Paper mountains are top concern

Government regulations and paperwork remain the most pressing concern for small firms ahead of the general economic climate or cash flow and bad debts, according to the Small Enterprise Research Teams' latest quarterly research among 500 small businesses.

For small firms with 20 or more employees, lack of skills and high pay are also important problems.

But the survey also finds UK's small businesses generally resilient, with most sectors reporting rising sales trends. Retailers, small transport and travel firms are the exceptions.

Companies fail to take medicine

Many small businesses are suffering from acute cash flow difficulties but not taking the medicines designed to relieve their pain, finds research by the Forum of Private Business and credit agency Graydon.

Three quarters of the 400 businesses surveyed say they do not employ a credit management professional, while two-thirds admit they never use any of the risk management services regularly employed by larger organisations including credit reports, credit insurance, debt collection, factoring and invoice discounting.

Matt Hardman, campaigns manager of the FPB, says "lack of resources often prevents smaller companies from employing a credit management professional, meaning managers or owners are left chasing payment when they could be working more productively for their firm."

Pension provision varies widely

A third of SMEs contribute more than 6 per cent of employees' salaries to pensions but one in five staff do not make any pension contributions at all, says a study of 200 firms by Barclays Financial Planning.

A majority of these SMEs say they are concerned their employees are making insufficient contributions and that they encourage staff to increase their payments.

Stephen Ingledew, commercial director of Barclays Financial Planning, says: "The fact that half of SMEs are taking steps to encourage their staff to do more is promising, but with two-fifths of employees preferring a bigger pay packet to a better pension deal, there is a danger pension provision could be overlooked."

Online retailers shun cash

Leading internet retailers are missing out on sales worth up to £18bn a year by not accepting cash, claims Ukash, an e-commerce cash payment method.

Retailer take-up of online cash payment options has been negligible to date, according to Ukash, despite an estimated six million Britons not having credit or debit cards and millions more put off online card transactions through fear of fraud. Pre-paid debit cards often involve onerous fees and charges for consumers.

Ukash, which says it is FSA regulated to allow maximum online cash transactions of £500, claims to be simple to integrate into retailers' payment systems. It is said to offer assured payment and the avoidance of potentially costly chargebacks and reversals that are a risk with card payments.

The payment method is free to the consumer who enters a unique Ukash number at the retailer's online checkout. Uniquely numbered Ukash vouchers are said to be widely available from thousands of payment terminals in newsagents and other locations across Europe.Steve Lodge