Entries in 9.Biz News (388)
Energy costs second only to health care as top concern
From Washington Business Journal: Soaring fuel and energy costs rank second only to the cost of health care among problems facing small business owners, according to a recently released survey by the National Federation of Independent Business.
Dry Cleaners Hit by Rising Costs
From the BBC: Joe Hallak's dry cleaning business faces the most severe test in its history.
Founded by his father in Hackensack, New Jersey, 42 years ago, it is one of the latest victims of record oil prices.
Dry cleaning businesses are going out of business at the fastest rate since the 1960s.
There's been a dramatic jump in the cost of the chemical solvents used in the dry cleaning process.
Domain Name Shakeup May Bring New Net GoldRush
From The Guardian: For more than a decade the internet has been a world of dotcoms, dotnets and dotcodotuks.
That could all change, however, with a new scheme to liberalise the way websites are named, creating a whole new generation of addresses such as .bank, .sport and .news.
British Pubs Close at Fastest Rate Ever
From Sky News: Pubs are closing down at their fastest rate ever - with those in towns and cities being hit the hardest.
Some 2 % of all city pubs have closed in the last six months, whilst food-led country pubs with outdoor facilities for smokers are reaping the benefits.
The Profits of Gloom
From the BBC: Despite the credit crunch, increasing inflation and falling house prices, some businesses are reporting record profits.
Pawnbrokers, bailiffs, company liquidators and discount retailers are recording bulging order books and soaring profits.
Adam Bannister
in 4.Growing a Business, 8.Inspiration, 9.Biz News
|
Post a Comment
Get Yourself Some Inspiration
A business book like no other on the market has just been published.
The Book of Business Inspiration doesn’t just feature the usual step-by-step business guides, it also has interviews with people who have started or bought their own business or franchise. These everyday entrepreneurs talk about how they did it, the problems overcome and the lessons learnt, and offer advice on how you, too, can have your own business.
The book also features how-to guides, ranging from how to buy a business to how to make money via the web; profiles of various businesses, from newsagents to nightclubs; profiles of legendary entrepreneurs; information on relocating your life to another country; and much more.
The Book of Business Inspiration is available to buy on Lulu.com for £14.95, or £5 for a downloadable copy.
The Book of Business Inspiration is published by Dynamis, the online media brand behind BusinessesForSale.com, FranchiseSales.com, BusinessOpportunities.com and BusinessWings.co.uk
Adam Bannister
in 1.Buying a Business, 2.Buying a Franchise, 3.Starting a Business, 91.The Diary of an Entrepreneur, 4.Growing a Business, 8.Inspiration, 9.Biz News, 6.Location Profiles, 7.Interviews
|
Post a Comment
Small Businesses Fight to Survive in Tough Economy
From Businessweek: Small business is risky business these days.
Costs are rising, profits are shrinking and the ability of the big guys to keep prices relatively lower is drawing away customers.
Things are so bad that many small enterprises, which account for about 99% of the country's businesses, say they are hanging by a thread that may soon snap.
Rural Potential Goes Untapped
From the BBC: Businesses in rural parts of England do less well than those in urban areas and are failing to reach their full potential, a report has said.
The chairman of the Commission for Rural Communities, which wrote the report, said rural areas had up to £347bn a year of untapped potential.
But Stuart Burgess said some villages could become commuter ghettos, empty of local wealth if action was not taken.
Grim Picture of UK Service Sector
From the BBC: Britain's service sector shrank in May for the first time in five years, as costs rose and confidence in business prospects fell, a survey has shown.
The Chartered Institute for Purchasing and Supply's index of service sector activity fell to 49.8, from 50.4 in April, the first fall since March 2003.
What is Giving UK Small Businesses Nightmares?
Technology Problems & Difficult Clients & Suppliers are Top Anxieties
A new You Gov survey into British UK small business attitudes to operational business anxieties reveals that technology not working (42% of all respondents) is the number one work issue that causes anxiety, alongside with difficult clients and suppliers (42%) which cause the same level of concern.
Heavy workloads (30%), tight deadlines (26%) and long hours (19%) were the next highest ranking issues causing concern.
Investors Favour UK Family Firms
UK family firms are more than twice as likely as their European counterparts to change ownership over time, according to a report commissioned by the Institute for Family Business.
Only 30% of top UK family firms in 1996 remained under control of the same family in 2006, according to a study by researchers at London Business School, the University of Oxford and Bocconi University.
The team studied the top 4,000 companies in the UK, Germany, France and Italy. The researchers say that in the UK 42% of family firms underwent takeovers and 28% became widely-held businesses, as the family shareholders were diluted.
Are Banks Set to Capitulate Over Fees?
The UK's banks have spent more than two years asserting vehemently that their overdraft fees were fair and just.
Now the dam seems to have burst.
UK Businesses lose £4bn a Year Due to 'Office Break' Ban
A new report published today reveals that the current trend towards banning personal internet use in the workplace could be costing British businesses up to £4bn every year[1] due to a resulting decline in staff productivity.
The report by PopCap Games, proves that, far from distracting employees from their work, taking a 10-minute online break during the course of the working day serves to reduce stress while sharpening and refocusing the mind.
Franchises Battle Credit Crunch
From NJBIZ: Even SBA-backed lenders are reigning in their loans
The credit crunch that has been squeezing the economy has now caught the franchise industry in a vise.
“I’m sitting on mounds of loan applications, but banks are holding back,” says Nirav Mehta, a franchise broker in Warren who helped clients get about $150 million in bank loans last year. This year, he says he will be lucky if the total breaks $100 million.
Adam Bannister
in 2.Buying a Franchise, 9.Biz News
|
Post a Comment
Men Moan More Than Women!
Men are more likely to give negative reviews to UK businesses than women.
– Women more likely to recommend businesses to friends/colleagues
– Women prioritise quality over value for money
– Men give UK businesses 15% lower ratings than their female counterparts
Five Augurs of the Storm Ahead
With the economy heading for the rocks, owners of businesses selling luxuries and non-essentials might be worried.
After all, it seems obvious that in tough economic times people will cut back on such goods.
However, it might not be as bad as you think. A story on the BBC today suggests the effects of recession on consumer demand are not always predictable.
8 Out of 10 UK Workers Take Less Than 30 Mins For Lunch
A culture of desk dining and feeling guilty for taking a full lunch hour exists in offices across the UK, according to a Reed Employment poll of almost 5,000 workers registered on www.reed.co.uk this month.
- 18% of workers take a full lunch break
- 44% dine at their desks –
- 41% feel guilty if they take a full hour
A staggering eight out of ten workers take less than 30 minutes lunch break each day and only 18% take a full hour. A total of 44% of employees dine at their desks every day, even though 71% state that their company provides an area where they can take a break away from their desks.
The Subway Chain Hits The Number One Spot
According to a report published by the British Sandwich Association, the SUBWAY® Chain, maker of the world famous Sub, has hit the number one spot in the UK for sandwich sales - with nearly double the sales of its nearest competitor.
The great news coincides with British Sandwich Week, 11-17 May, which celebrates an industry worth a staggering £5 billion. According to the report, The SUBWAY® Chain has smashed all previous industry sales figures and its sandwich sales of £300m are nearly double that of Tesco which comes in second.
Subway has smashed all previous industry sales figures with its sandwich sales of £300m.
Jo Dalton
in 2.Buying a Franchise, 9.Biz News
|
Post a Comment
Small Business Support is Rubbish, Says Richard
From Management Today: Doug Richard has published his study of UK business support - and it makes grim reading for Gordon Brown...
The ex-Dragon, who heads the Conservative Party’s Small Business Taskforce, has just completed a wide-ranging review of the various support services on offer to start-ups and small businesses – and he didn’t like what he found. Richard said the current system – which involves a staggering 3,000 different services run by 2,000 different providers – was ‘overly complex, ineffective and undirected’ and thinks that the whole thing needs a total overhaul.
Click here to read full article.
Northerners Are More Successful Entrepreneurs
There are fewer entrepreneurs in the North of England but they are more successful than their southern counterparts, according to new research by Hull University Business School, Cranfield School of Management and the University of St Andrews.
Is There a North-South Divide in Self-Employment in England?, published by leading journal, Regional Studies, shows that 23% of men and 11% of women are self-employed in the South, compared with 17% of men and 8% women in the North. Despite being fewer in number, northern entrepreneurs perform better as indicated by how many employees a self-employed person has.