Some business news you might have missed
Record growth, unhappy energy and why wonga works in mysterious ways Record growth in May The CBI says economic growth in May was the highest since it began recording data…
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Business News
Cameron asks tax havens for transparency
David Cameron has written to UK tax havens (places like Jersey, the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands) about revealing the details of who owns the thousands of companies registered…
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Ridiculously Long Terms and Conditions
There's been talk in the office today about unwieldy terms and conditions. How long is too long? According to research conducted for Fairer Finance, some banks and car insurers…
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Floods cost SMEs £831 million
More rain to come? The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) says that the average cost of the floods to an SME was £1,531. That comes to £831 million in total.…
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HMRC wants SMEs to use simpler accounting
If you're a sole trader or unincorporated business with an annual income of less than £79k, HMRC wants you to use its simplified 'cash basis' scheme, where you're just taxed…
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Doin’ it for themselves
Women are getting ahead of men to set up shop on the high street According to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), women are at the head of half of…
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SME sick leave increasing
Are we unhealthy or unhappy? According to research from the Close Brothers Business Barometer, a quarter of SMEs say that sick leave has got worse in the last 12 months…
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The Stationery Orchestra
Artist Naomi Kashiwagi encourages people to make music using office supplies. She describes the Stationery Orchestra as 'an inter/cross-generational project that enables people... to tune into cranked up stationery sounds…
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Deadline for online tax returns
The deadline for filing your tax return online is 31 January 2012; the deadline for paper versions passed on October 31. If you are filing your return online for the…
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The UK spent 3.4 billion hours online in August
What would that look like distilled into one hour? Experian Hitwise reckon they can tell us. To give you some idea of the numbers, the social media part of the…
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What’s Apple’s core?
An insightful article about the high-tech company reveals simple management ideas that small businesses, in any market, could copy. It may seem a bit weird trying to take lessons from…
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Not taking advantage of online? Say goodbye to £500m
Retailers could be losing out on big bucks by not making the best use of their online presence, according to a new report. Clearly, just being online isn't enough anymore.…
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Broadband’s worst named and shamed
There has been a 10 per cent increase (over six months!). But Ofcom says “the gap between actual speeds and advertised (‘up to’) speeds has also increased”. So it’s one…
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How to lose ₤3.3 billion from your accounts
Of ₤153.6bn paid out in the 2010-11 financial year by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), overpayments were an estimated ₤3.3 billion, according to the National Audit Office (NAO)…
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Which country works hardest?
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has produced a report called 'Society at a Glance' that covers social trends in 29 countries, including how many hours people spend…
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FSB worries about Project Merlin
In a previous Euroffice blog post, we wondered whether the banks would sign up to Project Merlin, a scheme where £190bn of bank loans would be available to businesses. Now…
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Taxman searching for missing squillions
The taxman collected ₤435 billion tax in 2009-10 but there should have been another ₤45 billion showing on his pocket calculator, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). Watchdog NAO…
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Swine flu is back – are you geared up?
“Coughs and sneezes spread diseases” - kill the flu bug! Office supplies offer you two of the best ways to kill the flu bug… lots of tissues and wipes around…
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Singapore is Shangri-La for businesses
Singapore is Shangri-La for businesses According to a World Bank report, Singapore remains the best country in which to run a business. Singapore came first on the World Bank's 'Doing…
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Are you sick of having fun?
There's a cool article on The Economist website about how companies are trying to get their employees to have fun; it's all part of corporate strategy to increase happiness (i.e.…
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Spread your wings: export and survive
Small firms are pinning their hopes on foreign markets to improve sales and see fewer opportunities for growth in the UK. The latest Business in Britain Confidence Index from Lloyds…
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Videogame head honcho on ignoring consumers
Peter Moore is head of videogame company Electronic Arts' (EA) sport division – that means he has overall responsibility for the FIFA videogames, as well as titles for American football,…
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BT caught in speed trap!
BT has attracted a speeding ban for going too slow. As you know Euroffice has been on this case for some time, where broadband companies claim they go faster than…
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Coals to Newcastle, beer to China?
According to Credit Suisses's 'World Map of Beer' (as shown in The Economist), beer drinking in China is growing by almost 10% a year. However, profits are apparently quite slim…
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Double-dipping into uncertainty
The results of the 'are we heading for double-dip recession?' poll are in. As is befitting for the national state of unease, your highest answer is a resounding maybe. 58%…
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Cherry-picking your bank?
Retail banks are now making less profit on average per customer since the start of the financial crisis, as price-sensitive consumers shop around for the best deals. The report contract…
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More people chase fewer jobs
There are fewer new jobs on the market than there were three months ago, and this slowdown began before the 600,000 job cuts announced by the government. That's the conclusion…
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How not to handle a question from the public
A few days ago we posted a story about how BP was supposedly buying search terms on Google and Yahoo, so that people looking for 'oil slick' would see the…
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Imagine the whole of Leeds sacked and on the dole!
Leeds has an estimated population of 708,000. That's almost the 725,000 public sector jobs which could be axed over the next five years according to a warning from the Chartered…
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BP buying up ‘oil spill’ on search engines?
Apparently, BP has bought the search term 'oil spill' on Google and Yahoo, so that the company is the first link to appear when the words are searched for. I…
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