Freeserve, the UK's largest internet service provider, has joined forces with Barclays to launch a website aimed at the UK's three million small businesses.
Freeserve, the UK's largest internet service provider, has joined forces with Barclays to launch a website aimed at the UK's three million small businesses.
The portal, called clearlybusiness.com, aims to give small business owners free access to online information and the cost and efficiency benefits normally reserved for larger companies.
It will also direct small businesses to services that "free up owner/managers from the day-to-day bureaucracy involved in running a business" including legal services, buying and selling online, and facilities for chasing bad debts.
Clearlybusiness believes there is a real need for such services in the UK, as only 50 per cent of small businesses survive their first three years of trading.
The principal problems faced by such companies include dealing with red tape, managing people and having a lack of time to improve turnover and manage cash flow properly.
Clearlybusiness' managing director Stephen Shelley, said: "When people start their own business they do so because they want to be their own boss, bring an idea to life or make more money. They are often prevented from fulfilling their dreams by the time and energy required to overcome the day-to-day obstacles associated with running their business."
He said clearlybusiness will help remove these constraints "freeing owners and managers from hassles such as tax, finance and legislation so that they can get on with the task of running and building their business".
Services initially available on the website include over 120 expert guides covering subjects from sales and marketing to employment issues, tax and law.
There is also a step-by-step guide on how to register a company and start a new business, and market research for backing up a business plan.
See also:
End of Year Roundup: The web is awash with websites offering smaller companies advice on how to run their businesses and services for them to use. These are the ones that impressed us most in 2000.
20 Dec 2000Not one UK bank correctly identified the proportion of IT budgets that should be spent on e-financial services, according to recent research from Datamonitor.
10 Oct 2000Freeserve is set to kick out 700 of the heaviest users of its unmetered access service, unless they agree to cut down on their surfing habits.
05 Oct 2000Freeserve has vowed that problems with its service will be resolved by the end of the week after the ISP was deluged with complaints of excess connection times and poor access speeds.
28 Sep 2000We take a closer look at business portal Clearlybusiness.com, which aims to provide small businesses with essential information and back-office resources.
20 Sep 2000Former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil has co-founded a pan-European business portal aimed at small to medium sized enterprises, which is due to launch later this month.
13 Sep 2000Freeserve claims its networks have become log-jammed by a flood of new subscribers from failed unmetered internet service providers.
20 Aug 2000Various high-profile players in the unmetered internet access market have been dropping like flies lately. But Freeserve reckons that it is not the end of the line yet.
18 Aug 2000Barclays bank has suffered another embarrassing incident, calling the security of its online banking service into question yet again.
11 Aug 2000Barclays has reopened its online banking service after an embarrassing security breach forced it offline yesterday afternoon.
01 Aug 2000High street bank Barclays today unveiled plans to invest £325m in ecommerce ventures this year, including the launch next month of a small business portal in partnership with Freeserve.
23 May 2000
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