Monthly Archives: September 2020

Hot Business News Today

5 winning traits 5 top entrepreneurs all have in common

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Originally written by Tony Robinson on Small Business
For the last 34 years I have been starting and running my own businesses. Throughout this time I have been lucky to learn from hundreds of entrepreneurs, some famous, about what helps a new business to survive and thrive.
These tips are rarely included in books or talks on entrepreneurship because successful business owners just regard them as normal everyday activities. All successful entrepreneurs I have met work extremely hard and love what they do but their hard work is rarely glamorous, risk taking or disruptive.
Growth is not exponential, ups and downs are guaranteed, and businesses often scale up not by increased productivity but by the entrepreneur exploiting a new opportunity, contract or acquisition.
>See also: Small business marketing 101, all the latest tips in 2020
Maverick start-ups that are investor led most often do not survive the first three years whereas four out of five start-ups that obey my five rules will survive three years.
5 rules to survive your first 5 years

Bootstrap don’t borrow (until you’ve got customers)
Test trade first
Build multiple income streams
Ask for help from a business owner who understands your customers
Enjoy what you do

Professional speakers may not see these activities as exciting enough

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Hot Business News Today

Lloyds rapped for forcing Bounce Back Loans borrowers to open accounts

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Lloyds has been named and shamed with for forcing small businesses to open paid-for business current accounts to access Bounce Back Loans.
The competition watchdog said that Lloyds, one of the largest in the small business market, treated small companies unfairly by requiring them to open an account to draw down state-backed Bounce Back Loans.
The Competition and Markets Authority that 30,000 customers who had been running their businesses using personal accounts were told by Lloyds and its Bank of Scotland arm that they must open a business account to access Bounce Back Loans.
>See also: Banks ‘will be pushed’ into closing down SMEs unable to repay Covid debt
The scheme, which has underwritten £35.5bn of credit, provides lenders with a 100-per-cent state guarantee on low-interest loans to qualifying small companies. High street banks, rather than the government, have to provide the working capital.
Back in 2002, Lloyds agreed not to ask personal account customers to open a separate account if they wanted to borrow money from the bank – a practice known as “bundling”.
But when it came to Bounce Back Loans, Lloyds asked existing customers operating their firms out of personal accounts to open fee-charging business accounts

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