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The latest enterprise newsNew cash flow guidesA series of guides designed to help businesses manage cash flow during these difficult economic times have just been published by the Institute of Credit Management in partnership with BERR and supported by the CBI.The series of guides are designed to help business in a number of areas essential for effective cash flow management. The guides cover areas such as: knowing your customer, payment terms, what to do when cash runs short, credit insurance, invoicing and factoring and financing options. They are designed to provide straightforward and speedy advice with simple checklists and top tips. The guides can be found in full at the following link - http://www.creditmanagement.org.uk/berrguides.htm Job losses now hitting small firmsThe CBI’s quarterly SME Trends Survey shows small firms are now cutting jobs for the first time in over a year as the economic downturn spreads to all sectors.Both domestic and export orders contracted at a faster rate than was expected in July with this trend expected to intensify. Output also fell sharply as firms look to scale back operations in the face of the deteriorating economic climate and with firms battening down the hatches business optimism fell at the fastest rate since October 2001.Credit conditions are also tightening but input price growth is now weakening as falling commodity prices reflect weaker demand. Contact Dan Morgan at dan.morgan@cbi.org.uk SMEs and public procurement launchedThe CBI joined forces with the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association to:On behalf of the three business groups, FreshMinds Research conducted a survey of over 500 SMEs and found that nearly three quarters of SMEs surveyed rarely or never bid for government work. The same proportion feel that it is still difficult to find out about government opportunities and that there is a lack of responsiveness and too much formality in the procurement process. Also over half of those surveyed felt that the tendering process requires more time and resources than small businesses can afford. These findings were made available to the current Glover review on SMEs and public procurement. Practical recommendations have been developed aimed at both government and business to increase the chances of SMEs winning public contracts. The case is also made that SMEs offer good value for money by providing a better solution or outcome in many cases and in the economic downturn awarding more government contracts to SMEs would help the economy. Read the report Evaluating experiences of Government procurment (PDF2.29MB) Click here to download a pdf (752KB) of the guidelines. Economy top of CBI SME Council agendaThe CBI’s SME Council met for its quarterly meeting in July. Top of its agenda were the changing economic conditions, which Council members discussed with CBI chief economic adviser, Ian McCafferty. The Council also considered the CBI’s evidence to the Glover Review on SMEs access to public procurement contracts and the European Small Business Act. Over a working lunch the Council was joined by its former Chair, Sarah Anderson, who is leading a review on behalf of the government looking at regulatory guidance.Contact: jo.hensher@cbi.org.uk Innovation and skills prioritised at meetingIn July the CBI attended the government’s Small Business Forum, which was also attended by three ministers – Baroness Shriti Vadera, BERR; Ian Pearson, DIUS (Innovation); David Lammy, DIUS (Skills). Discussion focussed on: simplification of the publicly-funded skills landscape; greater recognition of innovation performed by smaller companies in the service sector; how to improve the returns on business investment in innovation by ensuring developments were embedded into the business strategy; and roll-out of innovation vouchers across England as promised in the government’s innovation and enterprise strategies published in March to encourage greater university and SME collaboration. Business attendees stated their support for the direction of travel on the initiatives announced in the government’s strategies but called for greater flexibility and reduced bureaucracy in a number of the schemes available to SMEs, for example Knowledge Transfer Partnerships and Train2Gain. Contact lucy.findlay@cbi.org.ukCBI lobbies on Small Business ActThe European Commission has recently published its proposal for a Small Business Act for Europe, which was discussed at the July meeting of the SME Council. The Act – a key priority of the French Presidency - comprises ten common principles, combined with recommended policy actions for the Commission and Member States, and four legislative proposals in order to promote entrepreneurship, make legislation SME-friendly and help SMEs grow. Since the publication of the Act, the Commission has already adopted proposals for a Directive on reduced VAT rates for service intensive businesses, a General Block Exemption Regulation on State Aids and a Regulation on a European Private Company Statute. These will be followed by a revision of the Late Payment Directive in 2009. The legislative initiatives, in particular the last two, are considered to be of particular significance by CBI members. The CBI has already briefed representatives from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), the French Embassy in London and the UK Permanent Representation in Brussels on the outcome of the SME Council meeting, with discussions focussing on prioritisation, responsibility, monitoring and the timetable for delivery. The Act is due to be adopted at the European Council in December. Contact: jo.hensher@cbi.org.uk or paul.davies@cbi.org.ukKey issues in summaryFor the latest CBI thinking on enterprise issues, see our business summaries.If you need free Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software or help with PDF documents, go to the Adobe Accessibility site at http://access.adobe.com Email us if you have accessibility requirements. |
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