Office Chatter

The results of the 'are we heading for double-dip recession?' poll are in. As is befitting for the national state of unease, your highest answer is a resounding maybe.

Want to enjoy the Olympic facilities and get a slice of the cake? You've got to pay for it

The Scouts are not just about camp-fire singalongs, map-reading and knot-tying – they have moved into business with the launch of an Entrepreneur Badge.

Back in April Euroffice scooped the opposition by bringing you results of an Ofcom survey on how promised broadband speeds (or telephone broadband provider) had nothing to do with reality. This is bad for business.

Customers of small businesses will not wait while your page loads so business vanishes. According to data quoted in April, one-third of users are lost if your website takes more than four seconds to download and broadband users are 'more impatient' than dial-up users.

We thought you would like to see how to do a mass free bike heist as the new scheme opens up in London. Take a photo of free bikes appearing in strange places, with your digital camera and send it to us!

Chancellor George Osborne has set up an Office for the Simplification of Tax, he says;
"Entrepreneurship should never be stifled because of an overly complex tax system. That's why I am delighted that the Government have committed themselves to looking at ways to simplify the tax system, with an initial focus on small businesses."

There's a little piece on the British Psychological Society (BPS) website about how people are instinctively lazy (it's a way to save energy), even though we prefer to be busy. The article talks about how people can be spurred out of that laziness in quite subtle ways.

Watch this short video to find out all about this week's small business news round up.

Sounds exactly the opposite of what most of us would like to do, but stick at it according to the advice of American author Dan Ariely.

Fears are rising in government ranks that the restraint in lending to small businesses could reverse our recovery from recession.
In response, the banks are saying that it is not that they are unwilling to lend but that there is no demand for credit at the moment....

Toshiba ran a World Cup promotion in Spain where people who bought its televisions or laptops could get a refund if the Spanish team won the competition. Fast-forward a little and while Spain did win, punters aren't getting their money back.

Retail banks are now making less profit on average per customer since the start of the financial crisis, as price-sensitive consumers shop around for the best deals and special offers.

This month's small business news round up includes small businesses fighting back on late payments. You may like to take a look at our great range of calculators and accessories.

You are not alone! More than half the businesses in the country think there is too much regulation.

Euroffice picked a cherry to symbolise the stationery service it offers. Now US researchers have discovered that cherries juiced into a drink may help insomniacs sleep.

It takes celebrity lawbreakers to make us pay attention to handwriting. We don't know what executive pens Lindsay Lohan used, but she does have wonderful handwriting.

Recruitment is key to the success of all small businesses and getting it wrong can be costly. With this in mind I thought that it would be interesting to hear how other small businesses approach recruitment?

Last week the health secretary said he is going to ask beer, crisps and sweets makers to fund the government's Change4Life campaign. The Food Standards Agency is now going to be scrapped and its duties transferred to the Department for Health and Department for Environment.

Many small businesses are beefing up their marketing efforts to get ahead of their rivals, according to Marketing Week. Conferences and exhibition stands are a popular means of spreading the word.

According to Which Magazine, manufacturers and retailer labels on technology and gadget products have been confusing customers.

There are fewer new jobs on the market than there were three months ago, and this slowdown began before cutting the 600,000 jobs announced by the government.

Take a look at our quick video television update on this week's SME news, including news of continued growth in the second quarter of the year.

The world cup has certainly taken up a lot of my time and attention over the past month, and I know that I have not seen as many matches as others. But has your business seen a negative (or positive) effect due to the world cup?

Is your office seating comfortable? Apparently sense of touch can affect decision making, according to New Scientist.

There's a health scare going on in the US over soft drinks, particularly fruit ones aimed at kids, that have too much lead in them. If your business sells or uses soft drinks (for example a newsagent or nursery), you should check to see whether you stock any of the dangerous ones.

Amazon have bought the world's biggest bag of crap in the form of Woot.com, an online retailer that specialises in one day deal special offers, sold as seen without returns. (That headline is actually from their own site - a 'bag of crap' is a lucky dip product they sell.)

According to Scottish and Canadian researchers, sitting up straight at our office desks is actually bad for our backs. What the hell?

Take a look at our quick video update on this week's SME news, including fears of the impact of the immediate 5% reduction on immigration.

With Andy Murray knocking out Tsonga on the Centre Court yesterday, can you help us respond to the demand for lost Wimbledon autograph marker pens?