In the report, a small business is defined as an enterprise which employs fewer than 50 people. Statistics on medium (50-249 persons) and large enterprises (250 or more people) are included for comparison.

Highlights of the report are:

Industry: Production and employment dominated by medium and large enterprises

* In 2005, four of the five industrial companies (81%) were small businesses with fewer than 50 employees. This company employs 50,000 people, slightly more than one fifth of total industrial employment. * The larger companies (50 or more persons) employed 181,100 people in 2005 and generated 93% of the total turnover in the industry. * The vast majority of small industrial firms were Irish owned (95%). Nearly 42% of larger companies are foreign-owned.

Services: More than 380,000 employees of small businesses in the service sector

* In the service sector, almost all companies (98%) were small. There were 82,100 small businesses, employing over 380,000 people in the service sector in 2005. That was more than half of total employment in this sector. * Small businesses account for nearly half (49%) of total turnover in the services sector, and generates a turnover of nearly ? 81.6bn in 2005. * Nearly half of small businesses in the service sector are the property of the family (47%). The vast majority of these family businesses employed fewer than 10 people.

Construction: Small businesses occupied two thirds of all people who work in construction

* According to the Quarterly National Household Survey, there were 253,200 employed in construction in the fourth quarter of 2005. Of these, 211,000 have indicated that they worked in small businesses (fewer than 50 employees), while 24,500 have indicated that they worked in large enterprises (50 or more employees). A further 17,600 not specify the number of employees to their jobs.

* Among the 253,200 people employed in the construction industry, more than 65% worked for very small concerns employing less tha ten people.

Salaries and wages: 54% of private sector employees in small firms earned between ? 10 – ? 20 per hour in 2006

* The average hourly wage in small businesses were ? 15.22 in 2006 compared to ? 19.38 in companies with 50 or more workers in 2006.

* The average annual salary for employees in a small business amounted to ? 32,453 in 2006. The average wage in large enterprises was ? 44,794 per year.

Knowledge-based economy: the larger companies have shown higher levels of e-government activities

* Small businesses generally not more modern information and communication technology than larger companies.

* Almost all companies with 10 or more employees were connected to the Internet that two-thirds of businesses with fewer than 10 employees to use the Internet.

Size of work: almost 56% of employment in small workplaces

* In all areas, 56% of jobs in workplaces where fewer than 50 persons were employed in the second quarter of 2007. A total of 1175800 people worked in small workplaces. Of these, 839,300 were employees, 216,600 are self-employed and 107,900 are self-employed with employees. These figures include agriculture and the public sector and the economy.

* Among the 316,300 non-Irish nationals in employment in the second quarter of 2007, less than half (47%) worked in small workplaces.

EU comparison, the value added in small construction firms in Ireland was three times the EU average in 2005

* Almost three-quarters of production in Ireland turnover was generated by large companies, while the EU average was 60%.

* In 2005, Ireland is recorded but the gross value added per employee of ? 51,600 in the distribution of services. The EU average was ? 33,000 per employee. * The gross value added per employee in the construction industry in Ireland was significantly higher than the EU average for all types of employment dimension.

The behavioral sciences, especially Sociology, regard “small business” as a small organization. From the sociology point of view a business is a type of social organization. The sociology discipline classifies organizations by their internal human relations and interaction. No matter how many people are involved, what’s count is the quality of the inter-relationships among them. If everybody knows everybody, face to face, by each name, and the instrumental communication is informal as the social communication, then it’s a “small organization”. 

Such informal relationships can function when we are talking about 2 to 100 workers, managers and subordinates all together. Probably when it’s a 100 people organization we’ll find formal division of labor, duties definitions and documented regulations. On the other hand – a 4 personnel store: the informality is extreme and there is no room for documentation and definitions, everyone is doing everything and if the boss, the store owner, will keep distance – he’ll lose the great advantage of potential warm instrumental relationships with his three salespersons.

Between the 4 and 100 personnel the most common are the 30-40 personnel small businesses. Even if the business owner will try to establish formal regulations he wouldn’t succeed. In such a small organization people will behave according to the informal habits which dominate the everyday activities. There is no way that a new employee will sit down and read a documented guidance book. What will probably happen is that he’ll be told orally what to do by a senior foreman and will complete his integration by imitating others in his close working environment. If he’ll insist to read written instructions he wouldn’t find it because it doesn’t exist  in such small businesses and if he will – it wouldn’t be updated. This is the great fault of small organizations and yet their great advantage: it makes them much more flexible and adaptable to market real time changes.

The sociologist Max Weber claimed that the ideal desirable theoretical model of the most efficient organization is the ‘bureaucratic” model. Weber argued that this type of model will be the only social organization that will overcome human faults and weaknesses. His organization will leave much longer than the individuals who are working for it. People will have to adapt themselves to the organizational needs and demands and not the other way round. He wanted to fulfill the old cliché saying “The graveyards are packed with people who thought they were irreplaceable”.

Just for the sake of argumentation, I’ll point only two of the criticism on Weber’s model:

One – Bureaucratic organizations suffer of stagnation. When a “big business” wants to react to changes in its businesslike environment its got to be someone whose job is to detect such changes and to call a meeting of the right forum which is nominated in advance to take care of such cases and according to the firm regulations to make decisions which will be accomplished by those who will be appointed to the task. Such a procedure is taking a lot of time while small business are reacting immediately and move forward leaving the big businesses behind.

Two -  The biggest enemy of the bureaucratic organization is the informal organization within the formal one. A lot of money, time and energy are wasted trying to overcome the influence of the informal organization. In small businesses, which are informal by nature, there is no such problem.

As a metaphor we can compare big and small businesses to a steam ship and a sailing boat. In the big steam liner, even if the crew members know each other personally, they operate a daily routine under strict regulations carried out by formally ranked officers and other commissioned lower ranked staff. If the weather will change and threat the ship safety, no one will react without a strict command issued by the captain. In the small numbered crew of a 40 feet sailboat there are no ranks or strictly defined jobs. Everybody is doing everything which is needed when it is needed to be done. There is a Skipper but in case of a sudden hazard you can carry on each sailor that he’ll do what’s necessary without waiting to be told what to do. In small teams, who are operating in a stressed environment, a small boat in the big blue sea or a small business in the jungle of the wild markets, crew members know that if they wouldn’t operate shoulder to shoulder they will be hanged neck to neck. The friendly commitment to each other is working for the benefit of the organization.

A online print shop is a classic example of a small business. It is organized by the following departments:

Management and administration (3)

Sales and marketing (3)

Accountants (2)

Customer service (3)

Graphic artists studio (5)

Printing machines operators (3)

Production and finish (7)

Shipping (2)

Business development and Internet support (2)

Those 30 workers are crowded in 100 square meters shop including machines and furniture.

The print shop is operating on line and off line.

On line, through the Internet, they offer the classical advertising and promoting printed materials like: Business cards, magnets, fliers, stamps, account books, envelopes, letterheads, invitations, stickers, bookmarks, and so on.

Off line, when the customer arrives in person and orders his request face to face. This is when the products are “heavy” like: books, catalogs, folders, small paper made packing materials, and such.

The small number of employees, operating under the right managers leadership, creates consolidation, unification, integration, and forging “team spirit” based on interpersonal relationship which creates an identification, involvement and empathy with the business goals. The lack of distance between managers, foremen and other employees do not harm discipline and high standards of working moral and ethics. Discussions, which are taking place from time to time, in open forums, enable all workers criticize constructively or suggesting improvements. Workers can express themselves freely in periodical interviews and all channels of communication, including internal E-mailing, are open unlimited. The closeness relationships enable flexible positioning workers in different stations according to various burdens. The outcomes of 30 workers is synergistic by nature and much more than just aggregative.

For case in point, your back home property insurance
Possibly will control a limit of a small amount of thousand dollars in support of the contents of your back home. If you control computers, other problem technology, or especially, problem records, a loss can be much superior. It would be tragic to control an accident or impairment to your back home with the purpose of plus destroyed your problem assets, and so therefore to learn with the purpose of you cannot promote to an allegation to cover your problem loss.

Another collective illustration is in support of sedan insurance. If you bought a not public insurance procedure several years since, you possibly will not remember the mileage or employment you claimed. If you claimed with the purpose of your mini forerunner was simply used in support of errands and soccer games, and so therefore had an accident while using with the purpose of vehicle to transfer problem goods, the insurance company possibly will control a wisdom to deny the allegation!

Many small problem owners even allow employees to employment their not public cars in support of problem. But if an employee is involved in an accident while burden your problem, can you rely ahead their sedan insurance to cover it? This is a chance you probably figure out not wish for to take.

Now you possibly will be able to operate back and adjust your not public sedan insurance procedure to include problem employment, or you possibly will need a infomercial insurance procedure.

And if you figure out problem, you are forever vulnerable to liability claims. If you figure out not control proper problem liability insurance, solitary cliam can ruin your problem. Even if your problem is unsullied, the cost of lawyers can run into thousands of dollars. When you control a liability procedure, you plus control an insurance company who will piece on your margin to fight claims.

You really need to look into the collective types of problem insurance. Commercial car insurance, problem property and liability insurance, and if you control employees, workers comp insurance, are three policies you be supposed to look into.

If your problem depends ahead the talents of solitary or more fundamental employees or partners, a fundamental man life and disability procedure can shield you from ruin in set of circumstances of a death or accident. Personal assembly life insurance provides a benefit with the purpose of will draw and keep hold of quality employees too!

And of track, we can hardly conference approaching problem insurance with no conversation approaching assembly wellbeing strategy. Now if you are the simply employee of your small problem, you will not be able to persuade a assembly wellbeing arrangement. You be obliged to take not at home an entity procedure or rely ahead a spouse’s wellbeing arrangement.

However, if you control two or more employees, you can learn assembly wellbeing insurance
. You need to look into the need in support of a problem wellbeing benefit arrangement. A lovely assembly wellbeing insurance arrangement can be the solitary benefit with the purpose of qualify employees are looking in support of, but it can plus be a major expense in support of your problem.

•    This will save you and your employees a great deal of time each working day. With only one application in use there is no need to be constantly switching between applications to complete on task.

•    Integrated calendars will help business owners and managers to see what staffs are doing with ease.

•    Project planning is made simple with small business management software – just create a project and assign it to a member of staff. Then track its progress by simply clicking into that project, no more chasing employees up to see where they are with a project.

•    Quoting and invoicing is made much more straightforward by creating both through one application. This means that sales leads can be followed up with ease by simply checking which quotes have been created and not followed up. When a quote is then accepted it can simply be changed into an invoice which means even more time is saved.

•    Document storage, which can sometimes be an issue for small businesses, can be streamlined with small business management software. Now as soon as a document has been created it can be saved directly onto the application, it can then be accessed by any employee with the correct level of access. So no more waiting for documents to be emailed from employee to employee, by saving them all on one application they can be retrieved quickly and easily. In addition to this small business management software can help a business wave goodbye to missing documents, something that everyone will welcome.

•    Small businesses with up to 50 employees can use small business management software, which means that you don’t have to be a tiny company to benefit from it.

•    Any business that has off site employees that need to fill in timesheets can use small business management software to track employees working hours. Off site employees can log into the application, fill in their timesheet and managers or owners can use this information to work out wages. When this is compared with the time it can take to chase up time sheets from various employees it is clear to see why this type of software is so useful.

As you can see there are numerous reasons why small businesses need small business management software. It can cut down the time spent on tasks drastically; this is easy to access and has business wide functionality. It is the practical and simplistic way.

The Chartered Financial Officer handles all aspects of a business related to finance. He not only takes care of the current business but implements strategies and policies to tackle every conditionthe business would meet in the future. The CFO in other words is the brain of the business. Every decision taken, is taken by him after due consideration on the pro’s and con’s. CFO for hire would give you the services of a CFO on an hourly basis or a weekly basis depending on your requirements. This way you cannot only get the services of a CFO you don’t have to pay as much as you would have to for it.

The reasons why you would need a CFO are far too many to count but to name a few you would require a CFO to predict the cycle your business to running in, analyzing and projecting your business and cash flow needs, telling you how much cash you should keep in hand and how much to invest and where, work aggressively to reduce cost expense and sorting out for tax and other issue’s. They would review the financial statements and check what actions need to be taken, help in the process of hiring and firing employees. They would closely monitorthe business and make recommendations to improve it. The models used in financial planning are often so complex that no one except the experts understand them, CFO’s use them forthe business giving it the professional touch you business would lack.

The small and medium scale enterprises are normally working on very tight margins and to employ a CFO would ruin them. CFO for Hire would be an option where they can avail professional counseling and that too with very little expense.

Caution must be maintained however on whom you hire since you don’t want anyone but the best for your business. You should conduct rounds of interviews, get necessary reference checks, conduct pre employment checks and then hire the suitable candidate. The tests range from ability tests, behavior tests, character tests to productivity tests.

There are plenty of agencies that offer the services of CFO for hire and help you make the right decision for your business needs.

The trend during the 1990s and into the early 2000s was to pay a third party company to come shred documents (mobile shredding services). The idea was to save money and manpower. Storage bins were placed around the office and paper was deposited. Once a week, a third-party shredding service would empty the bins and take them back to their facilities for shredding. Some shredded the documents on-site, often in a back entrance parking lot. These services were usually contracted for a set period of time.

It has since been discovered, by many businesses, that employee manpower cost was a non-issue as long as paper was shredded on a constant basis rather than all at once at the end of the week. It ends up it doesn’t take any more time to shred a few documents than it does to deposit those same sheets of paper in a storage bin.

Part of this strategy is to place shredders in strategic locations around the office they can be used by a group of 8-12 people. For a business of 60 people, five to sevenshredders can be placed in sales, accounting, purchasing and other departments. Shredder bins are very easy to access and can easily be emptied by custodial staff that already empty the garbage.

Security concerns are another reason to shred paper in-house versus outsourcing to another company. Although rare, there are documented cases of third-party shredding service employees stealing information and material. Many businesses don’t like the idea of temporarily losing control of their information. By shredding paper in-house, only trusted employees have access to the data before being shredded. This helps seal up leaks and ensures better security.

It doesn’t take much time to make up the cost of purchasing the shredders, versus paying a third-party company to shred the same paper. Depending on the size and the cost of the shredder, many businesses can make up the cost of purchasing their own shredder versus hiring a service within a few years.

Paper shredders should be used by all businesses and organizations to destroy receipts, cancelled checks, bills, mail, printouts and other sensitive material. Contact Office Zone for more information on paper shredders.

If you’re single, renting, making less than six figures working a regular job and just have a business “on the side,” you’re probably good to go for doing your own taxes, at an online service or the old-fashioned fill-out-the-forms method. If there is anything you are unclear about, however, it is probably a good idea to go to an H&R Block office or another tax preparer.

More business, more tax forms

On the other hand, if you’re a small business owner there are a few things you must do in order to prepare for tax season. First, unless you are the only employee and you run your business from the house, you should hire an accountant or CPA, someone qualified (and licensed, or “enrolled”) to do the preparation and who is knowledgeable about tax laws. Next, make sure you have all your documentation. Keep in mind the IRS can audit you, so take the time throughout the year to make separate files for your business and personal paperwork. Keep every receipt, note every mile driven and write dates on everything.

Frankly, you should give some thought to what is called “tax planning.” This is the way to ensure that you have deductions that are beneficial to you, such as retirement plans and other strategies that will help reduce your tax liability. You should plan your business operations with taxes in mind. It involves much more than simply keeping good records and looking for deductions. You may need to do some research here, or call on a professional financial planner of some kind, to organize your business in such a way as to minimize taxes. And the bigger your business gets – when you go from sole proprietor to partnership and on to incorporation – you will have more planning to do, more forms to fill out and, probably, plenty of reasons to get some professional help.

Common sense things

Try to get your taxes done on time. Waiting to do your taxes can be costly in fines, even with an extension. Don’t put it off, because hurrying through a business return on April 14th is a surefire way of making a mistake. It is wise to be ahead of the game and do your taxes early, just as it is wise to seek the counsel of a reputable tax professional to advise you on where and how you can save yourself from making tax blunders.

If you’re having trouble finding a good tax professional, ask! You should seek referrals from your trusted colleagues and business acquaintances. Get a few names and then check them out yourself. Interview those individuals and see if you like the way they do business, then go from there. Word of mouth is often the best way to make a great connection. However you decide to handle your business or personal taxes, make sure you do things honestly, on time and with your documentation in order, so you will feel comfortable signing on that most important bottom line.

What Going Green promises?

Going Green promises:

o Reduction in costs
o Increase in sales
o To keep customers and investors happy
o To maintain market share
o Increase in efficiency
o To enhance public relations

By Going Green, companies are able to find new sources of business. Going Green is all about believing that it is more economical to go green than continue adding harmful chemicals to the atmosphere.

How to make your business greener

Small steps can help you to make your business go green. Few actions that companies can take to go green are:

1. Energy Audit: The first step in going green is to have an energy audit. An Audit helps you find the areas where you can reduce usage and save money.

2. Survey regarding “going green” or “sustainable organization”: Annual surveys with employees should be conducted to find how well the organization is doing by implementing green business practices. This will provide information and suggestions for future actions.

3. Go paperless: Encouraging e-mailing can reduce the usage of paper. Photocopying and printing on both sides can save paper.

4. Recycle: Elementary step towards going green is to start recycling waste. Sustainable supply chain makes the output of waste move into input creating a cycle where wastes turn into raw materials and are no longer wasted. Recycling paper, glass, metal and plastic can help ingoing green.

5. Green buying: Suppliers should know that you are interested in sustainable products. When purchasing, environment should also be a factor not just price.

6. Leadership for going green: To head up initiatives of Going Green, an executive level person should be assigned. Business plans can also include the aim of going green in the mission statement.
7. Involvement of employee: For leading the company’s eco-efforts, creation of a team is a must. Involvement of employees is a must.
8. Save Water: Proper monitoring should be done to see where the water is wasted. Water conservation practices must be implemented to save water.
9. Implement alternative energy sources: Exploring alternative opportunities like using solar energy, wind power, etc. can help save energy.
10. Implement green policies: Policies and standards like waste disposal, using recycled material or products, alternative energy sources are the measures taken to go green.
Thus, Going Green involves examining every aspect of the company’s supply chain and identifying areas where deficiencies exist. The next step is to alleviate the identified problems by creating green procedures. The final move involves implementing new procedures and practices to make your business greener, cost effective and efficient.