Small to medium enterprises (SME) are increasingly relying on commercial credit cards to finance their operations, because payment terms for the businesses they supply are stretching out. However, if the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) goes ahead with plans to include commercial cards in the new caps on interchange fees, SMEs will be even more hard pressed to make ends meet.
It seems that in Australian politics – and this campaign in particular – everyone loves a small business. Just before this year’s federal budget, Treasurer Scott Morrison said of small businesses: “they are the hope of the side.”
Somewhat less pithily, but no less adoringly, Labor’s official policy on small business declares:
A decline in business profitability is causing pain among small business owners, who are growing more pessimistic about their economic future. Small business profitability slumped in the first quarter of 2016, with expectations of weaker earnings for the near future, according to a new study by the National Federation of International Businesses.
“Earnings trends worsened 1 point to a negative 22 percent reporting quarter on quarter profit improvements. Far more owners are reporting profits lower quarter to quarter than higher,” said the report.
A lot of people make the claim that the true value of higher education is in the intangible skills and lessons a student picks up along the way. I’d tend to agree, with the caveat that it strongly depends on the specific type of education. But along these lines, one area in which the concept seems to be particularly applicable these days is in entrepreneurship.
Small businesses are traditionally the backbone of the US economy but since the start of the financial crisis 5 years ago, funding has trickled to a slow and small businesses in need of money are left without access to accredited investors. However, will the rising popularity see a revival of the small business, and ultimately the US economy?
From mom-and-pop shops, to the neighbourhood bakery, small businesses are integral to our daily lives. As uncertainty over U.S. labour policies continue to affect small businesses and employment, we take a moment to look back at how small businesses fared in 2011, and the outlook for 2012.
It was confirmed earlier in December that 2010 was the worst year on record for new businesses, where more firms shut down than at the height of the recession.
What do small business owners feel about 2011 and what do they expect in 2012?
Bernie Madoff is an incarcerated American felon, former stockbroker and investor, non-executive chairman of NASDAQ, and the figure behind what is considered the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. A new company, Frederick James, now provides sleek new lightweight designs from Madoff’s clothes, to protect iPads.
