Monthly Archives: April 2021

Four-day week – how it could boost your small business

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
In recent weeks, you may have heard the four-day week debate bubbling up again, especially now that Covid-19 has changed the way that a lot of us work.
Though it doesn’t have any focused government support, businesses across the UK have trialled and implemented the four-day week. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has pledged that if they get re-elected, they’ll create a £10m fund for small businesses so that they can trial a four-day working week.
>See also: Scotland election manifestos 2021 – what’s in them for small businesses?
It’s not just in the UK, either. Spain is seriously considering the four-day working week. It has proposed a ‘modest’ pilot project for companies. Details will be hashed out in the coming weeks, but the pilot could begin as early as the autumn. The Más País party hopes that the trial will emulate the results of Software Desol, the first firm in the country to implement a four-day working week. In fact, it’d be the first nationwide trial anywhere in the world.
According to Be the Business’ second productivity index, more than half of businesses are either implementing or open to operating a four-day week. One in 20

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Small business banking dispute service costs £23m to set up

Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Business Banking Resolution Service (BBRS), the voluntary ombudsman set up to handle any banking dispute between small businesses and high-street banks, has cost £23m to establish.
Seven high-street banks have split the £23m setting-up cost of the banking dispute service between them, so no taxpayer money was involved.
But BBRS has yet to pay out damages to any small business since its launch was delayed from November until mid-February.
>See also: Business Banking Resolution Service opens doors in November
The BBRS said that it hopes to settle its first disputes between wronged small business borrowers and banks by the summer.
About 500 disputes were pre-registered with the BBRS before its mid-February launch, and it has 160 “live” cases going through at the moment, plus another 48 new cases register since February 14.
The BBRS was set up after thousands of companies were damaged by banking scandals. It gives small businesses an independent view on banking disputes. It is funded by seven banks but is independent of them.
Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, co-chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on fair business banking, described the setting-up costs to The Times as “eye-watering”.
For example, £9.2m was spent on “third-party delivery costs” to get

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Small firms lost billions of pounds on unexpected contract renewals in 2020

Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Small businesses lost between £3bn and £5.75bn of vital funds in 2020 because annual contract and subscription services were renewed without their knowledge.
Auto-renewals are an issue with most (60 per cent) small businesses. The reason for this is that there seems to be a communication problem between the service providers and clients. Over a third (37 per cent) said they lost money through an auto-renewal that they weren’t aware of and 34 per cent were unaware of services being on a rolling contract when they signed up.
Business insurance is the most common type of contract to renew unintentionally, ahead of broadband/WiFi and phone contracts. Eight in ten pointed to businesses necessities like insurance, WiFi or utilities having the least flexible terms. Over three quarters (76 per cent) of small businesses have signed up for a yearly contract just so they could use the service that one time.
>See also: Small business insurance: An essential guide
Frustration is high amongst business owners who believe that they are ‘locked in’ to too many contracts with no little to no room for flexibility. The research from Superscript shows that 82 per cent of respondents said their current annual

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