Small businesses get Government support

News Article - 05 November 2010
Category: Business

Business Minister Mark Prisk recently hosted a Summit for Small Business to outline how measures taken by the Government will help Britain's small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) emerge strongly in the post-recession climate.

Mr Prisk opened the summit by recognising the essential contribution from SMBs to economic recovery and assuring leaders that the Government would provide help with regard to access to finance and partnerships with public-sector and start-up enterprise.

Experts agree that the success of Britain's SMBs is crucial to economic recovery and the strength of the economy as a whole. SMBs currently account for 60 per cent of UK employment and half of GDP, whilst in the manufacturing sector they account for an estimated 99 per cent of all manufacturing enterprise.

Some of the measures outlined by Mr Prisk:

• £200m commitment to Enterprise Capital Funds to support equity investments in high-potential businesses
• £2bn available to support 6,000 SMEs a year through the successful Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG)
• active encouragement of angel investments through a co-investment fund as part of the Regional Growth Fund
• partnerships with banks on several key areas, including the £1.5bn Business Growth Fund and a new lending code.

The measures outlined will be very welcome for manufacturing SMEs, many of which struggled to cope with the detrimental effects of recession. Yet companies will face fierce competition for benefits and may find it tough to regain market share until the economy fully stabilises. Firms must not remain reliant on Government help; internal operations may need consolidating to improve profit margins and ensure the firm is operating at maximum profitability.

Access manufacturing and production software can help, by offering a fully traceable solution for handling all forms of processing with equal efficiency. The project and job costing module allows firms to get an instant review of costs incurred on a project and compare this against the allocated budget, to quickly see how profitable the job is likely to be.

For more information on the benefits of our software packages, please call Access on 0845 345 3300.

Article keywords: Mark Prisk, Summit for Small Business, SMB, post-recession climate, start-up enterprises, manufacturing sector, manufacturing enterprises, Enterprise Capital Funds, Enterprise Finance Guarantee, Regional Growth Fund, Business Growth Fund, Access manufacturing and production software, project and job costing module

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