SMALL BUSINESS SECTOR

Small Business Sector In The UK Economy And Saudi Arabia

Small Business Sector In The UK Economy And Saudi Arabia

Small scale Firms: Definition

Companies qualifying as small or medium sized enterprises (SMEs) qualify for certain exceptions and exemptions from the usual statutory obligations under the Companies Act.

The size, turnover, balance sheet total and number of employees are used to calculate whether the company qualifies as an SME.

Small companies are those that have:

an annual turnover of £5.6 million or less

total fixed and current assets on its balance sheet of £2.8 million or less and

50 employees or less.

Medium sized enterprises are those that have:

an annual turnover of £22.8 million or less

total fixed and current assets on its balance sheet £11.4 million or less and

250 employees or less.

These are the statutory criterion since 30 January 2004. Prior to that date the criterion for the first two items in each list above was half its present value. When assessing holding companies, the balance sheet, turnover and number of employees of its subsidiaries are taken into account when determining the relevant statistics. Special rules apply to companies qualifying for exemptions, and an audit must prepared.

Public companies, companies that are subsidiaries of public companies, Also companies in certain regulated sectors are not capable of qualifying as SMEs.

Small companies may deliver abbreviated balance sheet and notes to Companies House and a special auditor's report; and medium sized enterprises must deliver an abbreviated profit and loss account, balance sheet, special auditor's report, a director's report and notes to the accounts. The special auditor's report simply states that the company qualifies for the exemption and that the accounts have been prepared in accordance with the Companies Act.

Special rules also apply to SMEs within a group. Companies qualifying as Very Small Companies may qualify for an exemption to file an audit with Companies House.

Small business in UK

Learning as an integral part of working naturally occurs in the vast majority of organisations. Workers will, among other things, share stories, offer advice, adapt to new tools, and copy the behaviour of respected colleagues. This kind of learning, that is responsive to changes, generally social in nature, and conducted in the work context, can be described as organisation learning. Over the last few decades a number of theories and definitions of organisational learning have been offered, though there are a number of common threads running across them. First, organisational learning primarily occurs within a community of practice. These communities do not necessarily equate to the formal team structure of the organisation. Second, organisational learning occurs in collaborative activity, which requires an appropriate collaborative culture. A third common feature of organisational learning is the reuse and reworking of past experience and solutions. Organisational learning builds on, questions and modifies previous solutions and ideas.

Organisational learning is often quite different from the processes employed by the organisation when training staff. Traditional approaches to training involve strategists within the company identifying or predicting the skills gap between ...