We all have read about the current crisis in the mortgage markets, especially in the US and here in the UK. This is based on the reckless behavior of many banks, driven by greed and not good business sense to lend money to house buyers who could not afford the mortgage. Needless to say small business will have to pick up some of the “tab”.

In the last few weeks I have received disproportional more emails with questions centering around banks demanding loans or overdrafts back, while the trading gets tough out there. It saddens me to read these stories of hardship, as you can read between the lines how much these micro businesses mean to my readers.

What I find especially upsetting is the fact, that banks often cancel these loans and overdrafts, not because the small business is doing anything wrong or different then before. No it is because they just need as much of their money back so they can fulfill their own obligations. What is different about this recession is that the banks caused this downturn in the first place.

Here is the thing, my readers are being told that they are a risk and therefor need to repay the money or simply being told to change bank. While the banks themselves are the ones who have behaved reckless and are the current risk for our economy. But what can we do about this problem?

Next time you need to buy a service or product have a look out for a small or micro business, support businesses like your own. ST.

After upgrading to Apple Mac OS 10.5 also known as Leopard, I had all kinds of software issues - most of all with my desktop blogging software. I tried several vendors, most of them with serious issues.

But luckily after a complete new install of my ecto software (still in beta) it now seems to work. So I can go back to blogging on a more regular basis. I’m sorry for the less than frequent posts in the past weeks.

More tomorrow. ST

Sometimes the best small business lessons can be learned in the media. Here in the UK we have one of those lessons happening right now: Northern Rock!

One of the UK’s embattled mortgage lenders, Northern Rock got in to trouble and what should have been resolved in private has turned into the biggest economical and financial debacle ever. Rarely has a financial crisis been so incompetently handled by everybody concerned.

Without wanting to bore you with all the details, the exposure for the British tax-payer could get up to £100bn, but suffice to say Mr Darling, the Chancellor, has been at the forefront of this “incompetence wave”.

The result will be an even bigger squeeze on public spending, crime, our schools, crumbling health service. And of cause small business is going to suffer, as Mr. Darling will have to find new ways to tax us all, to pay for his incompetence.

Small Business and Government Lesson - Never throw good money after bad! Have a nice weekend - ST.

According to a Staples, the office supply people, survey of 300 small business owners, 51% dream about their business. Seventy per cent of these “dream-workers” reported that they get ideas and find solutions to their small business problems, while dreaming.

Dreams - alpha brainwaves - can allow us to learn while we sleep. This is especially true if we can become “lucid” during our dreams, which means we know that we are dreaming.

In 2003 the British bank NatWest generated a different survey, in which 72% of 1,000 respondences had work related dreams. 48% reported waking up in a cold sweat - not surprising really, must have been a dream about banks!

This gives new meaning to, “It’s all in your dreams!” ST.

With all the bad news for small business around I have found a solution to ALL your small business problems. When I say I have found …., I mean I have read about it in the Sunday FT.

Woods Bagot, an architecture firm in London, reports a new trend in office refits - a threefold increase in office bars. It is apparently good for recruiting young “knowledge workers” to a business, builds better teams and is seen as a great perk. Apparently (!?) more valuable than bonuses and freebies.

I think you could use these watering holes for entertaining your late paying customers and then make them sign the outstanding amount and a healthy up-front deposit for future work on a cheque, there and then. Make sure you use cheap booze and then book the drinking session under “credit-control” cost in your accounting.
If your accountant/CPA objects to this, invite him/her to your watering hole - you get the idea!

There are many uses for a company bar, I’m grateful for this idea - now I know why I read the FT every weekend. ST.

P.S.: Make sure your accountant does not charge you for the time in your company bar, they can be very slow drinkers!

A report by the Bankers Automated Clearing Services (Bacs) found that the late payment burden on UK small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, has risen £2.6bn in the past 12 month to an staggering £18.6bn.

There is good news and there is bad news - the good news is that small businesses suffering from late payments has decreased from 59% to 51% in the past 12 month.

Combine this fact with the findings in the first paragraph and you will easily see the bad news, or as I would put it the really bad news. The average amount now owed to each company at a anyone time is 30,000, up from 22,000 in 2006. It is not surprising that 29% of the respondents to the survey said they could go bust if faced with overdue invoices of £20,000 or more.

While I have no illusions that this current government shall support small business, as some in the survey suggested that public sector bodies were the worst late payers. But maybe the Shadow Chancellor Mr George Osborne, could get his teeth into this problem.

It is not without reason that we have fallen behind France in the economic world-ranking. ST.

You must be getting bored with reading my blog, my ranting on about outsourcing, cost-contol, OnlineOffice, bootstrapping, work-life balance and so on. To solve this problem for you, I thought I will now and then introduce a new blog to you. To make things as painless as possible for me, I will have the owners of these blogs tell you themselves about the blog and themselves.

First up Tom Lindstrom - Editor, The Home Business Archive:

        Tom Lindstrom

Reading through the small business blogs I read daily, I notice many people still go on about New Year’s resolutions. It is always funny to see that most resolutions don’t last the month. So why do we bother?

The problem with resolutions is that often we promise to stop something we enjoy most - with an undesirable side-effects. Make no mistake about it, keeping a resolution is hard work, no matter if it is for your private life or your small business life. Rather than setting goals we most likely will not realize, we should embrace constant small change and give ourselves time to reach the big goals. It is often said that most good resolutions start too late and end too soon - experience tells us that it’s true.

I try and see my goals as “work in progress”, that way I enjoy the small achievements on the way to the big goal and don’t put myself under more stress with unrealistic resolutions.

May your troubles this year be as short-lived as your resolutions. ST.

As you all will know I’m all for outsourcing and bootstrapping. Jason Holden, one of WinWeb’s Gold Partner Accountants & Business Advisors, has a couple of great posts about small business and start-up business, like SOHO-, SME, SMB-, Micro-, Lifestyle-, Home-, DIY-, Hobby-, Boomer- or Personal business, like professional, contractors, freelancer, self-employed, sole-trader and virtual assistants, are the new big businesses.

He is starting a series of posts around this theme - Small is the new big / Part 2 - they are well worth reading. ST.

After a hectic final four weeks and the promise of some rest until the early New Year, all that is left for me to do is to wish you my readers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2008.

I would like to thank all of you for your comments and input to my blog, without which it would not have been so successful and more importantly rewarding for me, thank you. It has been an absolute pleasure to talk to some of you on the phone and exchange ideas and I look forward to much more of the same in the New Year.

During the festive season it is always time to reflect on the year gone bye, and remember the loved ones lost over the years. Then when Christmas is over it gives way to planning the coming year, setting goals and looking to the future. No doubt it will be the same this year, with the long holiday, maybe even more so. With all this I always try and remember to spend some time in the present, meet with as many of my family and friends as possible and enjoy their company for as long as possible - something I look forward to more and more as I get older.

To say it with W.T. Ellis,

“It is Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air.”

Until next year, have a great and peaceful time. Stefan