Small Business News
- Small businesses shun graduates22 February 2012, 11:00 am
Small business owners are turning their backs on the graduate employee market and instead choosing to hire school leavers and other non-graduates, research finds.
Some 54 per cent of small business owners that had hired graduates in the past find that they represent less value to their company than non-graduates, according to a study of 20,000 respondents by money saving website DealJungle.com.
More than three quarters (77 per cent) had also hired non-graduates with six out of ten claiming hir... 
- SMEs hampered by economy21 February 2012, 10:32 am
The economy is preventing six in ten small businesses from achieving growth this year, new figures from the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) show.
In the ‘Voice of Small Business' Member Survey of 11,000 respondents, some 58 per cent of small firms say they are looking to grow over the next 12 months – 43 per cent moderately and 11 per cent rapidly.
However, two thirds say that the economy is the biggest barrier to achieving this, with 16 per cent saying insufficient broadband ...
- HMRC punishes late tax returns20 February 2012, 12:14 pm
Some 850,000 penalties for late tax returns will be issued over the next fortnight, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has announced.
The £100 late-filing penalties are being sent to those who failed to send their 2010/11 self-assessment returns to HMRC on time.
Companies that still haven’t sent their return to HMRC risk further penalties if they do not act soon. Businesses whose return is more than three months late will be charged an additional £10 penalty for each day it remain...
- 'Walking dead' SMEs threaten economy17 February 2012, 10:51 am
‘Zombie companies’ making little or no profit could be the reason for the prolonged economic stagnation, says an insolvency specialist.
As government insolvency statistics for the fourth quarter of 2011 revealed liquidations and administrations are up by 7.2 per cent on the same period in 2010, solicitor Oliver Ward-Jones believes these negative figures are masking the real problem, the ‘zombie company’, which he says is threatening to drag the UK’s weak growth bac...
- Businesses join internet age16 February 2012, 11:51 am
The number of small businesses using the internet to sell their products and services has risen year-on-year by almost a third.
According to research by PeoplePerHour.com of 1,300 small and medium-sized businesses (SME), the past year has seen a 31 per cent rise in the number of small businesses selling online exclusively, and a 27 per cent increase in the number of small businesses selling more than half their products and services online.
Some 26 per cent of small businesses solely sell onl...
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