Enterprise news and opinion from Cobweb

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…

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…

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…

The business world just isn’t fair. The smartest and most solvent of people, the hardest workers, those with the brightest ideas, and those who are quickest to get a new product on the market go bust just as easily, and quite often more easily, than anyone else…

Being a first-time business owner often involves becoming a first-time employer somewhere down the line – and for some starts ups, this is the case from day one. Being your own boss and having people working with and for you is not only a pleasure (of course), but also at certain times quite painful, frustrating and distracting…

The vast majority of businesses in the UK (more than 95% of them) are micro-enterprises – around 3.6 million sole traders and just over one million very small firms employing between one and nine staff comprising one third of the nation’s private sector workforce at just under eight million people – a vitally important contributor to our economy…

If you’re just starting out in business or haven’t been trading for long and you’ve been advised to write a business plan, you won’t go far wrong if you write your marketing plan first. After all, your business plan will be meaningless if you haven’t identified the market you’re aiming your product or service at…