Enterprise news and opinion from Cobweb

In just about every aspect of running a business, financial formulas and numbers are a central factor. And that isn’t just to do with your books and accounts, because numbers are essential when measuring business performance, waste, efficiency and relative levels of success or failure…

Being a small business owner or sole trader is one thing, but being an entrepreneurial small business owner – one that thinks and acts in a way that can set you apart from most of the other small firms operating in your sector or industry – is a different matter altogether…

Lord Young has made a number of recommendations for the Government to encourage micro-business growth…

Plans. Planning. Business Plans. What exactly do these terms this mean to you? Everyone you talk to and everything you read about starting up and running a business seems to say more or less the same thing…

This week we’re going to take a look at some common, and occasionally fatal, mistakes that are made by new business start ups – and sometimes by their supposedly more experienced counterparts…

Tens of thousands of professionals and public sector workers who have been made redundant are grasping the opportunity to become self employed. But is this a good time to start up in business – in the midst of the worst economic downturn for almost a century?…

One of the biggest worries facing new business owners, or anyone thinking of starting up their own venture, is that they won’t be able to compete with all the bigger players that are already out there and established in their sector…

How can you develop a reputation where people sit up, take notice and do the talking for you, and where they spread the word to others about how good your product or service really is? You need to look for ways to make your customer experience over and above what they were expecting…

The role that the small and micro-business sector plays and contributes to the health of the economy in the UK should never be understated. In 2012, over 4.5 million small/micro-business proprietors accounted for 47% of private sector employment and 35% of total private sector turnover…

Contrary to continual claims by BIS that the biggest headaches and priorities faced by small business owners are red tape and access to finance, BIS’ own survey results provide a strong indication that problems with sourcing funding has not been an issue for 90% of business owners, and 98% had not sought information or advice relating to regulations.