Small businesses in the UK have made many adjustments to cope with the economic downturn but 12% don’t have any commercial insurance cover.

A survey by Aviva reports that 56% of UK small businesses have adjusted their business practices to survive the recession. They have introduced new products or services and started trading for extended hours including weekends. 28% are offering increased discounts and 18% have reduced staff income or hours worked. 10% have reduced the number of their permanent staff.

A critical area of risk for small businesses is that 12% said they had no commercial insurance in force. Since liability insurance is a legal requirement, this is a concern. There are 11,000 serious injuries in UK workplaces each year, so the exposure is substantial.

A major problem expressed was cash flow, with 38% saying it was their primary worry. This was a particular issue for retail shops, restaurants and firms in the leisure field. Those offering professional services were less affected.

23% said that paperwork was a great time consumer since they are now doing the work themselves and 19% said borrowing funds was a problem.

Owners of 20% of small firms in the survey work over 50 hours a week.

The internet is the main source of information for small businesses with 84% of the small company respondents saying that is where they look for answers to business problems.

Keeping the tax authorities happy is deemed important with 91% saying they get professional accounting advice.

UK small businesses have had to be flexible to survive when competing with their larger company rivals. We help by sending them qualified prospects from our Local Search facility in our UK Business Directory, with no cost for them. There are 1.6 million businesses listed in our Directory and most are small firms.

Monte Huebsch, CEO.

UK small business entrepreneurs aged 50 years plus are enjoying both business success and a balanced lifestyle.

Now more than 25% of new UK companies are being established by individuals aged 50 years and over and they have a better success rate than is usually experienced by new small businesses. 

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts reports that from 2001 to 2005, this older group of business people established 93,000 new firms in the UK, creating 400,000 new jobs. Many of these new businesses were in IT and the arts, fields normally considered the area of interest for younger people.

In the UK, currently, only about 33% of the over 55’s age group are employed. Since it is difficult to find employment for this group, starting a new business has increased appeal. 

A 2007 Kingston University study found that the average revenue for a business run by someone over age 50 was £67,500 with 10% having revenue of over £100,000. The motivation given was: 39% wanted the enjoyment involved in running the business, 29% mentioned a better work/life balance and 24% liked not having to answer to anyone else. 9% work alone and half said they were happier than ever before in their life. 

Another appeal was the fact that no externally imposed retirement age was applied to them. 

There are a number of websites that have been created to assist older people start their own businesses in the UK: Mature Enterprise has two websites primeinitiative.co.uk and primebusinessclub.co.uk . The Age and Employment Network is at taen.org.uk and special business finance is available at zopa.com . 

This group of individuals have great knowledge and experience and the results demonstrate that success in running their own business is possible. 

We help UK small businesses by sending them qualified prospects from our Local Search facility in our Business Directory, at no cost to them. Our Directory has 1.6 million businesses listed and the majority are small businesses. 

Monte Huebsch, CEO.

UK Small Businesses have currency exposure risk of £24 billion each year.

American Express FX International Payments reports, in a survey of over 500 UK small businesses, that 39% of them now do business internationally, but 56% do not manage their currency fluctuation risk exposure.

This means that over 500,000 small UK businesses are exposed, on average £41,000 a year, to volatile currency movements.

30% responded that they had not even considered protecting their currency risk, 19% said they thought that the administration involved exceeded the benefit, 13% did not understand the benefit involved, and 8% said they thought that the facility was only of assistance to large firms.

15% of small business that trade offshore said that it was very difficult to make international payments an easy procedure.

Many of the 44% who do manage their currency risk said they were not being as time and cost effective as they would like to be, with half spending two to five days a month on the matter.

The survey said that the average small business queries five international payments a year, with the related costs that are incurred.

Online platforms provided by foreign exchange specialists are able to reduce the average international transaction down to two minutes.

Since small UK businesses now provide employment for half of the private sector workforce, enhanced productivity by the use of currency risk professionals is very important.

We assist with the productivity of UK small businesses with our Local Search facility in our UK Business Directory by sending them qualified prospects at no cost to them. There are 1.6 million businesses listed in our directory, and the vast majority are small businesses.



Monte Huebsch, CEO.

43% of UK businesses have no idea how well their website is working.

Fasthosts Internet reports, in a survey of 430 UK businesses, that while the average UK business has had a website for between 3 years and 4 years, 25% of the owners do not perceive their website as a source of new sales.

77% of those contacted in the study had no procedure to measure the return on investment from their website and 33% never check the popularity of their site or its level of effectiveness.

In the first 6 months of 2009, 83% of small businesses had not checked the contribution of their website to their business plan.

While 57% note the level of traffic to their site, only 40% look where the visitors are coming from and only 33% check which sections of their site are being visited.

Although 50% of the firms said they were satisfied with their website and 43% said that their site was important to their sales results, the survey demonstrates that firms do not analyse the results that they achieve.

Google provides an excellent free tool for recording and viewing website results, Analytics: www.google.com/analytics . This was a US$5,000 a year software package prior to Google buying the company and providing it free to clients.

Analytics provides very accurate information on the traffic to websites.

The statistics provided by Internet Service Providers often contain search engine robots and spiders and the figures from them are not to be relied on, whereas the Analytics results are correct.

Your web developer should add it to every page of your website before the closing tag.

Both Google and UK Local Search are committed to helping small businesses succeed. We help by sending them prospects from our Local Search facility in our Business Directory at no cost to them. Most of the 1.6 million UK businesses listed are small businesses.



Monte Huebsch, CEO

UK small businesses pay 2.4 billion pounds a year in administration costs regarding employment of staff.

The Forum of Private Business reports that one third of calls from members in August were regarding employment issues. Other matters raised were: redundancy 14% of calls, staff discipline 12%, dismissal 7%, and reduction of working hours 2%.

Other concerns raised were the increase in the National Minimum Wage and the minimum weekly redundancy payment increase.

The report says that small businesses spent an average of 10 hours a month on employment law matters.

The yearly expenditure incurred was: 259 million pounds on dismissals and redundancy, 391 million pounds on management, 237 million pounds on maternity, 333 million pounds on disciplinary matters and 1,175 million pounds on holidays.

The Tribunals Service reports that the number of employment tribunals in the UK increased from 115,000 in 2005 to 190,000 in 2008.

The Forum has provided a guide to help UK small businesses deal with the recent changes:  http://www.fpb.org/shop/13/Employment_Guide_2010.htm .

Small businesses have limited capacity to deal with the time demands and expenditure involved in complying with the changing rules with employing staff. It’s another example of how small businesses have to be flexible and resilient in competing for business with larger companies.

We assist them by sending them qualified prospects from our UK Local Search facility in our Business Directory, which has 1.6 million listings, at no cost to them. Most of the listings are small businesses.

Monte Huebsch, CEO.

Small UK businesses are being hurt by slow paying larger companies and being helped by the time and money savings involved with cloud computing.

The Federation of Small Businesses reports that about 4,000 small UK firms failed in the past year as a result of late payment of accounts by large companies. One third of small firms now wait longer to be paid.

60 days is now the usual payment period, with 90 days and 120 days now not uncommon. A 10% discount is sometimes charged for paying within a 60 days period. 

On a more positive note, small firms can now effectively compete with large companies in the IT area by the use of cloud computing. Microsoft reports that the number of medium sized and small businesses using the cloud has increased by 30% in the last year. 

The cost and time efficiencies of storing information on the internet and the ability of being able to access it from any location at any time is a great boost for small firms. 

The movement of their information and records systems to online also avoids problems created by theft or fire. 

Rackspace reports that 11% of mid sized UK businesses and 5% of micro businesses are now using the cloud. 60% of smaller businesses say they will use the cloud in the future. 

So while slow paying of accounts by large companies is a major problem for small UK firms, cloud computing offers new cost economy and improved efficiency. 

We assist small businesses with our Local Search Facility in our UK Business Directory, which has over 1.6 million businesses listed. Most are small businesses and we send them qualified prospects at no cost to them. 

Monte Huebsch, CEO.

Online job ads are down 35% in the UK over the last year.

The Monster Employment Index reports that UK online job ads reduced by 1% in August, down 35% for the period of a year ago.

The European index also reduced by 1%, down 37% year on year. 

There were improvements in the fields of marketing, banking, finance and insurance. Reductions occurred in education, engineering and telecommunications. 

East Anglia was the area registering the greatest improvement and Wales was the worst performing location. 

Monster reports that the increased number of unemployed has provided employers with a large pool of potential employees from which to choose, which results in the reduction in online jobs being advertised. 

Job demand has been stable for some months, after a substantial decline in 2008, but the number of job vacancies in the UK is not enough to equal the level of increasing job losses. 

So UK businesses generally have not yet begun hiring again. 

When they do, small businesses will provide the bulk of the employment upturn. 

We are pleased to assist UK small businesses to enhance their productivity with our Local Search facility in our Business Directory which provides prospects to the 1.6 million businesses listed, most of which are small businesses, at no cost to them. 

Monte Huebsch, CEO.

UK small businesses demonstrate a positive attitude despite the economic downtown.

Business insurer Hiscox reports that small businesses in the UK have not made the dramatic reductions in staff and business outlays that have been a feature of large businesses’ reaction to the economic slowdown. 

The study says that 88% of small businesses have not reduced salaries of employees and that 87% have persisted with the payment of staff bonuses. 

85% have retained the same level of client entertainment outlays and 82% have maintained the same expenditure on office maintenance. 

Only 9% have had staff reductions due to the poor economic conditions and 95% have kept the same level of insurance cover as held previously. 

Despite this, the opinion of 45% of small business proprietors is that it will be another 12 months before business conditions return to normal with 23% thinking the recession will last until 2011. 

The study says that 64% of small business owners think that increased demand for their products or services will indicate an end to the recession and 47% think that new business opportunities will be the indicator. 20% think that improved credit availability will be the signal of improvement. 

This study demonstrates the patience and persistence of small businesses, compared to the automatic reduction response of large UK businesses. 

Online local search is now an important source of new prospects for small UK businesses and our Business Directory Portal provides qualified prospects with no cost involved for the business.



Monte Huebsch, CEO.