Sitting down and watching BBC programme The Apprentice is proving to be an inspiration to many viewers to set out on their own.
A poll carried out by Direct Line revealed that nearly 20 percent of people have thought about setting up a specific business whilst watching the programme, with a further 12 percent feeling that they should take the step of becoming their own boss in some form of enterprise.
One of the biggest things that inspired these people to believe in themselves was the feeling that they could just as well, or better, than the people on the programme. This is a very positive stance to take, though a Direct Line spokeswoman did want to advise people that setting up in business is more complex and testing than it can appear on television.
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One of the largest banks in Japan, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, is considering buying into Barclays Bank as they seek to raise GBP4 billion capital.
Sumitomo Mitsui is considering a 100 billion Yen investment, which would be around GBP500 million. Barclays also have serious interest from some other investors too and if everything goes as planned then the GBP4 billion needed will be achieved with money to spare.
An announcement is expected from Barclays Bank in the next week or so, though existing Barclays investors have to give their final approval before the deals can go ahead. Sumitomo Mitsui are certainly very keen on the deal since they have been finding it difficult to locate good investment opportunities in China.
Barclays saw a drop in profits of a third for the first half of the year, with write downs impacting seriously on the bottom line. Barclays Insurance though, a division of the bank, performed very well.
The bank still made profits of GBP2.75 billion despite the write downs and, even though the bank itself was disappointed, industry analysts felt this was better than could have been expected. Other financial institutions have suffered much more dramatic cuts than Barclays, insurance and other sectors helping support the bank.
Looking forwards the Barclays management team are expecting trading conditions to remain testing and are advising the market that it could be some time before they are back to previous levels of profitability. Barclays Insurance, having performed very well, may actually see some parts of it sold to bolster the balance sheet.
