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A 2004 report indicated that in Europe U.K. workers spent the most amount of time commuting to work. The Samsung survey covered working people from across Europe and found that the British spent as many as seven hours commuting every week. That means they traveled from home to work and back, for the length of an entire working day!

Of the respondents 88% said that working from home was an excellent option towards  improving employee morale and performance. It is thus not surprising that over last few years there is a healthy trend of flexible working that has caught on. This allows people to work from home and reduces travel time and related stress. It also lets the business benefit from their happy and dedicated efforts.

Technology has also kept pace with this emerging trend and remote working and mobile working is becoming a common work practice. An online office is an excellent way to connect employees to their office and keep everyone at pace. It allows business owners to stay in touch with their office even when they are away from it and also on the move.

On-demand small business infrastructure at least allows small business to be more environmentally friendly, save time and money by not traveling. Most of all your business will become more productive.

Most people want to start a small business for several reasons, the most common being that they don’t have to report to another person, they think it will give them plenty of time and finally and most importantly because they feel passionately about a business idea.

Start-ups have never been this easy before. Nowadays there is advanced technology that can help create an online office, take care of accounts, etc and essentially provide an entrepreneur with all the tools he or she requires to become successful.

However it is important to do a reality check before one begins a start-up:

* Starting your own business requires commitment and dedication. While you may choose to work at a time schedule that suits you this doesn’t mean you will have more free time than earlier.

* Financial insecurity: The initial phase of any SMB is marked with uncertainty and financial insecurity but this can be overcome with a good business plan that caters to all situations that may arise. Mind you if your own business is less financially secure than a job is still a matter for debate.

* Isolation: Being your own boss can be overwhelming and you will have to provide answers to your own queries and also to those of your employees. On-demand small business infrastructure is also a helpful tool to combat isolation, it helps you to build your own business community.

Red tape can not only hold back the rate of growth of a business but can also curb the initiative of entrepreneurs. It is official now, red tape can and does hold back small businesses and they can become more efficient and effective if it is reduced, says the Forum of Private Businesses (FPB).

In response to a recent report from the business enterprise and regulatory reform minister, John Hutton, the FPB commented that while the government did recognize the need for change in its ‘Next Steps to Regulatory Reform’ it also needed to take proactive steps to alter the existing rules.

Only with removal of red tape can small businesses and entrepreneurs be truly able to develop. “The government’s promised actions are limited entirely to ‘better’ regulation, and there is no recognition at all that a reduction in the stock of regulations is necessary,” says FPB representative Martin Smith.

By 2010 the government has promised to cut down red tape by 25%. Small businesses also need to focus on creating flexible working conditions that employees would benefit from and having an online office is the first step in this direction. The on-demand small business infrastructure approach is also an asset for any SMB.

The cause of failure of start ups usually lies in their lack of planning and business skills. Like in every phase of life it is important to plan, prepare and anticipate before one actually begins a start up.

There are certain business skills that are basic to any business and must be considered by all entrepreneurs. It takes more than a great idea and passion to get a business on the road and to start with financial management is the basic skill that every business owner requires. It is crucial to understand the cash flow in the company and investing in on-demand small business infrastructure can help tremendously.

Next it is important to do a proper product survey and understand your competitors. Product development is a key aspect of a start up, as is the ability to recruit the right lot of employees and motivate them to commit to the business.

A business plan that is realistic is essential and should be well thought. A start up requires a lot of time and attention and having an online office allows you and your employees to remote access it. This also allows you to be in touch with your clientele and never lose time when making crucial business decisions. Finally marketing and sales skills are essentially to get the profits going.

The Department of Trade and Industry has set up a taskforce that will provide a model for women entrepreneurs and help them break away from the mind set of owning small businesses that are more to do with passion and less to do with profits.
The taskforce is led by Australian Glenda Stone, who says that women usually start businesses for the wrong reasons; they are guided by passion for their venture rather than the basic principles of finance and profits.
The taskforce aims to change the trend of ‘cottage industries’, that women entrepreneurs usually focus on, to new ones that generate more wealth and jobs, and plan to grow and expand.

Surveys and studies by the Warwick Business School and the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor reveal that women entrepreneurs prefer to invest small amounts of capital and are averse to taking high risks.

Ms. Stone adds that women entrepreneurs need to focus on business finance and technology and should not restrict themselves only to retailing and personal business; ‘profits before passion’ she says should be the mantra of businesswomen.
A misconception she says that mumpreneurs seem to have is that a home business allows them more time and flexibility. While it does give them flexibility, the business requires dedicated work hours to make it a success.

Whether it is the brand name that instills confidence or the level of motivation of new business owners, the fact of the matter is that franchising is perhaps the best thing that has happened to the U.K. economy.
In this year’s survey by NatWest and British Franchise Association (bfa) the franchise industry reported a 4.9% growth as compared with the 2.7% growth in the economy of U.K in 2006.
The franchise industry had a turnover of £10.8 billion and as high as 93% franchisees reported profitability. It is interesting to note that in the last decade this industry has indicated profitability levels of 88% to 95%, perhaps the highest in any industry. It is thus not surprising that franchisees are motivated and enthusiastic about their business, perhaps this is the secret to the success in this business.

“The franchise sector remains a significant employer and last year alone created 7,000 more jobs in the UK. Whilst we continue to hear about redundancies in the media, it seems that franchising is not only helping people realise their dream of self-employment but also has an impact on job creation, helping to plug the gap created by corporate redundancies,” says Dan Archer of bfa.

An increasing number of people are preferring to start their business with a franchisee while businesses are also showing a growing inclination to expand with franchise. It is a win-win situation that has given a lot of people a reason to smile.

What is it that makes a business a success? Too often people believe that it is the education or the degree that one holds that is the key to business success. A recent research done by  YouGov for Barclays Local Business Banking has something different to report.
According to the survey only a tenth of the respondents believe that a good education is essential to be successful in business. In fact only 43% of the respondents had a degree.
This may be due to various reasons, the most important being that a college degree brings along with it student loans that need years to be paid off and many young people prefer to skip the college experience and want to get more experience in the ‘real’ world.

“This survey really does suggest that entrepreneurialism is a quality born to people, rather than taught,” says John Davis, the marketing director for Barclays Local Business.

In a more region specific view of the subject it was found that less than half of the business owners in the South West had degrees, while in the North East it was 36%. On the other hand in London 57% of entrepreneurs held a degree.

Donna Fenn of Inc.com wrote a great piece on the Generation Y entrepreneurs, born between 1977 and 1994. She argues that this generation may very well be the most entrepreneurial generation ever, she writes:

“….New technologies, a proliferation of resources, and a disenchantment with the corporate world are making Generation Y the most entrepreneurial in history. From magazine publishing to delivering fresh-baked cookies, the rising business stars named to our annual 30 Under 30 list are transforming existing industries and blazing trails with new ones….”

It is a great read - we see the same thing in our client base and maybe our Governments will wake up one day to understand what is happening. We need to provide a on-demand small business infrastructure to help these entrepreneurs to stay in business.

We all hear every day that a woman’s work - especially at home - is not compensated for or appreciated. The Government and courts have on numerous occasions told us that something needs to be done about this unfair treatment of women.

While I do not know the exact details of the Arctic Systems case in as much as Mrs. Jones was working at home or full time in the office, it appears to me, that here is a mechanism that compensates women for their efforts at home.

Indeed it appears that the government of the time was fully aware of the consequences of it’s tax legislation, when Minister Norman Lamont said:

“Independent taxation is bound to mean that some couples will transfer assets between them with the result that their total tax bill be reduced. This is an inevitable and acceptable consequence of taxing husbands and wives separately….we have made it clear that we expect income splitting will occur.” - thanks to Mark Lee for this.

Surely the HMRC knew about this, it’s assertion that it puts other business at an disadvantage or is unfair to other tax payers is the usual smokescreen, when they have wasted lots of tax-payers money on a court case that should never have been.

The Government needs to realise how important small business is for the economy and learn to appreciate that running a business has an affect on the whole family of the small business owners. IMO the arrangements between Mr. & Mrs. Jones have been entirely fair and proper, no matter if Mrs. Jones or any other partner worked in the business or not, they certainly contributed to the success of the business by supporting her husband. I guess that may be somewhat difficult for an civil servant to understand.

But as usual HMRC has made a big mistake and small business and families will be made to pay.