Credit conditions for thousands of small business are getting worse not better, according to the Bank of England, which has pumped £125bn into the economy to mitigate the effects of recession. But its quantitative easing programme has done little to stimulate lending to firms, which dropped £1.1bn in four weeks to £7.9bn a month. Firms [...]

Small businesses facing the squeeze are being helped to ride out the recession with the help of interest free loans aimed at slashing their energy consumption Jeff Greenall’s family-run Cavan Bakery in Hampton Hill, south-west London, has cut its energy bills by 75% thanks to a loan of £31,000 from the Carbon Trust. Greenall used [...]

Fast food is doing well out of the recession, as people abandon expensive dining in favour of cheaper options If you want to set up in the fastfood or coffee shop business, getting in with a franchise is certainly easier than setting up alone. Many well-known High Street names are franchises, so you start with [...]

The NatWest Everywoman awards celebrate female entrepreneurs, in particular those who have overcome personal and financial difficulties. So what has winning meant to previous contestants? Former beauty salon owner Sandra McClumpha, from Bothwell, near Glasgow, won the Athena award in 2006. Sandra’s business began after she came across Fake Bake, a successful American self-tanning lotion. [...]

With bank finance still hard to come by, smaller businesses have been flocking to Dragons’ Den-style ‘business angels’ But the increased demand has led to a shortage of investors, say experts. The British Business Angels Association has seen a 40% to 50% increase in demand for finance from small firms since the banking crisis reached [...]

With school-leavers and graduates facing the toughest jobs market for nearly 20 years this summer, small firms are being urged to help them Barely a fifth of employers plan to hire post-GCSE school leavers over the next three months, while just a third intend to recruit A-level students, according to a survey by the Chartered [...]

With more than 11m children in the UK, businesses offering childcare and children’s activities can be lucrative Many of them are franchises, and they particularly appeal to parents. Nigel Toplis, who runs the children’s activity franchise ComputerXplorers, says: ‘Franchises which are childrenbased often offer the opportunity to work from home. So you can fit the [...]

Owners are facing up to a growing threat of fraud and theft committed by their own staff Research by the accountancy group, BDO Stoy Hayward, shows that reported fraud for 2008 hit £1.19bn, up 14% on the year before. Alongside larger corporate frauds, petty theft within businesses is rising as some staff feel the recession [...]