Location: ExCel London

Date: 13th – 16th November 2012

Europe’s largest ever entrepreneurial conference with keynotes from President Bill Clinton.

For further details visit: www.entrepreneurs2012.co.uk

Name

Dates: October 18-19, 2012

City: Kiev, Ukraine

Venue: Acco International Exhibition Hall: 40-B Peremohy Ave

URL: http://idcee.org

About:

IDCEE 2012. Internet Technologies and Innovations is the premier international conference for Internet entrepreneurs, VCs and angel investors in the CEE region with emphasis on the CIS countries. IDCEE is in the TOP-5 European conferences related to Internet technologies and entrepreneurship. This year the Conference will be having its third international edition and will take place on October 18-19 in Kiev, Ukraine.

To get a ticket to IDCEE 2012, please go to our web site.

Social Enterprise Africa is about tackling social problems and improving communities and people’s life chances. Its mission is to see that:

• At least one child in every village in Africa is educated to a good standard and trained to be an ethical change maker with good links to the outside world and the means to communicate with them.
• These children grow up with the means to eliminate poverty through social enterprise and minimize the chance of famine through planning and good management.
• The abuse of children’s and women’s rights in rural Africa is removed through raising awareness of international standards amongst these children.

If you would like to know more about the work of Social Enterprise Africa, please visit
http://www.socialenterpriseafrica.org/back2seasch.html

According to the Forum of Private Business, which runs the Get Britain Trading campaign, 2012 presents an ideal opportunity to raise the awareness of the major contribution that small firms make to the UK economy.

The Forum also seeks support from the Government to help small businesses to buy and sell more profitably on a local, national and international basis.

Now the Get Britain Trading campaign is inviting you to share your fears, hopes and expectations for 2012.  The results will be published during the early part of the year.

If you are interested getting involved in the Get Britain Trading campaign, more information can be found on www.getbritaintrading.co.uk

Manufacturing companies reported their most positive quarter for home sales since Q1 2008 and for exports since Q2 2008.

Nevertheless, manufacturers were far less confident about investment and the likelihood of creating employment, suggesting these businesses, like many are keep a very tight rein on expenditure.

The service sector performed worse than manufacturing on all measures in the BCC survey, including domestic market sales and orders, employment and investment.

David Frost, director-general of the BCC commented:

Businesses are showing resilience despite difficult and uncertain trading conditions. Confidence is improving, and the boost in exports must be nurtured in order to strengthen Britain’s trade position globally, and to help rebalance the economy away from an over-reliance on the public sector.

Positive signs are definitely present, but many are still concerned that green shoots may be stunted by the early frost of a double-dip recession.

David Kern, chief economist at the BCC, is one of those and points out that:

With current pressures on capacity modest, and price pressures muted, the Monetary Policy Committee can afford to maintain an expansionary stance, so as to reduce the risk of a double-dip recession.

Looks like we won’t be seeing the end of the Bank of England’s welcomed, quantitative easing any time soon.

[Picture credit: James Cridland licenced from Flickr]

This comes as youth unemployment is acknowledged to be at its highest level in several generations.

The Backing Young Britain campaign has clearly been set up to address this issue, but also provides small businesses an opportunity to access young people as interns, to offer apprenticeships and to explore other ways of developing the skills of 16-24 year olds.

Earlier surveys have shown that many employers are in the dark about the government’s apprenticeship schemes and take up has been criticised.

Indeed the Backing Young Britain website itself reveals that only 418 organisations have so far taken advantage of the schemes the campaign is promoting.

It’s interesting that Yvette Cooper has agreed to take part in a webcast and continues to demonstrate how increasingly important a digital strategy is to government.

What will be more interesting, however, is which questions are answered and which are not.

Unlike face-to-face briefings where the ability to ask questions is inevitably limited by time, online events such as these are likely to generate many more questions.  In this case time mitigates against answering them all during the webcast.

This type of engagement is a good idea, but we’d like to see a commitment from the DWP and BIS that all questions asked whether via the website or live on the day, will receive an answer.

The Forum of Private Business (FPB) which came up with the £230 million figure to illustrate the impact of bad weather on small businesses, used GDP data, AA breakdown statistics and the estimated cost to retailers in lost sales for its calculations.

Tom Parry of the business group said:

Employees make businesses grow and losing key staff because of the weather, even for just a day, is very damaging, particularly in the current economic climate.

Nevertheless, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) suggests today that many small businesses are coping well with the snow, having established contingency plans.

In a survey by the organisation and Sky, 61% of small businesses said only one in 10 staff were absent from work over the last few days. Two thirds had made arrangements for employees to work from home.

Adam Marshall of the BCC said:

Even though three-quarters of businesses say their activities are being disrupted, they are also reporting relatively few absences, and high numbers of staff working from home. Taken together, business flexibility and employee diligence will limit the economic impact of the latest cold snap

Meanwhile Business Link is pointing small firms to free advice on how to handle crises, including bad weather disruption.

[Picture credit: TinyFizzyPop licenced from Flickr]

Some of you will remember the series of blog posts on SmallBizPod from Rowena Mead about her journey to design and market a new children’s toothbrush.

Her fortunes were mixed, but it’s exactly this kind of idea that the new BBC series is hoping to discover.

Thanks to Theo’s contacts, inventors will be able to get their products in front of some of the most influential retail buyers on the high street.

What’s not clear at this stage is whether the series is going to take a car crash TV approach to innovation, allowing no-hopers in for a laugh, or whether it’ll be a more serious look at bringing new products to the mass market.

Anyone interested in pitching their product for the show should contact the production company Maverick Television on 0207 874 6617 or highstreet@mavericktv.co.uk.

[Picture courtesy of Smarta]

Sam and Harry walked away with the award for most original business concept.

Others highlighted include Daniel Ox of Fruit for the Office who transformed his family-run stall into an online e-commerce platform delivering fresh fruit and veg to office workers.  Daniel won young entrepreneur of the year.

The award for best female entrepreneur went to Sara Murray of Buddi the globally successful business Buddi which manufactures small GPS personal trackers, while best male entrepreneur went to Mitesh Soma of Chemist Direct who we’ve already featured here at SmallBizPod.

More details of the exhibition and the awards, run by BT Business can be found here.

The research carried out for BT Business among over 1,286 mums found that 15% had already started their own business, while one in 10 aspired to do the same.

Flexibility in terms of working hours is seen as an advantage by aspiring small business mums, a third of whom would choose their living room, spare bedroom or kitchen as the preferred place to get their startups off the ground.

Home-based businesses like these have been a growing phenomenon over the last few years.

Broadband and relatively low entry costs have made setting up a micro-business to bring in some extra cash a possibility for many.

The recession has made a virtue out of necessity.

While all this small business activity is to be welcomed, it’ll be interesting to see whether a greater number of female owned enterprises will scale during this decade to demonstrate their true entrepreneurial potential.

[Picture credit: Wayne – Amethyst Photography, licenced from Flickr]

The main theme of the PBR was to balance investment in key areas, while trying to redress the spiralling national debt.

But Shadow Chancellor George Osborne called it a pre-election, rather than a pre-budget report, claiming the government had skipped making really hard decisions on cuts.

Meanwhile, Vince Cable of the Lib Dems, with a typically pithy put-down called it a ‘good budget for bingo and boilers’ referring to announcements for a boiler scrappage scheme and a cut in duty on bingo.

But as predicted last week, the Christmas cheer is in short supply for small businesses who, while benefiting in some areas, were also hit with a tax on jobs.

VAT Up

Small business groups had argued for VAT staying at 15%, but the Chancellor confirmed it would rise back to 17.5% from 1 January 2010.

And his phrase ‘I have no other changes to VAT to announce’ sounded good for now, but possibly bad news down the road. Definitely keeping his options open.

Tax

Perhaps the biggest single benefit to small businesses is the deferral of any increase in the rate of corporation tax for SMEs. More time to pay the tax man will also help.

• The proposed rise in corporation tax from 21% to 22% for 2010 will not now take place until 2011 at the earliest, benefiting up to 850,000 small businesses to the tune of £500 million.
• 2010 will see an extension of the Business Payment Support Service scheme which allows businesses to defer paying corporation tax and VAT, although some have argued this could lead to a ticking timebomb of repayment further down the line.

A Tax On Jobs?

National Insurance Contributions are a big issue for small businesses trying to grow, boost jobs and support the rebuilding of the economy. In the biggest blow of the PBR for small businesses, the Chancellor chose to increase this tax on jobs.

• National Insurance contributions for employers, employees and the self-employed will rise by a further 0.5% from April 2011, apparently yielding the Treasury £3 billion a year in additional tax revenue to go towards schools, policing and hospitals.

CBI Director General, Richard Lambert, says:

The Chancellor has made a serious mistake imposing an extra jobs tax at a time when the economic recovery will still be fragile. Increasing the National Insurance contribution will hold back job creation and growth.

Green, Clean & Innovative Win

Businesses in the green, clean and innovation sectors receive some beneficial incentives.

• £160 million in private and public loans will be made available for companies investing in clean and low carbon technologies.
• Corporation tax will fall to 10p for companies profiting from UK developed patents.
• £90 million will be diverted from the European Investment Bank’s 2020 fund to support green infrastructure projects.

Small business lending

The whole issue of bank lending to SMEs was left rather vague. The Chancellor again said he’d be working with banks to ensure more lending got to smaller businesses who needed it.

But there was little more detail than that, other than the extension of the controversial Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG), where the 2009/10 budget of £1.2 billion was more than halved to £500 million for 2010/11.

Only a little over £600 million in guarantees of the original EFG allocation have been provided to just 6,000 firms so far.

One could argue that the ‘extra’ £500 million will simply come from the shortfall left at the end of March from the original £1.2 billion, thereby representing no additional money made available.

John Wright, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses puts it astutely:

The Government has missed a chance to really tackle a difficult credit market by failing to create more options for access to finance, and more competition among high street banks.

For a handy practical guide from SmallBizPod’s very own accountant, head over to:

http://www.jamesesmith.co.uk/prebudget2009.htm

Although 27% had seen a fall in sales, the resulting balance at +13% reveals a second month of growing confidence and the highest balance since November 2007.

The majority of retailers are also expecting Christmas sales to be better this year than last.

Andy Clarke, ceo of Asda said:

A lot of retailers have suffered during 2009, and many are relieved that the year is ending on a more positive note.

But could the forthcoming January VAT increase be in part responsible for the boost in pre-Christmas trade?

Richard Lowe of Barclays thinks this may well be having an impact:

Carefully considering the New Year’s forthcoming VAT increase, Christmas shoppers may be looking to purchase big-ticket items for themselves as well as the traditional items on their gift lists.

Despite this, more positive signs on the high street can only be good news.

It will be interesting to see how up-beat the mood remains and to read the like-for-like sales figures from retailers in the New Year.

[Photo credit: tboard licenced from Flickr]

Gerber talks passionately about systematising your business, the mistakes that many small business owners and startups make when they set out, and how to build a business that works for you, rather than always having to work for the business.

If you’ve ever read any of his books, you’ll know he’s a huge fan of McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc.

Although not every business wants or needs to follow a franchise route, the lessons from Kroc and Gerber are invaluable to many a business novice or veteran alike.

We’re pleased to be able to offer SmallBizPod readers and listeners 15% off tickets for the event. Click on the link below and enter the code SBP and you’re sorted.

Michael Gerber London 8th December.

On average businesses took 20.99 days beyond the agreed payment terms to settle bills during October, compared to 21.5 in September and 23.2 a year ago.

The research from Experian also highlights that medium sized firms were the fastest at paying their bills and saw a 16% improvement in the speed in which they paid suppliers.

The best year-on-year improvement came from the IT sector, while the postal and telecommunications sector was the biggest late payment culprit.

Earlier this month the Forum of Private Business (FPB) found huge differences in the speed with which local councils paid their suppliers.

The government has set a 10 day target for the public sector to settle invoices.

The FPB found that some local authorities were paying more than 90% of their bills in ten days or less, while others were completely oblivious to the target. Very much a postcode lottery.

What’s your experience of this issue been? If you’re seeing signs of customers paying more promptly or otherwise, then leave a comment below.

[Picture credit: mao_lini licenced from Flickr]

The Fast Growth Business Awards

First off, if your business is expanding, has had £1 million plus turnover in the year to end December 2009 and has fewer than 500 employees, then the Fast Growth Business Awards are for you.

The panel of judges includes online Dragon, Julie Meyer, and King of Shaves entrepreneur Will King. Categories to enter include Young Entrepreneur of the Year, Social Enterprise of the Year and Family Business of the Year.

Further details on how to enter the awards can be found here. Closing date 22nd January 2010.

The Smarta 100

Dragon Deborah Meaden, Bebo Founder Michael Birch and our friends at Smarta.com are seeking the UK’s smartest businesses to be recognised in the inaugural Smarta 100 list.

Any business doing something unique, disruptive, innovative or making a special contribution to their local communities can enter.

Your business must be privately owned in the UK employing fewer than 50 people. The smartest 100 will be announced during February, so get your entries in now.

Manufacturing Excellence Awards

If you run a manufacturing business, then these awards held by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers are for you.

Recognising the very best in British manufacturing, categories include awards for customer focus, small to medium-sized business of the year, sustainable manufacturing and process innovation.

Entries can be submitted online. Closing date 31 January 2010.

[Picture credit: notsogoodphotography licenced from Flickr]

This type of self-catering accommodation, representing 60,000 small businesses, therefore attracts tax breaks.

Under the new tax regime which comes into force in April 2010, holiday cottages will cease to be considered trading businesses and owners will be classed as residential landlords.

81% of self-catering firms surveyed by the FSB said the change in their tax status would threaten their financial viability.

A similar number said they would not be able to take on more staff as a result.

John Wright, chairman of the FSB, said:

Small firms know they are crucial to pulling the economy out of recession and on to the road to recovery, but they need the Government to create a tax-friendly environment to do so.

The tourism sector is always fragile when the economy is weak, so the new tax regime seems particularly harsh.

Definitely time to get behind the FSB’s ‘Give us a Break’ campaign.

[Picture credit: Justin Beckley licenced from Flickr]

RunMarketing include guides to blogging, podcasting, search engine optimisation, writing press releases, using Twitter for business, building effective websites, briefing a PR agency and more.

If you’ve ever read any of Chris’s contributions here on SmallBizPod, you’ll know how accessible and practical his advice is.

He says he was:

“… inspired to establish RunMarketing by the number of start-ups that I’ve witnessed that have had a great idea for a business but just don’t necessarily know how to best spread the word.”

For many a startup the value and insight available online these days, means doing your own marketing and PR is a reality.

In fact when it comes to PR in particular in our experience many journalists would most often prefer to talk to founders and small business owners themselves, rather than an intermediary.

Congratulations to Chris and do check out RunMarketing, if you get a chance.

[Picture credit: gregoryjameswalsh licenced from Flickr]

Other inflationary pressures on the CPI came from the recreation and culture sector, largely down to a rise in the price of toys, games and recording media like CDs and DVDs.

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) while remaining in deflationary territory also saw a large upturn rising from -1.4% in September to -0.8% in October 2009.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, has previously warned that following increases in inflation like those recorded this month:

… legitimate worries over medium-term inflation risks do not become the trigger for an unduly early withdrawal of the quantitative easing programme.

Many economists feel that although inflation may rise in the short-to-medium term, the economy could still be threatened by deflationary forces, if recovery from the recession proves fragile.

[Picture credit: lauriemcnelli1004evar licenced from Flickr]

In true Dragon’s Den style each of the six start-ups pitched live for three minutes and were subject to a seven minute grilling by the judges.

The companies pitching included David Webb and David Wright, co-founders of Super Mouth, an energy gum, Kenneth Cheung of BeeCycle, Craig Smith of The Printed Bag Shop, Tom Warrender of Get Set Schools, Anthony Lau of Cyclehoop and wildcard winner Jennifer Twigs of Lily Pins.

In a polished pitch, Anthony Lau was clear on his numbers, his projected profits and most importantly had significant orders from Councils around the UK.

All this appeared to impress the judges who had their questions answered adeptly and really had little to say to fluster the young entrepreneur.

Anthony recognised that many local authorities are promoting environmennal and health benefits of cycling, but cost-effective cycle parking is seriously lacking – Cyclehoop was born.

His innovative solution is an instant cycle rack that clips on to existing street furniture like sign-posts and street lamps.

A well spotted entrepreneurial opportunity and a well deserved win. Good call judges.

Congratulations to the overall startup of the year, Three Sixty Entertainment, and to all the other category winners and finalists.

Green Business of the Year: Shiply.com

Online Business of the Year: Wonga

Product of the Year: trueCall

Business Plan of the Year: Get Set Schools

Service Business of the Year: The Pathology Group

Adversity Business of the Year: Mobility Buy

Innovative Business of the Year: Three Sixty Entertainment

Social Enterprise of the Year: Goodwill Solutions CIC

Women in Business: Natasha Courtenay-Smith – Talk To The Press

Silver Fox Award: Go Sustainable – Franz Hutcheson

Best Use of Technology: JAOtech

A good crop of startups.  Congratulations to one and all.

The Orange Leader of the Year
Winner: Peter Marks

The 3i Private Business of the Year
Winner: T J Morris

The Coutts & Co Large-Cap Business of the Year
Winner: Inmarsat

The Grant Thornton Mid-Cap Business of the Year
Winner: ASOS

The Daily Telegraph Decade of Excellence Award
Winner: Sir Philip Hampton

The Better Regulation Award
Winner: Environment Agency

The Award goes to the organisation that is making the biggest difference by helping businesses comply with the law as simply as possible, delivering better outcomes and creating a more effective operating environment for UK businesses through better regulation practices.

The Customer Focus Award
Winner: DPD

This Award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate that it has the customer at the heart of its business and deploys and manages its resources to most effectively meet the needs of its customer base.

The Employer of the Year Award
Winner: Cirrus Communication Systems

This Award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate how, through well-adopted company values, the provision of stimulating and supportive workplaces and the active development of all employees it has applied its human and supporting resources to achieve commercial success.

The Entrepreneur of the Year Award
Winner: Sarah Murray of buddi

This Award will go to the outstanding individual who can best demonstrate exceptional vision and leadership in the establishment and development of an owner-led business.

The Business Link Growth Strategy of the Year Award
Winner: dotDigital Group

This Award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate an organic growth strategy (rather than merger & acquisition activity) that has achieved outstanding levels of sales, profit and market share improvement.

The Health Work and Wellbeing Award
Winner: Crown Spa Hotel

This award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate how it has improved the health and wellbeing of its workforce to the benefit of the organisation.

The ICAEW Corporate Responsibility Award
Winner: Framptons

This award will go to the organisation that can best demonstrate a company-wide commitment to Corporate Responsibility.

The IMechE Business Innovation of the Year Award
Winner: Addison Lee

This Award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate a proven ability to create, nurture, and develop innovations or processes that substantially improve the commercial performance or prospects of the company.

The Marketing Strategy of the Year Award
Winner: HM Revenue & Customs

This Award is made for a specific marketing campaign that has achieved high levels of commercial success for the relevant product or service.

The Orange Best Use of Technology in Business Award
Winner: Forensic Pathways & Cambridge Constabulary

This Award goes to the organisation that can best demonstrate that it has effectively used business technology to create a significant and exploitable competitive or operational advantage in any business area including revenue, improved quality and/or customer convenience.

The Santander Small to Medium Sized Business of the Year Award
Winner: Go Ape!

Open to organisations with less than £10 million turnover in their last financial year, this Award goes to the company that best demonstrates significant growth and innovation in its market sector, under-pinned by strong financial performance.

This compares to just over 32% of women who anticipate similar growth over the same period.

Debbie Griffiths of Deloitte says:

Expectations amongst women entrepreneurs are relatively guarded at this point, a sentiment that is only heightened when compared with the confidence displayed of their male counterparts.

When it comes to how growth is likely to be achieved, men and women also differ significantly.

Female business owners say entry into new markets (32%) and increased productivity (29%) will be the key drivers to boost business over the next few years.

Male entrepreneurs consider these areas less important (20% and 17% respectively).

Optimism is a byword for entrepreneurship, but hard-nosed realism is a must too.

The question is are women less confident in the prospects for their business, or are they simply avoiding the bravado of the alpha-male to look at the commercial climate with realistic eyes?

[Picture credit: Dyanna licenced from Flickr]

All business sectors and all regions of the UK have seen a slowing in the number of businesses closing their doors during June-September of this year.

Wales and the North East have seen the failure rate fall by 25% quarter-on-quarter, while the wholesale sector has performed the best with closures falling by 19.4%.

All of this, of course, doesn’t hide the fact that thousands of SMEs are going bust every month. Nevertheless, Neil Munroe of Equifax believes its latest data do offer some cause for cautious optimism:

… this must give businesses in general and the UK economy as a whole some confidence that the extreme difficulties we have been experiencing may be lessening … [but] it is crucial that these early signs of recovery are not over-stated.

A realistic approach continues to be paramount. Many businesses will have cut to survive.

Over the next six months, the real test of whether the worst of business closures is over, will be signs of a recovery in demand, sales and profitability.

Quite apart from the impact on sterling, a period of zero inflation or even deflation looks quite possible.

The Retail Prices Index (RPI) still languishes in negative territory, also having fallen in September by 0.1% to 1.4%.

Gas and electricity prices were the major contributor to the downturn in inflation with prices unchanged month-on-month, but not increasing as they did a year ago when tariffs went up.

Other areas dampening inflation were food and drink, restaurants and hotels and recreation and media sectors where the price of DVDs and to a lesser extent games and toys increased by less than a year ago.

David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce, said of the latest figures:

Given the threats facing the economy, this allows the MPC to provide additional stimulus without fear of a short-term upsurge in inflation.

Quantitative easing by the Bank of England may not have filtered through into the system according to many economists.

Meanwhile businesses importing goods will find the effects of low inflation making conditions tough as sterling continues to fall against the Euro in particular.

What is uncertain is whether the Bank of England pumping money into the economy will have the desired effect or not.

SmallBizPod spoke earlier in the week to renowned economist Roger Bootle who believes deflation could still represent a very real threat to the UK economy in much the same way it did to Japan during that country’s ‘lost decade’.

[Picture credit: timparkinson licenced from Flickr]

Nearly a third of UK businesses have fallen victim to fraud and 1 in 3 employees say they simply throw sensitive documents into normal rubbish bins, rather than waste baskets destined for shredding or secure disposal.

National Identify Fraud Prevention Week (NIDFPW) is designed to raise awareness of issues around ID theft for businesses and consumers alike and is backed by government, police, public sector and private businesses.

According to one company behind the scheme, which sells shredders (unsurprisingly!), 79% of small businesses make no effort to destroy sensitive documents bound for landfill or recycling.

To help raise awareness among businesses and to offer practical advice and tips, NIDFPW has launched a new ID fraud prevention website.

With banks and government agencies all failing to protect data in some high profile cases over the last 18 month, the site could well prove a useful resource for businesses large and small.

[Picture credit: Peat Bakke licenced from Flickr]

This year’s awards highlight four main categories, ‘Home Business of the Year’, ‘Home Business Couple of the Year’, ‘Home Office of the Year’, ‘Young Home Business Owner of the Year’.

A new category introduced in 2009 focuses on everyone building a business from home in their spare time – the so-called 5 to 9ers.

Winners will be announced at the Enterprise Nation Conference on Home Enterprise Day on Friday 20th November.

The deadline for Home Business Awards entries is Friday 6th November.

Some £2.7 billion has already been deferred up until June this year, according to official figures.

Of that total £1.1 billion is now up for repayment, although 33,000 repeat arrangements have already been agreed amounting to £440 million.

On top of these figures, business debt owed to HMRC has risen enormously from £2.7 billion to over £27 billion over the last 12 months.

Some, including business restructuring specialists, MCR, are concerned that with the possibility of smaller businesses finding times tough, even if we emerge from a ‘technical recession’, the building up of tax owed could aggravate the very cash flow situation the Business Payment Support Service was set up to ease.

Steve Clancy, partner at MCR, said:

… the growing numbers of cash strapped companies that have put off paying taxes are at risk of insolvency because of this. Increases could start as soon as the end of the year as, despite the scheme still being available, we have seen HMRC tighten up on the procedure considerably since August 2009.

[Picture credit: Andy Beez licenced from Flickr]

The end of the recession is nigh, but the CBI warns that consumer and business demand is likely to remain stifled, making recovery in 2010 somewhat tentative.

The reintroduction of a 17.5% VAT rate in January 2010 will prompt consumers to rush out and buy ahead of the Christmas holiday period, but will see growth fall back in Q1 and Q2 to little more than 0.1%, says the lobby group for British business.

CBI director general, Richard Lambert, said:

The outlook is improving as the UK draws strength from quantitative easing, a weak pound and a recovering global economy. Although growth this quarter should mark the end of the recession, conditions in the UK will remain tough for some time yet, and it is difficult to see where demand growth will come from.

Business investment has seen its greatest fall in 40 years during 2009 and economists predict the situation will only gradually improve during 2010.

Add to this a ‘debt correction’ among consumers who are unlikely to want to splash the cash in the way they did when credit was easy, and you have a recipe for a very different economic landscape over the next few years.

This kind of economic adjustment was inevitable. Most businesses will already be planning for more subdued demand.

[Picture credit: DavetheGrey licenced from Flickr]

This is 23% lower than the figures for July 2009 and the smallest increase since September 2008, almost a year ago.

But just as entering a recession was unclear for some time, so exiting a recession is certainly not black and white.

The overall stock of new businesses has continued to rise and Experian believes this may mask the real impact on business closures of the greatest global downturn since the end of WWII.

The number of firms on the brink has also decreased slightly with Experian reporting that its ‘distress’ score (the number likely to close soon) has also improved to be at its most robust since August last year.

The jury’s still out on how devastating this recession is likely to be in terms of jobs and business closures. Both tend to be known, notoriously, as ‘lagging indicators’.

Just in raw numbers alone, the number of business closures is already on a par with the total for the last major recession in the early nineties.

[Picture credit: mycuteladybug licenced from Flickr]

The first £250,000 to £1 million of the Ariadne Capital Entrepreneurs Fund (ACE Fund) will target ‘game-changing’ businesses – those investors consider to have disruptive technology, business models or market vision.

As well as Julie Meyer herself, backers of the fund include un-named investors from the London Private Equity world and the following entrepreneurs:

• David Rowe, founder of EasyNet
• Marc Worth, founder of WGSN
• Rob Hersov, founder of Marquis Jet Europe
• Michael Jackson, former Chairman of Sage, Partygaming and Access Intelligence, Founder of Elderstreet
• Simon Capreis, gaming and betting private investor
• Gerard Bonnevay, Board Director of Success Europe, Former Board Director of Credit Agricole and founder of Celimage

On announcing the fund this morning, Meyer said:

Ariadne Capital has developed a model whereby we bring the gutsiest entrepreneurs into our portfolio, and advise them effectively on the Go to Market, the Board alignment, Corporate Structure and High Growth Management. Our new ACE Fund helps us to take that expertise to the next level.

The ACE Fund launch follows a similar fund, ProFounders Capital, announced by Lastminute.com founder Brent Hoberman and Bebo founder, Michael Birch, earlier this summer which plans to offer £30 million to early stage web/technology businesses.

The ‘entrepreneurs funding entrepreneurs’ sector seems to be very active at the moment in the UK. Perhaps a sign of the times.

Definitely an interesting bridge between angel and VC funding proper.