Business121 Small Business Newsletter #43

In this week's Business121:

1. Think long-term if you want to reduce those long hours
2. Top 10 Customer Satisfaction Tips
3. How to gain customers for life
4. Two months to go before new age discrimination laws take effect
5. Nearly a quarter of UK workers not taking a summer holiday
6. Company directors risking personal bankruptcy over company law
7. Think outside the box to finance a new firm
8. Small Business activity reaches two year high
9. Tycoon’s £48m award to wife ‘a warning’ to business owners
10. Small Business owners spend 60% longer at work than the average employee
11. Dragons Den 'winner' takes to the streets

Think long-term if you want to reduce those long hours

It was quite amusing to see research this week revealing that small business owners spend work 60% longer hours than employees. A survey by Barclays concluded that entrepreneurs spend an average of 61.1 hours working each week, which is a full 24 hours more than the UK average working week of 37.4 hours.

Of course, that's not much of a revelation to small business owners, we're already patently aware of the long hours that are needed to establish a successful business.

But it was interesting to see what those business owners surveyed felt was stopping them from reducing their working week. The main barriers cited by respondents were, 'the lack of anyone else able to undertake the task' and 'a desire to retain control'.

So it seems that most small business owners are working long hours because we don't think anybody can do the work to our own, inevitably, exacting standards or because we don't really want to let go.

But if we want to grow a business, we must suppress these reactions. If our attitude is, 'if you want something done, do it yourself' we might get those jobs done to our liking in the short-term but we'll end up working long hours and run the risk of strangling our business in the long-term.

The research also revealed that the area that most business owners felt they invested less time than should was 'business development'.

Business development often gets ignored because there are usually plenty of more urgent jobs that need to be done. And the 'urgent' (short-term) jobs usually displace the 'important' (long-term) tasks on our to-do list.

But, the lack of long-term planning makes the short-term situation worse and a vicious circle can quickly develop. So, if you find yourself consistently working longer hours than you want to, leave some of those 'urgent' jobs and spend some time on planning your business development.

It may feel counter-intuitive, but it should help you to get a perspective on what the most important factors are in your business and allow you to plan a solution to your unwanted long hours.

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Top 10 Customer Satisfaction Tips
Every business relies on customers. Happy customers come back for more and can even generate new customers for you.

The following top tips are intended to show why every business, big or small, should be interested in measuring the satisfaction of their customers:
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=75

How to gain customers for life
The most successful companies place great value on developing lifetime relationships with their customers. In today's competitive marketplace, they're aware that their customers are aggressively prospected and their loyalty cannot be taken for granted. Top advice for gaining customers for life;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=80

Two months to go before new age discrimination laws take effect
If you employ staff you have exactly two months to review their employment contracts, policies and procedures before the introduction of age discrimination laws, warns a legal firm;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=77

Nearly a quarter of UK workers not taking a summer holiday
The sun may be shining, but for nearly a quarter of UK workers, there’s no holiday in sight – and for once it’s not being blamed on bosses, but being put down to the individuals;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=79

Company directors risking personal bankruptcy over company law
New research reveals that more than half of company directors could become personally liable for their company's debts and risk personal bankruptcy in the event of insolvency - due to ignorance of basic company law. The majority were found wanting in three crucial areas: insolvency, limited liability and bad debt;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=81

Think outside the box to finance a new firm
Raising funds can be a headache for a new business. While some firms are able to grow organically, for most start-ups no capital means no start. Dragons' Den judge Duncan Bannatyne explains the secrets of funding a new business;
http://snipurl.com/_raising_funds

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SMALL BUSINESS NEWS
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Small Business activity reaches two year high
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Business activity for UK small and medium sized businesses reached its highest level for two years according to the latest PKF SME Index;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=76

Tycoon’s £48m award to wife ‘a warning’ to business owners
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A leading law firm warned small business owners today to be alert to the implications of marital breakdown, as yet another high profile divorce settlement highlights the damage divorce can wreak on businesses;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=78

Small Business owners spend 60% longer at work than the average employee
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It only confirms what all of us small business owners already know! But new research carried our by Barclays reveals that UK entrepreneurs spent an average of 61.1 hours working each week in 2005, significantly ahead of the UK average working week of 37.4 hours;
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/cgi-bin/click.cgi?id=82

Dragons Den 'winner' takes to the streets
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One of the winners of business finance from the Dragons' Den television programme has taken to the streets to find angel investors after his offer from the show fell through reports the Times;
http://snipurl.com/_Umbrolly_funding

** For the latest Small Business News, visit http://snipurl.com/Bytestart_News **

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