SkirtingBoards.com’s first employee was a Bankrupt father who was struggling to find work, less than 6 months later he was able to buy his family home back from the bank.

In the first 6 months of trading SkirtingBoards.com sold tens of thousands of metres of MDF Skirting Boards per month and in the first 18 months of trading has repeatedly doubled its turnover, tripling in the past 12 months, and is now a multi-million pound company.

The company is now expanding into other traditional industries again adopting a philosophy of propping up UK Manufacturers, Freight Carriers and individuals. As well as locally manufactured Paving, DIY products, the company is developing a brand of luxury jewellery and leather products.

Read more here.

From their 2009 success stories: “With their idea of selling pork and bacon products direct to the customer, pig farmers Michael and Elaine Rodgers were runners-up in the Clare Farm Ideas competition in 2009. The Whitegate couple run a 250-sow unit, they cure their meats in the traditional way, use a local abattoir and sell pork and bacon in quantities from 20kg up to a full pig direct to the customer. “Receiving the award last year really supported us with our idea and we experienced an initial boost in our business.”

On a date to be announced in February 2011, information and workshops on marketing, sales and funding will be made available and Clare Local Development Company will invite relevant industry representatives to facilitate the new entrepreneurs’ first networking opportunities. Further information may be obtained from Hilary Gleeson 086-8235598, Gerry McDonagh 086-8544036 and Mary O’Sullivan 065-6866800.

Read more here.

“Take Brian Phelan of Glenfin Ducks Co Monaghan. Last year, when he entered all he had was 26 ducks and an idea to supply duck eggs. He is now farming 1,200 ducks and supplying outlets nationwide. Winning an award from the JFC Innovations Awards really helped him.”

The total Prize fund for the JFC Innovation Awards is €40,000. This comes in the form of cash, mentoring and advertising. The Overall winner will walk away with a top  prize valued at €15,000 each.

All you need to enter is a good idea or business that is already set up. The next step is to get an entry form, which will be available from your local Teagasc/DARDNI websites. Finally all you have to do is fill out an entry form and send in a simple business plan that shows you have put a bit of thought into the idea. The competition is split into 4 categories:

• Energy/Manufacturing
• Value added/Speciality Food
• Services/Rural  Tourism
• Start-up

The deadline for entries is 11 December 2009. The judging will take place in late January/early February 2010 and the overall winner will be announced at a special awards ceremony on 30 March 2010. JFC is the commercial sponsor of the competition which is run by Teagasc, Department of Agriculture and Rural Development NI, Leader and the Farmers Journal.

Read more here.

The GYF was attended by over 28 speakers representing government, academic, non-profit organisations and private sector institutions, including H.E. Juan Costa Clement, former Spanish Minister of Science and Technology; H.E. Ruben Caro, the Ambassador of Argentina to the UAE; and Mr. Richard Cotton, country director of the British Council. The forum was attended by a number of key figures and ambassadors of the countries participating in the forum, along with a number of presidents, deans and heads of departments of various colleges and universities in the UAE.

Mr. Mohamed Khammas, CEO of Al Ahli Group said, “With the GYF, we are taking forward the vision of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and their brothers, Their Highnesses the Supreme Council Members and Rulers of the Emirates, in believing that investing in the new generation is the key to the development and prosperity of our nation and the region.”

Over the course of two days, more than 150 young Emirati men and women gathered with 50 young people from different countries from around the world including the United Kingdom, Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, Jordan and Bahrain, where the forum helped those young people overcome cultural barriers and gave them an opportunity to establish networks and partnerships.

Read more here.

The evidence suggests that FDI in the region is likely to recover only modestly from 2010 onwards, says the report entitled Foreign Direct Investment in Central and Eastern Europe: A case of boom and bust?

The PwC research reveals that the CEE region enjoyed a five-fold increase in FDI inflows between 2003 and 2008, rising from US$30 billion to US$155 billion. Russia has been the major beneficiary, as inflows here rose from less than US$8 billion in 2003 to more than US$70 billion in 2008.

But estimates show that in 2009, FDI to the region slumped by 50% to US$77 billion. Much of the blame for this collapse can be laid at the door of the real estate sector, where FDI declined by a massive 71% in 2009 compared to the previous year.

Read more here.

The impact of the economic downturn on the individual Euroland economies has not been uniform. Germany, which is particularly trade sensitive, recorded a peak to trough contraction of 6.7% during the downturn that lasted four quarters. France, on the other hand, was less affected by weakening external demand, and economic activity only declined by 3.5%.

Underlying inflationary pressures remain subdued in Euroland, which should allow the European Central Bank to maintain a loose monetary policy for the majority of 2010. This should provide some support for growth, particularly if it is associated with a declining trend in the euro, which was relatively strong in 2008-9.

Recent retail volume sales point at particularly muted discretionary spending in the 16 country bloc. This is likely to have been caused by the high and rising unemployment rate, which is weighing heavily on household budgets and sentiment. Weak consumer spending will act as a major constraint to economic growth as it represents around 60% of the Euroland economy.

Read more about the report.

Franchising contributes more than £800 million a year to the Scottish economy and is responsible for creating more than 30,000 jobs.

While many industry sectors suffered during the recession around 90 per cent of franchisees reported a profit, including 80 per cent of those in their first two years of operation.

“Franchising is a real growth industry and the number of brands and number of franchises has continued to grow steadily for a number of years.” said Tom Endean, a spokesman for the British Franchising Association

“Part of this is a result of the robust nature of the franchising model. The ability to operate as a local business with understanding and commitment to the area and people, combined with the national support systems and brand, has allowed many franchises to remain viable, secure and successful businesses even in tough times.”

Scottish Franchise Week, sponsored by Moreland Insurance, aims to raise the profile of franchising in Scotland as a tried and tested way to start a business, create jobs and build sustainable wealth for the national economy.

The week is due to start with a special conference in Glasgow at which franchise experts will meet with education specialists from government, schools and colleges to exchange ideas on how future generations can be made aware of the opportunities franchising allows.

The Scottish Forum of the British Franchise Association will also hold a special reception at the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday 12 May to bring together key industry contacts and MSPs to help promote franchising as an important corner-stone of future business growth.

The week culminates in the Scottish Business Breakfast at The Hilton hotel in Glasgow on Friday 14 May where more than 350 guests are expected to network with like-minded people and hear from key-note speakers on the advantages of such a successful business model which accounts for around 4,000 new franchises in the UK every year.

Franchising is a growth industry. The total revenue, number of brands and number of franchisees has grown steadily over recent years and now accounts for more than 467,000 jobs across the UK and an annual UK turnover in excess of £11.4 billion

Franchising is often a comparatively straight forward route into business for many people who may have always wanted to be their own boss but want the support of a bigger, tried and tested organisation behind them.

The competition is aimed at new companies in the so-called “valley of death” who are seeking financing of up to €300k. Ideal entrants should be innovative, scalable, internationally focused and concentrated on attractive market segments. They can come from any sector and should have the ambition to work with venture capital investors.

“We are on the start-up’s side,” says founder of f3fundIt, Jacek Grebski. “When we designed this competition, we looked at it from the position of a new company that has a big future but right now is short on cash and resources. How can we make a competition work for them? So all we require of the entrants is a very reasonable €120 and their participation. We do not take an equity stake and we will make sure that every company receives feedback.”

Entrants initially pass through a multi-metric evaluation process. This is then reviewed by the event selection committee who will make the final decision on the top ten. The chosen will then gather in Barcelona on the 16^th and 17^th of June where they will spend two days behind closed doors having their business models intensely examined by a host of experienced mentors along with select investors. Every aspect of their performance over the two days will be taken into consideration when determining who will be the next top start-up.

f3fundit is an online community that enables entrepreneurs to exchange ideas and information and links them to potential sources of funding. The event is organised with the support of Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and ESADE Creapolis, a business incubator and innovation park, as well as in collaboration with successful entrepreneurs, investors, and international business networks such as Maroon Analytics, an international advisory firm offering strategy, finance and incubation services

YES!Delft is unique in the Netherlands. We provide access to cutting edge scientific and technological know-how and a vast network of potential business partners, investors and clients. YES!Delft collaborates with world-class knowledge institutes around the world, such as TU Delft, MIT, Cambridge University and Shanghai University. The scope of YES!Delft’s capabilities to advance entrepreneurship is broadened through its strategic alliance in the Holland Program on Entrepreneurship (HOPE), which is a joint-venture between TU Delft, Erasmus University Rotterdam and Leiden University. This alliance, which combines all scientific disciplines, is unprecedented in Europe.

YES!Delft offers a solid bases for developing the companies that will impact people around the world. If you have a good idea and believe you can develop a pioneering product or service, or if you’re an investor or potential business partner and want to help establish world-class companies, don’t hesitate to contact YES!Delft.

At national level YEAR is member of The National Council of Small and Medium Size Enterprise (CNIPMMR) and at European level YEAR is member of JEUNE – European Organization of Young Entrepreneurs.

YEAR has 6 regional structures: The Young Entrepreneurs Association from South West Oltenia region, The Young Entrepreneurs Association from West region, The Young Entrepreneurs Association from South-East, The Young Entrepreneurs Association from South-Muntenia, The Young Entrepreneurs Association from Centre Region and The Young Entrepreneurs Association from North – West region.

The main activities of The Young Entrepreneurs Association from Romania are:

· To represent the young entrepreneur’s interests in relation with national authorities.

· To provide consultancy and assistance to young entrepreneurs from Romania.

· To elaborate and implement specific programs concerning young entrepreneurs from Romania.

· To develop working reports and set-up networks between young Romanian entrepreneurs.

· To organize entrepreneurial training programs.

YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs is the major association of young entrepreneurs throughout Europe representing 40.000 members and aiming to support and improve the economic and social performance of young entrepreneurship in Europe. As such, it is the largest dynamic network of entrepreneurs, which constantly expands its activities.

YES was launched in 1988 by seven national groups of young entrepreneurs in order to face the challenges resulting from the ratification of the Single European Act in July 1987.Young entrepreneurs from Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan and Portugal met in Capri (I) during the National Convention of Confindustria Giovani Imprenditori to sign the “International Young Entrepreneurs Charter”, the so-called “Capri Charter” which established the fundamental principles for the future cooperation. It was also agreed that the social role of an entrepreneur had to contribute to economical, political and social developments of the society.The collective actions were based upon:

• free world trade,
• independent free enterprise system,
• recognition of social charges,
• free competition rules,
• protection of the environment.

The establishment of basic principles was followed by the development of working rules to further strengthen the collective activities of the associations.

The first set of rules was effectively laid down in the YES Constitution signed in Vienna in early 1990s.

Finally, in 1991 the European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs was established  under the initiative of  six national associations of young entrepreneurs from Austria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy and Portugal.

In 1993, the Brussels Secretariat General was set up in order to intensify the lobbying activities of YES at the EU level and to improve the exchange of information on European initiatives between the members of the Confederation.

Over the years, the Confederation has evolved to its current composition which currently comprises 16 associations located in “old” European countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal and Spain as well as in new EU Member States: Hungary, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Montenegro. Young Businessmen Association of Turkey had joined YES before the country it represents became the Candidate State to the EU.  Non-EU members include: Albania and Ukraine.

In 2007 Kazakhstan became part of the large YES family.

Vice-President Günter Verheugen, Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry, said: “We must fully exploit the growth potential of European SMEs to create a sufficient number of new and high qualified jobs. Unlocking SME potential has been a key political priority of this Commission. Policies at all levels must encourage entrepreneurial risk taking and provide for the best possible framework conditions for SMEs. “

The SBA, adopted in 2008, is an ambitious package of policies designed to put SMEs’ interests at the centre of decision-making. At the height of the economic and financial crisis, the SBA implementation in the first year focussed delivery on the following priorities:

• Reducing administrative burden for SMEs: All new European legislation and legislation in some Member States (e.g. Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany) now passes through an “SME test” to ensure that it is business friendly. Unnecessary administrative burdens worth billions of euro have been scrapped. (see also MEMO/09/474 ).  The average time and cost of starting a private limited company in the EU has been reduced to 8 days and €417 respectively and eighteen countries have established one-stop-shops for company creation.
• Access to finance: Simplified EU state aid rules (through the Global Block Exemption Regulation and the temporary State aid framework) allowed Member States to better help SMEs. Loans and overall funding through the European Investment Bank and Fund have increased to €11,5 billion in 2009. Legislative proposals were tabled to better tackle the problem of late payments of invoices. Several governments have committed themselves to paying their bills within 30 days or less. Moreover, new rules are discussed under which Member States would be free to exempt micro-businesses from accounting rules thus potentially saving them a further €6.7 billion.
• Access to markets: SMEs are already benefiting from a 40% reduction in fees for EU trade mark rights and simplified registration procedures. As a result of a “European Code of Best Practices”, access of SMEs to public procurement has become easier and more open in a number of countries. The implementation of the services directive in all Member States will facilitate the establishment of businesses and cross-border provision of services, while the proposed statute of a European Private Company – when adopted – will introduce common rules for starting up and operating a business in any European country. Access to standards has been made easier through the publication of scopes of standards free of charge.
• Promoting entrepreneurship: The role of entrepreneurship education in Member States’ education systems continued to increase. The Commission initiative Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs has taken off.

Based on this encouraging progress, the European Commission will continue monitoring the implementation of the Small Business Act at national level in 2010.

More information :

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/index_en.htm