Features
Many companies collapse after expanding too quickly and spending more than the new business brought in. The sales figures can be high, but the profit may not be there. Or, an unexpectedly large order may put extra pressure on employees – if they deliver a positive experience, a business can be propelled into the next stage of growth.
If you are considering beginning a new startup business, you will not be happy to hear that 90% of start-ups fail; according to the Startup Genome Project. However, if you understand the reasons why new companies fail to become successes, you can avoid falling into those pitfalls.
The stigma attached to periods manifests in many ways and in the workplace, it can often prove quite a difficult obstacle to overcome. In 2018, there were 15.3 million women aged over 16 in employment, with the total female employment rate being 71.4% — the highest ever figure since 1971, when records began.
Many startups are born of a desire to fix a social or environmental issue that the founders believe has been poorly addressed. Many governments, councils and politicians believe the same, enacting policies to hopefully enable these solutions – either through public funding, tax breaks or regulatory requirements (to recycle or meet emissions targets, etc).
The road to developing, catalysing and scaling a sustainable energy business is an eventful, long and can be a frustrating one. I know because I am travelling on that journey right now. For me it started four and half years ago when I purchased a 322 hectare site in Cameroon with a vision to establish it as a production park for biofuels.
The third in our six part series of articles harnesses our Associate and Partner network and focusses on narrative and storytelling. How you talk about yourself and your company is literally the front door key to everything else.
The issue of ‘why’ small businesses should be more environmentally-friendly is well-trodden ground – perhaps less so is ‘how’. There are, of course, a number of practical things that businesses can do to go greener. Here are my top tips for tackling the climate issue head on:
The shortlist for the Business Book Awards 2020 has just been announced and we’ve cherry picked the titles that should be on every entrepreneur’s bookshelf. Here are the top six picks…
Mental health is a topical concern. It’s also sensitive, delicate and for entrepreneurs specifically it can be sore, often kept secret. At the end of 2019, while running my men’s mental health magazine MAN_AGE, I found I work the equivalent of four, maybe five jobs.
Virtually every startup thinks of itself as innovative, but are they really? Every day I help companies claim cash for innovative activities through the R&D tax credit scheme. Most of these companies are somewhat innovative, however, to be truly innovative is really tough. In this column, I want to explore what innovation means and how you might apply it to your business.
Some questions in life are more fundamental than others and some are more specific or technical, and so it is in the world of early stage businesses. But for the person asking the question, each carries the same weight, and each is of the same importance because at the time of asking it is that point that is not understood.
For anyone starting a business there is that delicious and intoxicating mixture of excitement tinged with fear. That is partly the fear of the unknown but it is also very much the fear of failure.
I have always believed in the power of accelerators and, as a founder of my own startup, I experienced how beneficial they can be.
Whether it’s a member of your senior team getting poached, seeing your cash run out sooner than you were expecting, or facing a crisis situation, such as a data breach or privacy issue, startups will always face moments when the world seems to be conspiring against them.
When anyone is considering doing anything important and potentially life changing in their lives it always pays to think hard, do as much research and gather as much information as you can, and also to speak to as many people as possible.
The world constantly embraces new technologies – as does our education system. Since the changes in the UK curriculum in September 2014, kids as young as five have begun to embrace branches of education that seem completely alien to many adults.
According to research by 123Reg.com, business savvy Britons are 10% more likely to start a new venture in January as part of their New Year’s resolutions, than any other time of year.
The majority (71%) of UK SMEs are either too busy or don’t know how to attract new customers, according to research by business leadership organisation, Entrepreneurs Circle.
Nearly 70% of Millennials have advised they will make a purchase after seeing branded content online, according to new research by brand publishing specialists, Green Park Content.
If there was one word to summarise the last few years, it would be “uncertainty” – and studies suggested this was being felt by SMEs across the country.
