Business Live: The challenges and opportunities facing SMEs Real Business: Are business survival statistics relevant? Business Leader: Small businesses entitled to insurance payouts covering losses during first lockdown following supreme court ruling
The dire consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on many firms across the UK continue with depressing implications for employment and future prosperity. The government has invested heavily in supporting businesses through the furlough scheme, loan schemes and rate relief. The strengths and limitations of these measures have been widely covered in the media, but less… Read more
Financial Times: Starting a business in the midst of a pandemic Business Fast: Starting a business in the midst of a pandemic Bdaily: Major initiative calls on Midlands businesses to prioritise mental health and boost productivity Love Business: Major initiative calls on East Midlands businesses to prioritise mental health and boost productivity H&W Chamber: The… Read more
ERC’s 2020 State of Small Business Britain is now out. And what a year it has been for the UK’s small businesses. ‘Unprecedented’ must be the defining word of 2020 and our latest report looks at how the unprecedented events of this year have translated into impacts on and actions by small and medium enterprises… Read more
Over 40% of UK’s small and medium-sized firms report COVID-related hit to turnover, while 3 in 10 forced to cut jobs Around 200,000 firms could be close to collapse based on analysis of those trading insolvently or running out of cash But a fifth of firms report positive impacts from the pandemic, with many embracing… Read more
Published today this report, completed by Queen’s University Belfast in conjunction with the Enterprise Research Centre, provides international benchmark data for entrepreneurial activity in Northern Ireland, on a comparable basis. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is an international project which seeks to provide information on the entrepreneurial landscape of 50 countries in 2019. This is important… Read more
FT: Do entrepreneurs need an MBA? The Express : Boris Johnson 3-tier system to harm the self-employed Sunday Times: Winter is coming – and so are the insolvencies Start Your Business Magazine: Post-Covid Gains. ‘Laggards’ key to post-Covid productivity gains Research Professional News: Researchers fear spending review might be downgraded London Loves Business: Chancellor’s new measures… Read more
Anticipating adversity, and undertaking crisis planning, are associated with increased resilience in businesses. Yet research published earlier this year by the ERC (carried out before the pandemic) found many small firms struggle to identify their most potent future threats and when crisis hits, most have no contingency plans, resorting to depleting their financial resources to… Read more
Published today the GEMUK 2019 report sponsored by NatWest shows UK early-stage entrepreneurship hit a new pre-pandemic high in 2019. However, this may be in jeopardy because of the effects of the crisis combined with significant gaps in support for people in the early stages of enterprise formation. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) research consortium… Read more
Thousands of businesses across England will remain shuttered today as the new month-long coronavirus lockdown takes effect. Citing new scientific evidence showing an expected surge in cases nationwide over the coming weeks, the Government finally bowed to pressure and abandoned its previous regional tiering strategy last weekend. Critics argue that a sharp ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown… Read more
