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Bikeworldtravel / Shutterstock.com Winter cost UK SMEs £174m ACCORDING TO THE Federation of Small <strong>Business</strong>es (FSB), the March 2013 “freeze” cost the UK’s small businesses £174 million – which equals an average loss of £1,580 for each company. Last year the winter snow brought businesses to a standstill, closed down schools and impacted retail sales. For those businesses that are not prepared the monetary fall can be huge. Winter is here and Gritit, a leading gritting and risk management business issued a warning to organisations across the UK to be prepared. Nikki Singh-Barmi, managing director, said: ‘Year after year, we hear of road closures, school closures and the UK high street seeing a massive decline in sales. ‘Organisations across every sector have to take matters into their own hands, to assess the risks and ensure they are properly prepared. Making these contingency plans now, before the cold weather kicks in, is a must.’ LAST MONTH THE Bank of England released its Trend in Lending report on the economy. It found the stock of lending to small businesses fell in the three months to August (Q2), by £0.6 billion, with gross lending £1.1 billion lower than Q2 in 2011. However, the data showed that reference rates on new lending fell only slightly for small businesses, yet fell more significantly for mediumsized and large businesses in the three months to early September. Adam Tyler, CEO of the National Association of Commercial Finance Brokers (NACFB) commented: ‘Alternative options from leasing and asset finance to peer-to-peer lending are taking up the slack and plugging a vital gap. Retail spending to top £40bn over Christmas UK CHRISTMAS SPENDING is poised to top £40bn for the first time this year, offering some hope to the British high street. But retailers should work hard to target cost-conscious customers. Richard Hyman, president of PatelMiller, a business consultancy which works closely with its retail and consumer clients to develop their strategies and deliver their full benefit, forecasts that retail spending in the UK will breach the £40bn mark for the first time in December, up 3.5% on December 2012. The forecast is “considerably more positive” said Hyman, although he noted that this included increased inflation, and that rising food prices would cause some of the increase. ‘I think that things are generally a little bit better,’ said Mr Hyman. ‘The accent is on the little bit. It’s tiny, and it’s not necessarily built on the kind of concrete foundations we would all prefer.’ Shingo Murakami, MD at Rakuten’s Play.com also commented: ‘With UK Christmas spend expected to hit the £40bn mark, it’s encouraging to hear consultancy firms are optimistic for retailers this year. ‘However, retailers should also keep in mind that shoppers are still exercising caution with their wallets. ‘In order to make the most of costconscious Christmas spending this year, retailers should be looking to drive spend through additional incentives, such as reward opportunities, whilst ensuring good value and fantastic customer service at all times to keep customers coming back.’ Net lending to SMEs fallen by £0.6bn ‘SMEs need to be encouraged to seek alternative forms of finance.’ John Hoskins, director of small business accountant, CleverAccounts. com, also commented: ‘SMEs still have fewer options than large firms. ‘As small businesses often don’t have the assets or security the banks are looking for it seems many are still struggling to borrow.’ 16 NOVEMBER 2013
INSPIRING BETTER BUSINESS “Red tape inspired me.” “This is my story” “I started programming when I was 10 years old. My dream was to work for the biggest technology companies in the world. Years later having successfully worked for many of them, I started to get fed up with the amount of internal politics and red tape I dealt with day after day. It’s a cliché, but I really felt like a small cog in a big machine. I craved to be part of a company where my ideas and passion meant something and above all made a difference in driving the business forward. FISCAL Technologies gave me that opportunity to make it happen, and over the past four years I’m working harder than ever, but loving every minute of it. Building relationships with trusted suppliers is essential to business growth. Our long partnership with Fasthosts has always delivered reliability, security and flexibility when we needed it the most. Howard Durdle CTO FISCAL Technologies Find out more at fasthosts.co.uk/inspire or call 0808 1686 777 DEDICATED SERVERS • VIRTUAL PRIVATE SERVERS • WEB HOSTING • DOMAIN NAMES • EXCHANGE EMAIL • RESELLER HOSTING
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