Small firms enjoy fast growth, Luke Johnson says we need angels & Cameron needs to ‘calm down dear’

Small Firms Enjoy Fastest Growth In 16 Years: UK’s small and medium-sized manufacturers grew at the fastest rate in 16 years due to strong demand at home and abroad, according to new data from the CBI published by Sky. The CBI Trends Survey goes onto report that companies have also benefited from the competitive level of the pound and an ongoing rebuilding of stocks after they had been slashed during the recession.

Luke Johnson: What makes us tick? In his Management Today column, the ex Channel 4 head talks about how Gatsby helps the fretful entrepreneur, why the British Growth Fund is a dud and how UK plc needs is angels. He also talks about the power of offline social networking – aka a good (old fashioned) dinner.

Half of Irish directors say access to credit still a problem: A survey of Irish company directors, published yesterday by The Sunday Business Post, has signalled belief in the Fine Gael/Labour coalition to restore confidence in Ireland, but has also revealed the desire for a range of measures to be introduced to support business.

Time for Cameron to come out for entrepreneurs: Richard Tyler, Enterprise Editor of The Daily Telegraph has written an opinion piece based on the facts that a new study has highlighted a surprise decline in those who want to launch businesses, saying that the Prime Minister must offer incentives to nurture the start-up spirit. Tyler goes on to say that when David Cameron used his first major speech as Prime Minister to pledge to make the next 10 years “the most entrepreneurial and dynamic decade in our history”, I had to suppress the urge to utter, “Calm down, dear”.