I read an interesting blog by Tony Robinson, about what constitutes an SME.  

Tony asserts that the vast majority of businesses that the Government refers to as SME's are not - they are in fact, MB's - Micro Businesses, (defined as employing 10 or less employees).  Apparently, the definition takes in the vast swathe of the millions of "SME's (4.5 million of them!).  

Most government initiatives are targeted at companies much larger than this - who employ far less people.

 I'm passionate about what micro businesses can do - it doesn't need much of a brain to work out that if one in four took on just one extra person, there wouldn't be anyone unemployed or any reccession!

  Having been in the micro camp, with start ups, I for one can vouch for the crushing burden that the raft of red tape imposes on these embryonic businesses.   I would hazard a guess that the average small business spends 20 hours a week trying to get their head round and then sort out the massive compliance issues with Health & Safety, Employment Law, PAYE, Corporation Tax, VAT - and that's just government bodies!  Then there are all the individual trade/industry requirements for the specific skills these businesses use.

Imagine how much more product these micro businesses could be if they could free up, say half that 20 hours and spend it earning money from their businesses?  

 Tony has put together a petition to get this issue addressed. If you want to add your weight to the campaign, you can sign the e-petition here - 

 http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/18396

In the meantime, (there won't be any great changes in the next 12 months, government doesn't work that fast!), to stay sane, don't forget to sign up with Hired Help to get all your calls answered - that way, you can spend more time earning and leave us to sift the time wasting calls from the money earning calls.  

 Just go to gethiredhelp.com and sign up!

 Regards

Denis O'Donnell