Small Business Week begins with a bang

LANKY RICH BLOKE Peter Jones has welcomed the government's plan to hand billions of pounds of taxpayers' money to banks to help them get themselves out of the pickle they have gotten us all in.

Speaking at the launch of Small Business Week at the foot of the BT Tower in central London this morning, Jones said the government reaction to the so-called crisis had been "first class".

Jones complained that some of the reporting of the banking problem had been "very, very misleading". Talk of a depression was "a nonsense," he said

"Things are not as bad as they are being made out to be," said the Dragon's Den star. Any recession - if there is one at all - will be " shallow", he said, as he praised the government for what he called the fastest stemming of an economic slowdown yet seen.

"The hole has been plugged," he said. "It's time to open up credit lines for SMEs to go back to the bank and borrow money again."

SMEs, he said, are, "the lifeblood of the community and this country. The one thing we all need to survive is credit."

Jones was the most outspoken member of a panel amassed to discuss how to improve the commercial landscape for small businesses in the UK. Host BT was plugging its own services and thinks mentoring is a good thing.

And even if small businesses can't find the time to be mentored or indeed a mentor who isn't mental, they should at least fiddle about on the Interweb to find out what's going on out there.

According to the Office of National Statistics, small and medium enterprises account for 63.8 per cent of the UK’s private sector employment and 59.2 per cent of turnover (some £1,653 billion). But, according to BT's research published this week, some 48 per cent of these don't have a Web Site. And some 22 per cent confess they're rubbish at marketing

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce said he'd been knocking about with the US Chambers of Commerce last week and there, small businesses use social networking to get mentoring and support. The question we failed to ask him, was, "are they mad?"

Amazingly, host Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business said Bebo for Business had been a great success. And no-one laughed. We looked on the Interweb for Bebo for Business but failed to find it.

If the assembled worthies had some message for small businesses out there worried about the Credit Munch ™ it is:

Take care of your existing customers - Every Woman
Get a bit of mentoring, and not from granny - BT
Sell your way through this - BT
Focus on your core business - Every Woman
Get on the Internet - Peter Jones

And, if you want some more advice from Peter Jones, it is:

Get on to the bank today. They've just been promised loads of our wonga so go out and borrow some of it , strike while the iron is hot.

"Go get credit – today," he said, "there's never been a better time!" µ

L'Inq
Small Business Week