Professional practices must prepare for an entrepreneurs' economy

The Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) has announced that the Government is launching a new portfolio of products to help businesses and support growth in the economy.

There are 13 products designed to help businesses identify and overcome key challenges as they grow and develop. 

The products will target activities such as access to strategic advice, helping companies reach international markets and supporting innovation. 

The Government has also announced that it will be launching a new mentoring network in June, which will give entrepreneurs and business people access to help from real business people.

Prime Minister David Cameron is also due to launch the government's StartUp Britain initiative, aimed at encouraging people to set up their own businesses. New enterprises will be offered help worth about £1,500 in areas such as IT training and internet advertising. The scheme is being supported by firms including AXA, Barclays, BlackBerry, Experian, Google, Intel, Microsoft, McKinsey & Co, O2 and Virgin Media - the Treasury is also planning to introduce a 50% tax relief on sums up to £100,000 invested in start-up companies, according to The Daily Telegraph. 

The StartUp Britain initiative is being introduced as the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) announced that it will support every school to develop and run its own business through the Enterprise Champions Programme. This is part of a package of four new announcements to help inspire, support and grow new businesses in the UK. 

Peter Jones CBE, founder and Chairman of the Peter Jones Foundation said: "I welcome the Government's commitment to increase its focus on enterprise in schools. Through my Foundation and Enterprise Academy, I want to help rewire the entrepreneurial potential of our country." 

The announcements come on the day that a group of leading venture capitalists said the UK was a "world class place to launch new businesses", following George Osborne's Budget. The 39 signatories of a letter to the Daily Telegraph welcomed new investment rules introduced by the chancellor as a "shot in the arm" for enterprise, allowing them to put more funds into start-up companies. "British entrepreneurs, and those relocating to the UK, will find it easier to raise the funds they need to do what they do best: create and grow world beating businesses," they wrote.

Martin Pollins, of Bizezia, said:

"Pro-business announcements from the Government are coming thick and fast. Whether one believes the initiatives will be successful or not, accountants and solicitors need to position themselves for an environment that encourages and supports entrepreneurship. While the promise to reduce red-tape and legislation might remove traditional income streams on the one hand, the ability to advise, direct and mentor business owners will create new opportunities on the other."

The Government policies mean that there will be an increasing number of existing and would-be entrepreneurs looking to accountants and solicitors for advice on how to start-up, run and develop successful businesses. A strong portfolio of resources to complement governmental support, such as blog-posts, fact-sheets, calculators and news will help to set one practice apart from another.

Developing and maintaining new resources is no easy task, which is why Bizezia has developed a suite of tools that practices can access and brand for a low monthly payment. Bizezia provides high quality, unique website marketing apps and practice management tools to help firms win more clients and run more profitable practices. Click here to find out more about Bizezia's range of products.

Further details of the Solutions for Business portfolio and the specific products can be found at:

www.bis.gov.uk/policies/enterprise-and-business-support/solutions-for-business-simplified-business-support

Source: http://nds.coi.gov.uk/content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=418660&NewsAreaID=2&utm

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12877083

http://tiny.cc/wa0x0

Citywire story on 50% tax relief, 28/3/2011

Notes:

  • Bizezia provides high quality, unique website marketing apps and practice management tools. Bizezia's products are designed to make business easier, encourage people to to visit your website and to keep them coming back.
  • Bizezia's EziaNews is an ideal example of how to keep your website current and informative. It's a daily round-up of business news that can be placed on to your website with no effort on your part and gives your clients, prospects and staff instant access to the latest business news. 
  • Bizezia can trace its roots back to 1986, at a time when accountants were beginning to develop innovative marketing strategies for the first time. Then, with the launch of the Internet, Martin Pollins, founder of Bizezia, saw a new business opportunity to provide marketing and administrative products specifically for professionals serving SMEs, which would be available on their own websites with the aim of attracting potential clients and improving the level of service to existing clients. 
  • Martin Pollins, chairman and founder of Bizezia, is a Chartered Accountant with wide experience in corporate finance and business management. He ran his own accountancy firm in Sussex and was the first accountancy firm in the UK to advertise on television. Martin went on to create and launch the CharterGroup Partnership (the UK's first accountancy network) and then LawGroup UK, one of the largest networks of lawyers in the country. He also served on the ICAEW Council for several years. 
  • Operations director, Iman Rouane, is an honours journalism graduate, who has worked on a number of magazines, including Marie Claire and BBC Eve and was also a freelance newsreader for several radio stations across the south east. She joined Bizezia in 2005.