly from 28% in July, while 44% say conditions are getting worse, up just a point from 43% in July.

So the darkest part of the economic gloom may have passed. Small businesses are a very good indicator of changes in the state of UK business, since they experience variations quickly and clearly.

Our UK Business Directory, with 1.6 million businesses listed, most of which are small businesses, connects prospects to those businesses with no cost for the business.

Online retail sales in the UK increased by 11.3% in July

Online clothing and electrical sales increased to make July online retail sales figures 11.3% higher than June.

The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index reports that UK consumers spent £4.8 billion online in July, which is an amount of 79 pounds for every person in the UK.

However the British Retail Consortium, reports that July physical store sales were .9% less than June.

Clothing sales online increased by 23% during July and sales of electrical items online during July were up 7.5% on June.

Capgemini has forecast that between 30 percent and 50 percent of all UK retail sales will be online in the next five years.

So even in the current depressed economic circumstances online sales continue to grow.

This is good news for the 1.6 million businesses listed in our UK Business Directory, particularly since the qualified prospects are provided at no cost to the businesses.

Small UK business employees are more likely to help reduce carbon emissions than employees at larger firms

E.ON surveyed 1,200 UK workers and found that in small firms employees are significantly more likely to help curb energy use and carbon emissions by turning off lights and computers and recycling, than employees at larger companies, who say bureaucracy hampers their efforts.

More than a third of the workers from small firms said they had significantly changed their behaviour to cut carbon emissions, and 90 percent claimed they changed their behaviour at least a little.

Less than a fifth of the employees at larger firms said they had changed their behaviour significantly. And more than two-thirds of the respondents from larger firms said they do not feel they are in control of efforts to reduce energy use, that they have no influence over the facilities department at their firms.

So employees of smaller businesses have greater sway over energy consumption and carbon emissions because of the longer chain of command in larger firms.

The vast majority of the 1.6 million businesses listed in our UK Business Directory are small businesses, and we support them by sending them qualified prospects from the 2.24 million directory pages currently indexed on Google, at no cost to the business.

UK small businesses are not claiming the available rate relief

The Local Government Association said that about 392,000 businesses were getting the rate relief that was available, out of 870,000 that could apply.

Communities and Local Government, the department responsible for the rate relief scheme, said that the proportion of businesses that get rate relief varies across the country. Not all small properties are occupied by small businesses, and a business may not qualify for relief if it occupies more than one property.

The Forum of Private Business, which represents about 25,000 UK companies said that £200m in small business rate relief goes unclaimed each year, just in England.

The rate relief, which is also available in Scotland and Wales, enables businesses with rateable values of up to £5,000 to reduce their bill by half. This relief decreases on a sliding scale by 1 per cent for every £100 of rateable value over £5,000, up to £10,000.

During the current difficult trading conditions for small businesses, the rate relief assists. Our UK Local Search Business Directory with over 1.6 million business listed, most of which are small businesses, also assists, since the qualified prospects we provide are 100% free of cost.

UK consumers are spending more time and money online

IOfcom reports that in 2007, UK consumers spent four times as much time on their computer, an average of 24 minutes a day, and twice as much time on their mobile phone, as they did in 2002.

Online advertising spending exceeded advertising on mainstream TV in the UK in 2007, increasing by 40 percent to $5.3 billion, 19 percent of all advertising.

Online paid search accounted for $2.9 billion, with the balance divided between display and classified ads.

TV advertising was flat at $6.5 billion, with mainstream channels accounting for $4.4 billion.

In online households, 32 percent watched video clips from sites such as YouTube, which was up from 21 percent in 2006.

Broadband connection reached 58 percent of UK households, up from 52 percent the previous year.

So the movement from old to new media continues at a fast pace.

Our UK Business Directory, which has over 1.6 million businesses listed, continues to be popular in helping consumers find the business they’re seeking, with no cost at all for the businesses listed.

Online sales in the UK will exceed physical store sales by 2026

USwitch reports that while physical retail stores have experienced reduced sales because of the depressed economic conditions, internet sales results continue to increase and will be more than 50% of all retails sales by 2026.

Physical retail stores had a 3.9% reduction in sales in June, which is the greatest monthly reduction since 1986.

USwitch says online sales will increase to £163 billion a year by 2020 - a 44% share of the total retail market.

The reduction in the cost of broadband access, the increase in internet speed, and high petrol prices, mean that UK consumers now spend 1.6 hours a week shopping online.

15 million UK households now have broadband connections, and UK online sales in 2007 were 40% higher than Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

This trend means that our UK Business Directory for Local Search is proving very popular. It has over 2.2 million pages indexed on Google and there is no cost for the 1.6 million businesses involved to be listed.

UK small businesses are being restricted in getting awarded contracts for the 2012 London Olympics

The Forum of Private Business reports that the UK Government’s target of awarding 30% of all public contracts to small businesses is under threat because of recent Government proposals.

Government plans require businesses to enforce gender and racial equality standards, and to offer trade union membership to their employees, for companies to be eligible for contracts, and this disadvantages small businesses dramatically.

In the 2008 Budget, the UK Government said it wanted small businesses to get 30 per cent of public contracts, but then announced companies had to promote trade union membership to be awarded contracts.

This inherent contradiction creates a substantial barrier for small UK businesses to share in the large amount of revenue that the 2012 London Olympics public contracts will provide.

Small businesses are under stress due to the current economic slowdown and this is another example of the difficulty of competing with larger companies.

Our UK Business Directory, which contains of 1.6 million businesses, most of which are small businesses, is assisting, by providing qualified prospects to them with no cost for the businesses that are listed.

Small UK businesses are at a disadvantage

New research from BT Business and Cisco shows that half of private sector businesses think that small companies are less competitive than larger businesses, and in addition, the larger companies are now more demanding of their suppliers.

While 87% of private businesses said that they had better personal relationships with small companies, 52% said the small businesses were not as price competitive as large companies.

40% said they were less likely to choose a small business in difficult economic times.

Of the £28 million each year paid to suppliers, 23%, £6.6 million, is spent with small businesses, however the period for payment terms have been increased by half of the firms placing these orders.

Given these facts, UK small businesses must play to their strengths and bond with their clients by providing excellent service and also they must acquire new clients economically.

Getting found is an essential aspect of success for small businesses that invariably have a limited advertising budget. Our UK Local Search Business Directory assists over 1.6 million businesses, the majority of which are small, since the service is 100% free for their listing.

Online security flaws in UK Small Businesses

Symantec Corp reports basic online security flaws in UK and European small businesses, in spite of the fact that the companies appear to be aware of the problems.

25% of UK small businesses have had a recent online security breach which resulted in a loss of business and 13% incurred a financial loss. In Europe the figures were 17% and 8%.

UK small businesses have 47% of total UK employees and 37% of total UK turnover, so this is an issue of importance.

43% of those surveyed thought that online security was the sole responsibility of the IT Manager and 34% thought the Managing Director solely responsible.

Only 41% of UK small businesses use an outsourced IT specialist company to provide online security.

31% of those surveyed said mistakes by employees caused the system to crash or information to be lost and 13% said this had a negative financial effect.

42 percent update their business IT security daily, 15 % weekly, 6% monthly, and 3% yearly.

Online security is a now major concern for UK small businesses and spam email is probably the most annoying aspect of this and a regular entry point of viruses infected emails.

Our UK Search Business Directory, which has 1.6 million free business listings, has a spam proof email listing for businesses, so that their email addresses can’t be scraped and then spammed.

The £300m a year saving that is possible for UK small businesses with improved Government support on health and safety

Better Regulation Executive reports that UK small businesses could save £300m a year with better Government support on health and safety.

The average UK business spends 20 hours a year, £350, on administration, meeting health and safety requirements. Reducing the time spent by five hours for each company would save low risk businesses £150 million a year.

The UK has one of the best workplace safety records in the world, with fatalities and injuries falling by more than 70 per cent over the last three decades.

Cutting the amount of paperwork for low risk businesses, and making complex regulations easier to understand, help create safer environments for workers and the public.

1500 health and safety consultancy firms in the UK, provide important services and support, increasingly to small businesses, however, low risk businesses could save up to £140 million a year if 20 per cent turned to government sources for support on health and safety.

Reducing costs for UK small businesses is important in the current tight economic climate and our UK Business Directory assists by providing 100% free listing for over 1.6 million businesses, most of which are small businesses.

The UK authorities give approval for Google Street View

The British Information Commissioner's Office has approved the use of Google's Street View software in the UK.

The tool is an add-on to Google Maps and Google Earth that offers photographs of streets and cities.

Google has overcome privacy concerns by blurring the faces of people and licence plates in the photos and the use of image removal tools.

Google was unable to advise when Street View would be available.

Our Local Search Business Directory now provides Google maps and will also provide Google Street View as soon as it is available, for the 1.6 million businesses listed, and there will still be no cost for the businesses to be listed.

Tax Credits for UK small businesses will increase from 1 August 2008

The UK Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury announced that tax credits for small businesses who invest in research and development will increase by £80 million a year from 1 August 2008.

This will increase the tax relief in this field for small businesses to £300 million a year.

The tax credit rate available for small businesses spending on research and development will increase to 175% of their investment.

The definition of a small business for this tax credit is up to 500 employees, an increase from 250 employees, with a doubling from the previous level of their revenue and balance sheet valuation.

The tax credits were started in 2000 for small businesses and extended to include large companies in 2002.

The UK government’s goal is to have research and development investment at 2 ½% of Gross Domestic Product in 2014.

This is an additional benefit for UK small businesses who are finding trading conditions difficult in the current depressed economic environment.

We are also assisting by providing our UK Directory for Local Search, which has over 1.6 million UK business listings, mostly small businesses, and over 2.5 million pages indexed on Google UK, with no cost for the businesses.