Features

Digital transformation has been pushed into hyperspeed, moving from a buzzword, to being business critical virtually overnight. From financial services right through to retail and education, the sheer pace of change has created challenges for almost every sector in the hybrid world we find ourselves in.

There are strong indications that many proprietors are seeking to diversify in the post-pandemic world, whilst others are looking to take advantage of the increased interest from overseas investors following the UK’s departure from the EU.

Your startup has entered the market, and you are wondering what to focus on first. When starting any business you must go through certain stages, so startups focus first on product development, then on building a customer base and establishing a positive cash flow.

The way in which consumers are searching for products online has changed. In recent times, there has been a significant increase in question-based searches from consumers looking for quick solutions to their needs, overtaking direct searches for brand names. It’s clear the consumer environment is evolving, so what can be done to ensure existing and emerging businesses can keep up?

It’s a myth that investors expect founders to not pay themselves a salary. Anthony Rose, CEO and Co-founder of SeedLegals, explains why.

Over the past year, the coronavirus outbreak left many workers confined to their homes. While this presented several challenges, it also allowed people to enjoy their creature comforts. From regular (perhaps too regular) trips to the fridge, to watching TV or playing video games on lunch breaks. The UK workforce has certainly become accustomed to a more convivial working environment. The question for many businesses, is how does this translate into work-place expectations when so many are now flocking back to offices? Love Energy Savings wanted to find out.

With banks paying just 0.05% on business savings, SMEs have the opportunity to earn much higher returns by investing their surplus cash in the stock market, says Andrey Dobrynin, Managing Director at InvestEngine.

Managing your finances is the most important task to understand as a new business owner, but if you’ve never needed to keep accounts before it can seem like a daunting task. However, by following a few simple steps, you can ensure your accounts are precise and your finances are aligned with your operational goals.

The office is still a vital component of the world of work in 2021, especially for small and medium sized businesses which are leading the way in the return to the workplace. Latest figures from property agent Cushman & Wakefield shows that office lettings are at the highest level since lockdown started, and our own occupancy rates at WorkPad concur with this.

Today’s smart cities are transforming the way we live, work and play. But far from being just a 21st-century gimmick, there are significant, even life-changing, advantages to the implementation of smart technology in cities around the world.

What a year for venture investing. Crunchbase recently released figures that show venture funding soared to a total of $288bn for the first half of 2021. This represents an all-time record high and four times the level of VC spending four years ago! With all this money raised, it seems natural that venture funding would be the first port of call for startup founders. However, that view is based on several myths. Sometimes venture capital is simply not the right fit for many businesses. And I say that as a venture investor myself.

According to the NHS, a carer is anyone who looks after a family member, partner or friend who needs help because of their illness, frailty, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction and cannot cope without their support. The care they provide is unpaid. Staggeringly, 13.6 million people in the UK have unpaid caring responsibilities, most of whom also work.

The economic landscape of the past eighteen months has been interesting to observe, to say the least. While many organisations have been able to carve out a new niche under pandemic conditions; indeed, some have even flourished, a vast swathe of enterprises have been unable to translate their operations to a radically altered business landscape, and have fallen by the wayside.

COVID-19 introduced new changes and accelerated already existing ones in the ways we work and interact with one another within our organisations. As we adjust to the new ways of working and work at breakneck speed to return back to normality, Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, Chief Strategy Officer at FinTech company Blend Network, argues that it is more important than ever for businesses and their leaders to champion inclusive growth.

Businesses today are expected to take sustainability seriously. This is certainly an ethical responsibility at a time in which society is running headlong into the irreversible effects of climate change. It is also demanded by consumers across generations.

When it comes to holistic living, doctors, psychologists, and life coaches have a lot to say. It’s not really the place of business founders to be handing out lessons, after all, they’re known for being work-obsessed and putting in long hours. But, they do know a thing or two about what it’s like starting and growing a business, 

Since Google rolled out its core web vitals update in June 2021, there have been visible ranking changes for many websites. Numerous reputable websites that had previously had top rankings for their targeted keywords saw a decrease in ranking, on the other hand, smaller websites experienced an increase in how Google ranked them in June and July 2021.

As a provider of data cleaning services to businesses large and small, REaD Group is always keen to find out what the needs of our clients are. As such we conducted a survey into SMEs to look at what they knew about GDPR, how they hold and manage their customer data and what they do to keep it clean and up to date.

We’re currently in the midst of what many are calling a ‘startup boom’. More than 4.4 million new businesses have been created in the US since last March, according to the Census Bureau – the highest amount ever seen since records began in 2004.