Froodee

Living. Blogging.

Baby Businesses

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Having had my little baby accessories business for about a year, I somehow managed to elude what I perceived as the trappings of a “proper business”, scraping by quite happily, but admittedly inefficiently.

I sold my adorably useful goods at village fairs or simply by word of mouth through friends and family. Things were good, easy, manageable, and my modest home double-dutied as office, warehouse, call centre, shop front and so on – that is until I accepted an unprecedented massive order, and at the same time, received the happy, but stunning news that our cosy family of three would soon be a family of four.

At this point, my imminently sensible husband put his foot down and demanded that my little cottage industry had to move on, and I had to get my act together quickly. So, together, we went through the rigorous list of things to do, which were all terribly serious and had ominous names like “business plan” and “company formations”. In truth, I didn’t know the difference between a “limited” vs an “offshore” company (did that mean glamorously embezzled funds in the Cayman Islands?).

But one thing was obvious- I needed professional help fast. Setting up a proper company was obviously the first step, and we found help in the form of a few online companies. One of them was offering by far the most reasonable rates for setting up a company fairly quickly.

For the financials, as well as help in preparing a good business plan, we found another extremely useful site. For basic steps, tips and advice in starting a business on your own, I found the site www.sba.gov very constructive as well.

So welcome aboard fellow Mums!!!

UK economy improving

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According to the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), the UK’s economy is gradually recovering from a slowdown, although it is still in a precarious position as any shock is likely to hamper growth further. The BCC considers this a “temporary” recovery, as it must be backed by improvements in export and employment. In this regard, the BCC is concerned about the rise in unemployment nationwide, as reported earlier this week.

The recovery is said to have stemmed mainly from the manufacturing sector, but the BCC sees this as unsustainable, based on the sector’s past performance. Thus, any development should be supported by sustained growth in the services and export sectors. The BCC also said the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee should strive to maintain interest rate flexibility to attract more new companies starting up and engaging in new business. Otherwise, the economy runs the risk of losing its recovery streak.

CPW planning to offer free broadband

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Mobile phone retail company Carphone Warehouse is rumoured to be planning a free broadband service in the UK. If this rings true, it would spell trouble for the various other broadband providers in the country, and could trigger a price war. CPW is looking into providing the services free to subscribers of its Talk Talk landline service.

The country’s broadband market is currently dominated by British Telecom, Wanadoo, AOL and NTL, with several minor players. But with news that CPW might be offering free broadband, this could shake up things in the market, and cause the dominant companies to lower rates.

The UK is among the countries with above-average rate of broadband penetration, with as much as 60% of households and businesses wired through high-speed connections. Traditional e-commerce services and other new multimedia business offerings (such as videoconferencing) rely heavily on the availability of broadband for fast delivery of intended services or features.

Cambidge Consultants Reopening Venture Capital Business

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Great news for entrepreneurs planning to start a new company. Cambridge Consultants, which has been in the design, development and consulting business for 45 years now, is reopening its venture capital business. The group is now raising funds with investment partners for financing startups and funding new business ideas. It hopes to have its first venture up by next year.

The firm exited the venture capital business in 2002 due to difficulties in sourcing money. It can be noted that it was during about time when the tech bubble burst, taking along many businesses funded by VCs. This led investors to lay low in funding startups of IT nature, and participating in VC activities. With a new rising trend in tech businesses, venture capitalists are again gaining ground, looking for the next big thing to fund. And this time, it looks like the IT industry is ripe for the picking—no bubble is in sight so far, only clear sailing skies for businessmen wanting to earn their millions online.

Misuse of office equipment on the rise

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The Department of Trade and Industry reports that misuse of office Internet access has been on the rise across the UK. This was a finding by the Department’s Information Security Breaches Survey, which is conducted every other year. The survey indicated that misuse of the Internet was actually the second highest in frequency among incidence of security breaches in the workplace, coming only after virus attacks.

About 17 percent of surveyed workers admit to accessing inappropriate websites—such as pornographic sites—from their office computers. 11 percent admit to misusing email facilities. While the average cost of such misuse is miniscule, the companies are at risk of tainting their reputation in case inappropriate access is traced back to them. For instance, a company may lose face if it was discovered that an employee is publishing child pornography using the office Internet connection.

It pays to have an acceptable use policy, by which the company can state whether an employee is using office-owned resources appropriately. This is perhaps one of the first things a new company‘s human resource team should take care of.