Would you like to work for a small business?

If not, you should! But don’t just take our word for it. According to the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) recent report ‘Small Businesses, Big Employers’, SMEs offer high-quality jobs. They are more flexible than larger companies, and can respond to the individual needs of employees. We found a similar result through our Intuit UK customer research, where one in five of our respondents had offered flexible working and of those 82% said it had been successful.

The FSB also strongly echo our belief that small firms make a very important contribution to the economy. In fact, they employ 59% of the private sector workforce, and 84% of all new jobs created between 2002 and 2007 across the EU were created by SMEs. And despite the difficulties posed by the current recession, small businesses still want to take on more staff.

In its report, the FSB suggests proposals to make it easier for small businesses to recruit, retain and train their staff and play their part in stimulating economic recovery. One of their interesting suggestions is that the Government should halt all new business regulation for the period of the economic downturn and recovery to let business owners concentrate on survival.

According to the FSB’s research, the biggest problems for small business owners are the number of different regulations and keeping up with changes. A good example of this is the VAT reduction and the possibility of more VAT rate changes that we blogged about earlier in the year.

While it seems very unlikely that we will see no regulatory changes over the next year, it would be fantastic if the Government began to seriously consider the cumulative impact of all the changes that are being made and attempted to reduce this burden. After all, it’s in everyone’s interest that Small Business Britain continues to thrive despite the economic downturn, and giving our entrepreneurs the space focus on what they do best – running their businesses – is crucial to their success.

Comments

[Anna Haslam]

I agree - working for a small company gives employees a lot more responsibility and exposure to what goes on in all parts of running a business.

[Andy Thorpe]

I agree also.

Q.What is better than working for a small company?

A. Working for a small company that you own!

I'm also a member of the FSB and agree about the burden that small businesses have to carry in their role as tax collectors.

I'm a QuickBooks ProAdvisor and support QuickBooks users all over mainland UK, (and occasionally European and American SMEs) and have noticed more activity in the sector in the last month or two.

End of the recession? Maybe the beginning of the end.

www.londonquickbooks.co.uk

[Home Business]

I would definitely like to work in a small business that is evolving because you can contribute to its growth in time.

[Insolvency Advice]

I started out as a regular employee for a small internet cafe and that really gave me the break that I needed and now I have my own business.

[Small Business Bookkeeping]

I totally agree that nowadays Small Businesses are offering jobs which are both brain stimulating and gives good pay. Kudos to you for this info!