Looking at the small business environment in the UK Direct Line has found that nearly a quarter of people running small businesses will not enjoy a day off on bank Holiday Monday.
Compared with the minimum 20 days holiday entitlement given to employees, small business owners take an average of just over 13 days holiday per year. The 20 days does not include Bank Holidays either, of which there are 8 each year. Looking at new start up businesses the holiday situation is even worse. Direct Line found that over 65 percent of people in business for less than 6 months have not taken any time off at all.
A Direct Line spokeswoman, commenting on the findings, commended the dedication shown by small business owners, seeing them working so hard to make their business a success.
Late last week Citibank warned the markets that more big writedowns were expected in quarter 2. They are also looking at more credit losses in the face of what they called unprecedented conditions in the market.
Following the announcement shares on the NYSE fell by over 4 percent, recovering by the end of trading though still down 1 percent. The markets have already seen disappointing results from other major financial players, leading many to feel that the credit crunch is going to hurt companies for some time to come. Citibank made a lot of their money in the sub-prime lending market so have been hit hard by the meltdown in this area.
As well as the mortgage difficulties they experienced Citibank are now seeing the credit crunch hitting their credit card arm too, with business really slowing down as consumers feel the need to rein in their spending.
Although the credit crunch has impacted on the performance of financial organisations across the country Lloyds TSB feel they are still on course to achieve their objectives for the year.
The well known high street operator Lloyds TSB saw their results down by almost GBP390 million because of the credit crunch but still saw a Q1 pre-tax profit that was up by over 10 percent. This is a great achievement for the organisation though some observers will wonder how much customers are paying over the odds to help them achieve such results.
A representative from Lloyds TSBexplained that they operated in a prudent fashion and so were not over exposed in the American sub prime mortgage collapse like many others.
