The freezing December weather caused 38% of small businesses to close and a further 41% to operate without their full complement of staff. The cost to the small business sector was in the region of £2.1bn.
Umbrella company contractors will be pleased to learn that the number of vacancies for temporary staff continued to increase last month.
Dr Ken Beaumont from Workforce Logistics has confirmed what umbrella company contractors have long known; flexible working lowers stress levels!
2011 could be a busy year for the UK’s small business technology sector as councils struggle to cope with the public sector spending cuts.
In its election manifesto, the Conservative party promised to implement a fuel duty stabiliser and the FSB is urging them put it in place as soon as possible.
The government is keen to see small businesses grow and to help this happen it has launched some new initiatives. It has also been announced that the New Enterprise Allowance scheme is to be extended in the hope of creating up to 40,000 new companies by 2013.
Companies who continued investing in marketing during the credit crisis are now seeing rewards, according to the executive director of the Director Marketing Association, Chris Combemale.
The AWR are due to be implemented next October and the REC is now getting ready to launch a wide-ranging support programme to help recruitment agencies and business leaders prepare for the legislation.
Umbrella company contractors have put in claims for around half a million pounds worth of unpaid invoices following the collapse of Albany at the beginning of 2010.
The FPB has warned small firms that they will face a number of challenges over the next few years.
Umbrella company contractors and other freelance workers have been warned to be cautious of schemes that claim to be HMRC approved, when really they are referring to the reference number allocated to a scheme.
The Bank of England base rate is to remain at its historically low rate of 0.5%, at least for the immediate future, the Monetary Policy Committee has announced.
Umbrella company contractors hampered by poor broadband connections could welcome recent government announcements.
Although the government spending cuts may not have a direct impact on everybody, it’s worth bearing in mind the underlying message that the coalition is trying to get through.
There is a mixture of cautious optimism and trepidation amongst freelancers as we start the countdown to 2011. We still have to see the full impact of the government’s CSR and a lot of umbrella company contractors are feeling anxious about their future prospects.
Although many people in the UK say they are worried about the state of their own finances, 67% of them have not made any changes to their saving habits since the recession started two years ago.
