A recent article on BBC news forecasts UK bank lending is set to shrink by 2.2% this year - the first time since 2009 according to the Ernst & young Item Club economic forecasting group. While banks are usually the first port of call (perhaps after friends and family!) for funding, there are other options.

 

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Naming your business. We've all been there. It's one of those guaranteed moments in starting a business. What are we going to call the business? From experience I know that what seems like a straightforward task can actually end up being one of the biggest headaches you'll face in setting up a business. You're trying to convey what your business does in a name that sounds appealing, but that fits all the many criteria you will have been told to follow - make it easy to remember, easy to spell and so on.

Then, of course, there's the website. There's a good chance the domain name is gone already, so do you keep going until you have a name that also has a web domain available or do you slightly change the domain name. For example, if it's a magazine do you add 'mag' to the domain name or 'UK'.

While regulation is a good thing when it comes to protecting all areas of our lives - including businesses, employers and employees - the 21,000 plus rules that currently govern out lives are actually becoming a burden that is hurting businesses and as a result damaging the economy.

The current government has, therefore, set out to cut some of the red tape we are confronted by on a daily basis, and so members of the public, businesses and community organisations are being invited to have their say on regulations. This is where the Red Tape Challenge website comes in.

It's a very simple, but effective concept. Every few weeks a new set of regulations, affecting one specific sector or industry, will open on the website for anyone to comment on. Then, when a theme has closed, Ministers will have three months to explain why a regulation is still required, or it will be scrapped.

The current challenge is health and safety, and so click here to have your say on health and safety regulations.