The plight of struggling firms Cable & Wireless Worldwide and Thorntons will be in the spotlight this week during another busy few days for results.

BAE Systems will face questions on Thursday over the threat of closure at its Portsmouth shipyard and the failure of its Eurofighter consortium to land a large contract to supply fighter jets to India.

The group, which is one of the UKs biggest manufacturing employers, is expected to report a 10 per cent fall in underlying earnings to 2 billion in 2011 as defence spending in the UK and the US comes under pressure.

Revenues are set to be down by about 2 billion to 20 billion as a result of a reduction to supply orders to the US Army after it pulled out of Iraq and a delay in an order for Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia.

BAE recently put its warship business under review in a move which could reportedly lead to the closure of its yard in Portsmouth, Hampshire.

It employs 1,500 people at the site, while a similar number of jobs are provided in support roles.

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Our next SpeedFunding™ event is taking place at Fruhman Davies Livingstones Solicitors in Manchester on Thursday 15th March. In order to pitch at this event, you will first need to attend one of our complimentary Business Funding Clinics. The lates

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Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said the Greek side had met the final two demands set by the European Union and IMF to seal the 130 billion-euro rescue, which Athens needs to avoid a chaotic default when big debt repayments fall due in March.

But a government official in Germany, which has got involved in testy exchanges with Athens over its will to tackle its problems, said the Greek side still had questions to answer.

Greece pinned its hopes on a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Monday, after talks in Athens and at the euro zone level failed to produce a deal to avert a Greek bankruptcy which could shake financial markets around the globe.

Venizelos told reporters late on Wednesday the cabinet had decided how to plug a 325 million-euro gap in the 3.3 billion euros of extra budget savings this year which the EU and IMF are demanding.

And he noted that the leaders of both parties in the government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos had given written undertakings to implement the austerity measures, which provoked a night of fighting, arson and looting in Athens on Sunday.

Exasperated euro zone finance ministers in the Eurogroup had demanded both steps be taken before making a final decision on the bailout.

MISTRUST OF ATHENS

With mistrust of Athens running high, EU sources told Reuters that euro zone officials had considered whether it was possible to delay part or all of the rescue deal while still avoiding a disorderly default.

Greece needs the funds to avoid bankruptcy when 14.5 billion euros of debt repayments fall due on March 20.

“The big issue of the 325 million euros has been finalised and this helped the discussion,” Venizelos said following a lengthy telephone conference call with his euro zone peers.

The Eurogroup had been due to meet in Brussels on Wednesday but its Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker scaled this down to a teleconference, complaining that Greek political leaders had failed to provide written commitments or plug the savings gap.

Greek party leaders have a reputation for working right up to deadlines, or beyond them, raising tensions with the Eurogroup which fears that they will avoid implementing the austerity package in full after elections expected in April.

However, conservative leader Antonis Samaras, the front runner to become the next prime minister, provided his written undertaking to the EU and IMF on Wednesday shortly before the Eurogroup conference call.

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He won a new ally when the Czech Republic joined Britain on the outside of a fiscal treaty signed by the rest of the European Union — but then found himself embroiled in a spat with an old ally, French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Cameron is also on a political tightrope between the EU, Britain’s biggest export market, and his own party in Britain which wants him to take a tough stance against the bloc or even leave it altogether.

So, it was not the firebrand Cameron of December on show Monday but a more subdued figure keen to appease other leaders — and receiving a kiss on the cheek from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for his pains.

He kept up his rhetoric about ensuring that Britain’s interests are not hurt by the new treaty.

We will be watching like a hawk, he said, reiterating calls for eurozone countries to recapitalise their banks, deal with Greece’s debt drama and establish a financial firewall.

Cameron also insisted that he had kept Britain out of a treaty that it did not need or want.

He received some vindication for his stance when the Czechs decided that they too could not endorse the fiscal pact.

But he had already backed down on an earlier threat made in December to veto the use of EU institutions by other countries that join the pact.

He had also softened his language from the previous week, when he launched a stinging attack on his EU partners, slammed the eurozone as uncompetitive and branded as madness a planned transaction tax.

Cameron had also picked a fight over the European Court of Human Rights last week, saying it needed urgent reform to stop it overriding the decisions of democratic member nations.

Tensions rose to the surface again when Cameron and Sarkozy took digs at each others’ countries.

First Sarkozy said in a speech on Sunday that Britain had no industry left.

That prompted Cameron to say that the French president’s mad plans for a financial transactions tax would drive French banks over to Britain.

In the spirit of this healthy competition with France, if France goes for a financial transactions tax then the door will be open and we’ll be able to welcome many more French banks, businesses and others to the UK, Cameron said.

But asked if he would be backing the French president’s re-election this year — as Merkel’s party said she would — Cameron tried to play it down lightheartedly.

I am a big supporter and friend of Nicolas Sarkozy and I wish him well, he said.

Every now and again he says something I don’t agree with — today when he said that Britain is short of industry, we actually have a larger industrial sector than France.

Relations have been stormy between the two in recent months.

In December when Cameron criticised the eurozone’s efforts to tackle its debt crisis, Sarkozy reportedly snapped that — as Britain is not part of the single currency — Cameron should shut up.

Cameron’s problem is that what offends in Europe plays well at home, and vice-versa.

His self-proclaimed use of Britain’s veto in December to stay out of the fiscal pact delighted the anti-European wing of his party, which he needs to keep the Conservatives at the head of a coalition government.

They now fear he is backing down.

Iain Duncan Smith, a senior cabinet minister and former leader of the Conservative party known as a strong Eurosceptic, issued a veiled threat at the weekend when he said he trusted Cameron to uphold his veto pledge.

Since its the middle of winter and Im stuck here in the snow, Ive been doing a little website clean up on my personal blog.  This is a great time of the year to do it without distractions of nice weather and fun outdoor things to do.  So I was happy to find a list of 5 Ways To Improve Your Website posted at Small Business Trends earlier this week.

Contributor Lisa Barone gives readers 5 simple things that can be adjusted easily to get you better results in the long run.  Things such as cleaning up your website navigation, your about page and your contact forms.  I took her advice on taking a closer look at my navigation and have been tweaking things a bit.  If you think your website could use a little sprucing up, read over Lisas list of ideas.

Not so fast, Rockefeller. Why not save some of that money for a rainy day? So says United Way of Southern Cameron County. To sweeten the pot, the organization is offering $25 gift cards to a limited number of tax filers who commit to buying a $100 U.S. Series I Savings Bond with part of their tax refunds.

To be eligible, filers must use United Way’s free tax preparation service at the ITEC Center in Brownsville or the Edith Whipple Memorial Library in Los Fresnos. Filers must also have household incomes not above $49,000 and refunds from the IRS not less than $500. There are only enough gift cards for the first 20 filers.

The goal of the program is to give families an easy way to start saving or build on existing savings at tax time, according to Keren Arista, financial stability coordinator for the United Way. The bonds aren’t a high-yield investment, but they feature a guaranteed return. The savin

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On Jul 1, 2009, all advertising of tobacco products was banned in retail shops. Sponsorship of tobacco products is also banned.

Called the Pocket a Packet scheme, shop staff and owners were motivated to promote Pall Mall cigarettes under a “mystery shopper” scheme operated by PJ Carroll Ltd, it was alleged.

It was also claimed that when customers asked if the shop had Benson

A few years back I used to go up to Vermont for the occasional weekend and more often than not I missed the good snow. You see the weather in Vermont is fickle…In New England, the weather changes on a dime, and if you waited for reports of good snow to make your plans, you’d probably never go, because more often than not, by the time you got there it could have changed to rain (premature snow) or worse, ice.

This past week was no exception. Monday was sunny and the snow was good, then Tuesday evening it rained. Thursday night it snowed five inches and Friday morning was a fabulous powder day.

Which is why I came up with a simple strategy for skiing. Jus

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Luckily, face-to-face meetings no longer mean long-distance flights. Telepresence, thanks to mobile cameras and secure networks, is making businesses much more agile and competitive. Now employees can have better and more regular communication between offices, the entire business can benefit: and Tommy Hilfiger has become one of the latest winners.

After incorporating virtual fitting rooms, formed with the help of BT’s Unified Communications Video solution coupled with Cisco’s TANDBERG technology, the company can now take a more innovative approach to collaboration. This not only means that its offices can communicate on a daily basis, but the possibilities of virtual design can be taken to the next level.

Fredrik Halvorsen, senior vice president, TelePresence Technology Group, Cisco believes that videoconferencing can mark a turning point for any business, large or small.

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Owning your own business isn’t always easy.  There are many issues that one must deal with that are out of your control.  Employees, for instance, can be business owner’s biggest headache.  Yes, every business needs them to perform daily operations, but they can also be a downfall to your success.

Employees come in many different forms.  There are the ones that are so truly dedicated, that they will show up sick and you have to send them home just so they don’t infect every other person in the building.  They are always on time, even early, and give 100% each and every day.  They are the backbone of your company and an important part of its growth.  These people are hard to find, so if you have one, hold on to them!  

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Small Business Lending Fund (SBLF) has done its job according to the U.S treasury reports. Lending to small businesses increased significantly by $3.5 billion to over $35.9 billion.

The SBLF is a dedicated investment fund that has been enacted as part of Small Business Jobs Act in 2010. It is designed to encourage lending to small business by making capital available to community banks and community development loan funds (CDLFs) with less than $10 billion in assets. This program is an encouragement for smaller firms having lower dividend or interest rate structure.

Small business lending has increased as a result of lowering of rate by participating institutions. SBLF participants have played an active role to increase lending to small businesses. This includes community banks, CDLFs and private lenders.

Markets had already reacted to the downgrades on Friday, and European assets steadied by Monday afternoon, but activity was limited with U.S.

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Cupertino was named for Joseph of Cupertino, an Italian saint who, though dim-witted, was known for his miraculous ability to levitate.

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Gemma Cartwright, whose community work since the collapse of Longbridge led to her receiving the MBE, said the area was facing a new jobs crisis in the wake of cuts in public spending.

She said many former car workers had retrained for roles in the public sector after losing their jobs at Longbridge and were now facing the axe again.

Ms Cartwright, who chairs the Rover Community Action Trust, which has 4,000 former Longbridge workers on its computer database, said poverty was still an issue for the community.

People that were made redundant in 2005 when Longbridge closed are now being made redundant again.

“When Rover went down, there were packages available to retrain and a lot of workers took NVQs and became care workers. Some went to work in day centres or with OAPs but, with all the city council cuts, they are now being made redundant again.

I do not know of any ex-worker who is earning the same money they were on at Longbridge.

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We’re talking Angels Den ones of course. Below you can find the most popular blog posts read during the year so far.

1. Top 5 Reasons for Starting A Business – 5.22%
2. Business Angels On Hand For Budding Entrepreneurs – 4.22%
3. 14 Reason To Love Being An Entrepreneur – 3.21%
4. 10 Darn Good Reasons For Becoming a Business Angel – 2.86%
5. How To Write An Executive Summary – 2.43%
6. Raising Funds To Buy A Business – 2.37%
7. What Not To Put In Your Business Plan – 1.51%
8. Small Business Lending Has Halved – 1.39%
9. The Four Second Rule On Ice Cream Chimes – 1.32%
10. So What Are Your Plans After University? – 1.29%
11. Ca

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