Federation of Small Businesses

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) was formed in 1974 and is the UK's leading business organisation representing small and medium-sized businesses.

About the FSB

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is a not-for-profit organisation that exists to protect and promote the FSB and small businesses. With more than 200,000 members, the FSB is a powerful lobbying organisation representing small firms to national, local and devolved Government.

The FSB also offers its members a comprehensive package of benefits, including a 24-hour legal advice line and free business banking.

As part of promoting small businesses, the FSB is running a series of local awards in each of its regions (e.g. FSB London Awards,), often involving local councils.

History

The FSB was originally known as the National Federation of Self-Employed (NFSE). It was founded in 1974 by Norman Small in response to the introduction of Class 4 National Insurance contributions, which represented an additional tax burden on the self-employed and the owners of small businesses.

Small business

Small businesses are normally privately owned corporations, partnerships, or sole proprietorships. What businesses are defined as "small" in terms of government support and tax policy varies depending on the country and industry. Small businesses range from 15 employees under the Australian Fair Work Act 2009, 50 employees according to the definition used by the European Union, and fewer than 500 employees to qualify for many U.S. Small Business Administration programs. Small businesses can also be classified according to other methods such as sales, assets, or net profits.

Small businesses are common in many countries, depending on the economic system in operation. Typical examples include: convenience stores, other small shops (such as a bakery or delicatessen), hairdressers, tradesmen, lawyers, accountants, restaurants, guest houses, photographers, small-scale manufacturing, and online businesses, such as web design and programming, etc.

Characteristics

Researchers and analysts of small or owner-managed businesses generally behave as if nominal organizational forms (e.g., partnership, sole-trader or corporation) and the consequent legal and accounting boundaries of owner-managed firms are consistently meaningful. However, owner-managers often do not delineate their behaviour to accord with the implied separation between their personal and business interests. Lenders also often contract around organizational (corporate) boundaries by seeking personal guarantees or accepting privately held assets as collateral. Because of this behaviour, researchers and analysts should reject the relevance of the organizational types and implied boundaries in many contexts relating to owner-managed firms. These include analyses that use traditional accounting disclosures, and studies that view the firm as defined by some formal organizational structure.

Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is an American shopping holiday held on the Saturday after US Thanksgiving during one of the busiest shopping periods of the year.

History

First observed in Roslindale Village, Massachusetts on November 27, 2010, it is a counterpart to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, which feature big box retail and e-commerce stores respectively. By contrast, Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local. Small Business Saturday is a registered trademark of American Express corporation.

The first event was sponsored by American Express, in partnership with the non-profit National Trust for Historic Preservation, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Roslindale Village Main Street. In 2010, the holiday was promoted by American Express via a nationwide radio and television advertising campaign. That year Amex bought advertising inventory on Facebook, which it in turn gave to its small merchant account holders, and also gave rebates to new customers to promote the event.

The Federation

The Federation may refer to:

See also

FSB

FSB may refer to:

Organisations

Politics

Science and technology

Other uses