MittelstandsWiki

A new highlight of our series of informative brochures for small and medium-sized companies is ready for use: M’BlogDocument 0607 – Being more efficient using telecommunications. Author of this brochure is Dr. Jürgen Kaack, who is managing director of the STZ-Consulting Group. +++

For the first time in many years IT salaries are rising again, as was reported by the PersonalMarkt.de salary consultancy. According to the consultants, it is in particular data base administrators who are profiting from this development. One reason for this is the fact that retailers, craft businesses, groups of companies and banks make increased use of data bases in order to store data relating to their clients, products or stock. Data base administrators mostly work with standard applications which are adapted to the individual needs of the company in question or its departments. +++

According to the operators of the nexxt-change internet site on average 40 companies per week find a successor thanks to this medium. Since the online start of the site in January, about 1000 small and medium-sized companies, which would otherwise have had to be closed down, were provided with successors. Thus, nexxt-change is making an important contribution to the solving of the successor problem faced by many SMEs. People wishing to set up on their own can choose from 7.000 company profiles. Senior entrepreneurs, who do not find a successor within their own family, via a network of local partners may publish an online profile of their company on nexxt-change. These local partners, in particular chambers of commerce and trade as well as saving and co-operative banks provide individual advise to advertisers and support them in their search for an appropriate successor. +++

On Friday the European Commission presented a package of measures aimed at supporting SMEs during their setting up and expansion phase by facilitating their access to loan capital. The Commission´s objective is to triple annual early phase investments within the EU from currently two billion Euros to six billion Euros by 2013. +++

The Pressetext news agency reports that the Confederation of information management, telecommunications and new media (BITKOM) published a guide on the utilization and application of open source software (⇒ Wikipedia) in business activities. According to the confederation this kind of software is often used in a thoughtless and legally doubtful manner. The guide is aimed at providing companies with advice on legal issues as well as informing them about possible judicial consequences in case of disregard of relevant rules. +++

The lower house of German parliament, the Bundestag, passed the so-called relief law for SMEs some days ago. +++

In an informative article published in today´s edition of the Börsen-Zeitung Mr. Walther Becker, who is an expert on the stock exchange, gives a description of the current situation of international private equity (⇒ Wikipedia). Major globally active investment trusts are swamped with funds by their institutional investors says Mr Becker. These trusts which can present real success stories to their investors and offer interest yields well beyond 20 percent p.a. are oversubsribed. According to estimates they could collect 340 billion dollars this year. These amounts will be added to an already existing money pool with an estimated value of 1.3 trillion dollars, which clearly shows how powerful these trusts are. +++

According to Mrs. Gundula Englisch, who is a journalist and film producer, in Germany company executives and senior civil servants have a higher standing than a clever self-made man. Entrepreneurship and self-employment currently have the worst reputation ever in Germany. This was a “consequence of a collective lack of independence, which was deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the German people” says the journalist in an essay published by Change X. “Successful entrepreneurs are considered as exploiters, misers or parvenus, and if an entrepreneur goes bankrupt, he or she is deemed to be a failure”. +++