It’s been a tough time for property developers and by and large, it’s not getting much easier. With the terms of lending much more severe, and the occupier markets in the doldrums, speculative development has all but disappeared from the North West and some developers have gone to ground.
The 2010 version of the Growth 100 promises to look markedly different to those of recent years, with the chances being that those in property and other badly affected sectors will disappear from the list. What can be sure is that those that do make the list will be robust and fighting fit, having survived the worst the recession has had to throw at them and emerged with businesses that are still growing turnover and profit.
Software is one of those things that businesses of all shapes and sizes need to invest in, from corporate giants to one-man start-ups. In this feature we’ll be looking at several aspects of this ever-changing area. For start-up businesses, we’ll be looking at the essential ingredients to get in place and the best way of achieving this, balancing costs with future-proofing.
It wasn’t just the record-breaking exploits of Manxman Mark Cavendish in the Tour de France last year that put the Isle of Man in the headlines. The island was always confident it would make the list of approved jurisdictions when the white, grey and black listing of tax havens was announced in April 2009 and it agreed to make its tax regulations more transparent in June, a move that went down well with HM Treasury.
Leveraging finance against fixed assets can be an effective way for companies to gain funding support to grow. And as the government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme has been extended invoice finance providers can now offer loans, part secured by the government, as additional working capital against a percentage of the company’s debtor book.
Making businesses leaner and meaner has been a key tactic of many over the past 18 months. Increasing profitability through increased cost efficiencies – or doing more with less – is the goal of any business looking to survive.
More opportunity overseas means companies are spreading themselves across time zones and cultures. Invariably, whether you have a manufacturing base in China, a back office in India, or a substantial operation in the US, this means you will have to manage foreign exchange.
Despite recent headlines of fiscal pain in Greece and the potential knock-on effect in other Eurozone countries, the region remains a key focus for UK firms looking to take their first step into foreign markets.
Confidence is returning to the region’s manufacturing sector, with a larger than expected improvement in output and orders over the first three months of 2010. The first-quarter Manufacturing Outlook report, published by EEF and BDO, found that job losses have started to level off and that businesses are the most upbeat since the financial crisis began in 2007.
