Big business is the big winner here, tying up lucrative mass mailing contracts with
companies who will print, batch and pre-sort prior to handing-off to Royal Mail to deliver.

More worryingly too are predictions that the Royal Mail’s own viability is under threat due to ‘cherry picking’ of more profitable post. It is clear that something can only be done cheaper when there is greater margin to be cut – but this ignores the cross-subsidy effect.

The big winners claim they have guaranteed quality and consistency of distribution through the involvement of value-add third parties.

This ‘win’ itself could jeopardise the Royal Mail’s ability to make daily deliveries to every household in the UK; who benefits from that?

O2 has recognised the need to get sensible and is rolling out a white-label BT wholesale product rather than attempting to unbundle 5,500 exchanges.

The service starts at £15 per month [ex-VAT] for existing customers; new-comers get to pay £5 more.  

As well as the 24/7 UK support – from Glasgow and Leeds – SME customers will get unlimited downloads and only pay for the line speed their exchange can handle.

When added to annual holiday entitlement this means key decision makers are in only limited contact with their firm for 2 months out of 12.

The survey of 540 companies found, not surprisingly then,  that 72% felt mobile communications were business-critical, yet nearly half of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with their communications contracts.

77% of firms did not have flexible agreements in place and relied on outdated bundles of minutes and text when their needs had moved on. 

With collaboration being the name of the game, requirements for data-sharing, email and mobile Internet had not yet been factored in to most contracts. A quarter of firms had not reviewed their options in over a year. 

Construction and service sectors have felt the slow down the most. Manufacturing output levels remained stable with exporters less affected; growth in exports had slowed.

Both input and output prices have risen significantly to reflect raw material costs and maintenance of margins.

Service industries show the biggest reduction in recruitment – although previous under capacity in this sector is softening concerns.

Increases in consumer inflation are, as predicted, putting pressure on pay settlements – but the impact of this is yet to feed through to the economy in any significant measure. 

The key benefit of being employed by a smaller company is that of not having to tackle
layers of bureaucracy and self-concerned management to get thoughts heard and hopefully, get the rightful recognition for the results.

Smaller businesses do carry higher levels of risk when it comes to job security and stability of the working environment – but the rewards are there too.

But of course if your ideas happen to be complete pants then there is nowhere to hide…but at least you get your day in the sun.

But having a successful, recognisable brand that is remembered, can allow SMEs to start punching above their weight.

This is the mantra set out by Darren Evans, creative director of The Engine Room. His formula for success – endorsed by the Design Council for SME work – follows these
key tenets:

• Strong Brand Perception [JFK noted perception was more important than reality 50 years back]
• Differentiate your company and product and communicate it; compete on price and you will lose.
• Design should resonate with your brand values; it influences people’s views
• Communicate with your customers before someone else does
• Brand delivers consistency of approach and links different business strands
• The Brand and the goodwill that goes with it, makes the business hot property and marketable
• On average, design will leverage 6.3% business growth
• 84% of businesses view design as key to maintaining an edge

What are you waiting for?

In his speech to the UK Technology Innovation and Growth forum, he said “We must unlock the talent and become an innovation nation.”

In becoming a cradle of invention UK business needs to tap into the great ideas that come out of the university system – renowned for strength in depth in the R&D field.

Colin Tenwick, CEO of software firm StepStone, expressed the problem as being one of how risk averse UK companies become once they move beyond the start-up phase and saw this as “Fundamentally different to what happens in the US.”

The minister said some of the solution lay in improving access to venture capital. 

Like all good comedy, the secret is timing.

In today’s bleak economic outlook its ever more important to get your message to your customers as cost-effectively as possible – and get the returns you need.

Fortunately for those on a tighter budget or just of a tighter nature, businesszone.co.uk has set out a thirty-point plan for marketing on the cheap – sounds like the holy grail doesn’t it? But if you’re reading this you are half way there.

A large lump of the trick is to jump feet-first into the outstandingly cheap media available: social networks like Facebook; promote your moving image ads through YouTube and the like; blog about your business and it’s wares to keep web pages fresh and up to date.

Online surveys, polls, campaigns and competitions can easily by installed on your website and are firm favourites with the punters. Loyalty cards or on-line points collection equivalents are also traditional but effective hooks for your business to get that all-important repeat/return business. Get feedback from customers and publish that too.

To use the marketing cliche it’s all about more bangs for your buck; or was that Eliot Spitzer?

Or maybe he just tried not to hack them all off, either way the budget news went down well. The fly in the ointment was the deferral of the 2p rise in fuel costs which all would have preferred scrapped, given the 20p per litre rise in fuel prices during the last twelve months.

The reduction in Corporate Tax to 28% is a healthy sign-post on the route to the CBI’s much vaunted desire for an 18% rate within 8 years.

Welcome too was the allocation of an extra £60m for the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme  as was maintenance of small firms’ Capital Gains Tax at 10%.

A £12.5m capital fund has been set aside to encourage women entrepreneurs.

In the current climate it would have been a tall order for Darling to pull an economic lucky
rabbit from the hat but could he have done a little more for business?