It's interesting that a recent poll by SmallBusiness.co.uk, which asked SMEs how they felt about the UK staying in the EU, found that over two-thirds believe the UK should withdraw from the EU. Another 31% were against leaving the EU with just 2% undecided. So there are clearly very strong opinions on either side of the argument showing that the current economic crisis faced by the EU is having a very clear impact on businesses.

It would have been fascinating to find out the main reasons why two-thirds wanted to leave the EU. Could it be the huge amount of waste associated with the EU or the fact that we pour far more money in than we've ever received back? Perhaps it's because of the huge amounts of legislation and paperwork imposed on us by the EU which often does more to hinder than help small businesses. Scarily we have no veto right as an individual state on any piece of legislation anymore.

Do you feel that all 'small' businesses get lumped into the category of SME and the terms small business and SME are thrown around by the media and government without a clear indication of their actual meaning. In fact, while the government talks about helping the UK's SMEs, it is in fact micro-enterprises (under 10 employees) that make up 95% of the UK's enterprises and a third of all UK employment. As almost all start ups are micro businesses any government assistance to new businesses clearly needs to be directed to these micro enterprises.

With SMEs accounting for 99.9% of enterprises it becomes clear that this term is fairly useless to reflect a certain type of enterprise, and when the government talks about helping SMEs it is by no means clear whether micro enterprises will benefit and in a great many cases they probably do not. Because of the power and influence of large corporations compared to micro businesses it's no surprise that achieving equality in regulations is so difficult.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) will be launching it Real-Life Entrepreneurs campaign, which will be encouraging the coalition to enact policies that will bring about tangible improvements for the economy and job growth. This follows the recent reports showing slow growth and unemployment on the up.

The FSB will be telling the Liberal Democrat Conference, taking place this week, that the government needs to create a stable environment for small businesses to grow. After all so many people are taking a risk to start their own business and, the government hopes, giving the economy a boost, and yet there are many barriers to them doing so.

According to the FSB the government can look at six measures to assist these new businesses. One of those most often cited by SMEs is regulation, which the government needs to re-examine to reduce the burden for businesses. Other areas that have been identified are improving cash flow and routes to finance.