S.M.E. “Support”

 

GuruGeoffrey believes that although we know that the United Kingdom is in a very fragile state, it will be able to drive itself out of it.  He also knows as business-owners and directors we are in very strange economic times.  On one hand, the Government and a lot of media are full of gloom and people are not quite so ready to part with their hard earned cash as they were in the heady carefree days of a few years ago.  On the other hand, we are a very resilient people.

Supermarkets and some department store groups seem to be surviving the downturn in a lot better shape than most people expected them to do.  Even John Lewis, owners of the very up-market Waitrose, posted a near 10% increase in profits for the most recent period and handed out hefty bonuses to its “partners”  Also car-sales are up by 10% over this time (July 2010) than 12 months ago.

It is a well known fact in business; those businesses that pulled in their belts and survived the recession and a downturn in the economy they are in a far better and stronger position than they were before the downturn, mainly because they downsized, reduced overheads, stopped stocking as much stock/raw materials and generally went back to square-one again.  

For anyone contemplating starting a new enterprise or just expanding their present business will find, after a downturn, that it’s always a good time to start planning where you want to go and what you want to do to develop and follow your “visions and dreams”.

Geoffrey will try to help you in many different ways: you have the business self-help master-group, the business director which you can tap into, the business start-up distant-learning system to use.  The business-builder section and the help of accountants based in Hoylake, Wirral Cheshire, United Kingdom.  There are many other areas in the “GuruGeoffrey Web-Log” that can help you.

Geoffrey often hears people saying, I’m on my own, who can I turn to for help?  Well we can tell you that help is out there in abundance, it’s only just about looking for it and we can help you and support you on your way.  With the many business contacts we have and the many Social and Networking sites and the many groups we are attached too, all you need is just start researching for it.

A question that is often asked of me is; what are “Small and medium enterprises or SME’s?”

Small and medium enterprise, also (SMEs, small and medium business, SMBs and variations thereof) are companies whose headcount or turnover falls below certain limits.

The abbreviation SME occurs commonly in the European Union and in international organisations, such as the World Bank, the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation.  The term small and medium business or SMBs is predominantly used in the United States.

The EU Member States traditionally have their own definition of what constitutes an SME, for example the tradition in Germany had a limit of 250 employees, while for example and in Belgium it could have been 100.  However, now the EU has started to standardise the concept.

Its current definition categorises companies with fewer than (10) employees as a “micro”, those with fewer than (50) employees as small and those with fewer than (250) as “medium”.  By contrast, in the USA, when small business is defined by the number of employees, it often refers to those with fewer than (100) employees, while medium-sized business often refers to those with fewer than (500) employees.  Both the EU and the US generally use the same threshold of fewer than (10) employees small offices (SOHO)

In most economies, small enterprises are much greater in number.  In the EU, SMEs comprise approximately 99% of all firms and employ between them about 65 million people.  In many sectors, SMEs are also responsible for driving innovation and completion.  Globally SMEs account for 99% of business numbers, while between them, they account for 40% to 50% of GDP. 

The European Commission:

(Enterprise and Industry small and medium sized enterprises)

 SME Definition

On 6^th May 2003 the commission adopted (Recommendation 2003/361/EC) regarding the SME definition which replaced (Recommendation 96/280/EC)

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