Category: News

Sir Alan Sugar will take up a job as “Enterprise Tsar’ in Gordon Brown’s Government, paving the way for a peerage for the British entrepreneur.

The Apprentice final has been moved from its regular weekday slot to Sunday evening.

The conclusion of series five will air on Sunday, June 7 at 9pm on BBC One.

The new timeslot means that Sir Alan Sugar’s show will not clash with ITV’s coverage of an England World Cup qualifier with Andorra.

The BBC has confirmed that it is to launch a junior version of hit business reality show The Apprentice, in which Sir Alan Sugar will get to point his finger and tell 16- and 17-year-olds “You’re fired!”

Junior Apprentice, which will air next year as a five-part BBC1 series, will feature 10 candidates and follow the same format as the main show, although some adjustments will be made to take account of the age of those taking part.

The Government’s decision to let businesses offset trading losses against the tax they already owe has been welcomed by accountants.

They have praised HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) for giving businesses more breathing space, but questioned why the taxman is not being more rigorous in his assessment of each venture’s ability to pay.

Less than 2% of small businesses said that Darling’s Budget would have a positive impact on their business, while 87% said they were now less likely to vote for this Government at the next general election, according to a new survey.

We have spoken a number of key business owners and business support organisations to get their immediate feedback on Alistair Darling’s make or break Budget and highlight what is good, bad and missing as far as small and medium sized business owners are concerned.

David Rose, CEO of Growthwire, had launched a scathing attack on business secretary Peter Mandelson and his “sustained ability to deliver spin over substance”.

Small businesses have adopted a resilient outlook and a determination to survive the economic crisis, according to a study by O2 with 20 per cent forecasting growth with maintaining – cash flow is the greatest threat.

Small Business Confidence Levels
O2’s Small Business Confidence Index, carried out by business research company trends Research, questioned nearly 3,000 small business owners to gauge how the community is responding to the current economic climate in the first quarter of 2009.

Following research showing some small businesses are beginning to experience an improvement in market conditions and the availability of credit, the Forum of Private Business (FPB) is urging the Government to put in place a strategy in next week’s Budget to nurture economic recovery by boosting business and consumer confidence.

Businesses want no nasty tax surprises in the Budget next week so they can focus on surviving the recession and prepare to cope with tax rises that are already planned, accountants report.

Businesses are feeling next to no practical benefit from existing government initiatives to help small businesses and are calling for the state to lower business taxes and offer National Insurance holidays according to recently published research.

Business owners struggling to access finance from major lenders are sceptical about support from the Government, despite its commitment to scrutinise the behaviour of banks via its Small Business Lending Monitoring Panel. The panel, which comprises officials from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the Bank of England and HM Treasury, has met on just five occasions since it was set up in November 2008.

A new study published today reveals that thousands of small business owners in the UK are spending millions of pounds unnecessarily on external consultants and advisors to help manage their employer obligations.

Small firms fear a tax rise is heading their way in next month’s budget – to pay for the government’s emergency economic programme, according to the latest survey from the Forum of Private Business.

In its latest quarterly Referendum survey, 82% of members of the FPB said they feared the tax rises and slammed the government’s response so far to the recession as ‘ineffective’ by 66% of, and ‘harmful’ by 13%.

Dell and the British Chambers of Commerce are looking for entries for their global 2009 Dell Small Business Excellence Awards. It’s only the second year that the UK has been an entrant, but in the first year UK business Wiggly Wigglers went on to win the global prize of £25,000 worth of IT equipment.

The UK winner will also receive a business class notebook and some personal tips on surviving the recession from Michael Dell, the entrepreneur who built Dell from his university dorm room into the global business Dell is today.