New advice service to address SME concerns

In response to the findings of it own research BT Business has launched new resources for SMEs to meet their current and future challenges and to fuel growth.

The “State of the Small Business Nation 2007” report unveiled at the first-ever Small Business Week  highlighted the issues that affect small businesses across a range of sectors – start-ups, home-based and growing companies.

The week also saw the publication of Enterprise Nation’s Home Business Report. Commissioned by BT Regions, it is the first report of its kind and identifies key regional home-working trends across the UK . It shows that 60% of new businesses are now started from home.

The State of the Small Business Nation report highlights the areas where SMEs feel they lack expert knowledge. These include finance (37%), HR (30%) and sales and marketing (25%). 

Responding to the call for more support and advice, BT Business has launched BT Business Insight, a free online resource to give SMEs information on important business and technology issues. It provides knowledge focused on topics such as flexible working, serving customers, controlling costs and managing growth. It also provides a range of advice – plus regular webinars and podcasts from experts and other SMEs.

To help SMEs sell and market their products online, BT has launched BT Tradespace, the online community brings small businesses and individual sellers together with potential customers and partners to do business. Free to join, Tradespace allows businesses to quickly and easily create and post content on the web and link to complementary businesses. 

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