Wirtschaftsjunioren Deutschland (WJD), the Junioren des Handwerks, the Interversicherungen and the im­pulse business magazine will award the »training ace award« to model companies providing training as well as to exemplary training initiatives. The prize is endowed with a total of 15.000 Euros. The award is intended to draw the general public´s attention to the variety and quality of training provided by German small and medium-sized entities (SME) and to further motivate entrepreneurs to strengthen the German economy by providing high-quality professional training. More than 1.000 companies have already taken part in the competition since it started in 1997. more…

With about 50 billion Euros the leasing industry is the biggest investor in Germany. As was reported by the dpa subsidiary news aktuell, the chairman of the Bundesverbandes Deutscher Leasing-Unternehmen e.V. (BDL), Mr. Horst-Günther Schulz, strongly criticized the plans of the Federal Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrück, who wants to increase trade taxes on lease and rent payments. more…

A concise cookbook for the success of small and medium-sized entities (SME) is the „Innovative future – strategies for SME winners in 2006″ survey, which was carried out by Ernst & Young in co-operation with the F.A.Z. institute for management, market and media information. more…

As is reported by the IDC, small and medium-sized entities (SME) are increasingly interested in so-called Business Intelligence, a software which transforms operational data into knowledge on the basis of which business decisions are made. According to the IDC survey, the German market for such software is growing by approx. five percent annually and will probably reach a volume of 350 million dollars by the year 2009. more…

The latest edition of the Computerwoche magazine draws the attention to a weak point of many companies: Although emails with tax relevant contents, just like the relevant paper documents, have to be stored for 6 years (for data which refer directly to accounting entries or year-end financial statements this period is even ten years), there is not much attention given to the archiving of such emails. Only one third of all companies have set up clear rules for the storing of business emails, say the authors of the Computerwoche magazine. more…

At the convention of the Federal Association of Accountants and Controllers (BVBC) which is currently taking place in Suhl, Germany, Mr. Uwe Jüttner, chairman of the association, expressed himself on the introduction of the so-called International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS ⇒Wikipedia) which draws nearer also for small and medium-sized entities (SME). He stressed that although the application of the new rule was currently premature for most SME, it would, however, be unavoidable in the medium-term. He also said that the BVBC shared the opinion of the majority of experts and executives who believe that the IFRS in the medium and long term would establish themselves as the common standard for external accounting. more…

According to an old merchant´s saying cost-efficient procurement is the best way for companies to save money. As was reported by the Federal association for material management, procurement and logistics e.V. (BME) at the “e_procure & supply” expert fair in Nuremberg, companies using tools for electronic procurement on average save between 15 and 30 percent on process costs and between 5 and 10 percent on purchase prices. These are the results of the “BME-Stimmungsbarometer Elektronische Beschaffung 2006« survey carried out this year among 47 major enterprises (with more than 2.000 employees) and 46 small and medium-sized entities (SME). more…

As was already reported by MittelstandsBlog.de on several occasions before (March 3rd and April 4th), there was the danger for self-employed managing-partner directors of private limited companies of having to pay retroactively contributions to pension schemes. These payments, according to many experts, would have had business threatening effects on small and medium-sized companies. more…

As was announced by the news service of the Lower House of German Parliament, on Wednesday, 17th of May 2006, the budget committee among other things approved a VAT rise from 16 to 19 percent from January 1^st of 2007. After having discussed the draft by the Federal Government on the accompanying budget law 2006 (16/752) the coalition parties CDU/CSU and SPD voted in favour of the law, the opposition parties of FDP, leftists and Bündnis 90/greens voted against it. more…

T-Mobile in co-operation with the Markt und Mittelstand magazine confers for the first time this year the »Innovationspreis Mobilität Mittelstand« award. This award is to promote examplary concepts and applications of mobile phone technologies for the work process optimization in small and medium-sized companies. There is only one precondition: more…