Features

Running a small business can sometimes feel like an endless list of administrative tasks, from onboarding and payroll to compliance. This is especially true for the UK’s smallest businesses, those employing up to nine people. Xero’s research shows that these businesses spend less than half (46%) of the working week on their core jobs because they’re juggling so many other ‘non-core’ jobs like IT, HR, admin, and finance.

Why directing budgets towards innovation clusters, wet lab infrastructure, and investment-ready Intellectual Property (IP) strategies will be key to delivering a 10-year vision.

A group of talented people create an innovative product that gains traction with a few key clients. Everyone is happy. Until the company hits a wall. It finds itself struggling to scale, bogged down by bespoke solutions and unable to transition to a true product-based model.

At CES 2025, a panel discussion titled ‘The Future of NeuroTech: Exploring Tomorrow’s Innovations’ brought together some of the brightest minds in neurotechnology to discuss the current state of the field, its future potential, and the challenges that lie ahead.

Now is the best time to become a founder in the UK. Whilst the tech downturn has created challenges for tech unicorns and later stage VC funds, a new generation of founders has quietly been emerging, buoyed by the remarkable resilience of early-stage investment.

The summer’s tech stock sell-off may have been brief, with prices rebounding quickly, but uncertainty remains over whether this year’s tech rally can truly last.

Throughout history, science has been our tool for unravelling the complexities of life and improving medical treatments, including how cells interact, chemical reactions unfold, and drugs bind to their targets. In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken this to a new level. By collecting and processing vast amounts of data, AI is helping us identify new therapeutic targets and create treatments on an entirely different scale.

What is leadership? Is it a gift or a skill you can develop? Can you learn how to be a leader, or is it a natural way of working? These are the questions I asked myself when I stepped into a managerial position for the first time. But after working with different types of people, I realised that the title of the position has nothing to do with leadership. I met brilliant leaders who were engineers or designers, and I also came across terrible managers at the C-level who had no idea how to build or inspire a team.

Workspaces today require to be right-sized, adaptable space that foster community, collaboration, and flexibility.

A recent study by ISC2 reveals that 73% of Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) in the US reported experiencing burnout over the past year. According to this Voice of the CISO report 61% of CISOs said they face excessive expectations from their employers. Additionally, owing to the cyber security skills gap, many CISOs must continue to defend their companies with incredibly stretched resources and a mounting list of tasks that fall at the CISO’s feet.

Very few founders go into business wanting to learn more about legislation. And yet, understanding your legal commitments is a huge part of the role, particularly in the early days. Whether it’s employment law or regulatory considerations, knowing where to start to stay ahead – or even meet compliant standards – can be a challenge. 

The workplace has undergone significant transformations in recent years. If we think back to 2020, the pandemic’s impact on remote working disrupted traditional norms forever. Now, its impact lives on, through hybrid working models and the popularisation of work life balance. Now in 2025 approaches, workplaces will continue to evolve, leading organisations to rethink how they balance employee expectations with business priorities.

While women-led startups are gaining more attention, those that focus on impact often miss out on crucial opportunities. Studies show that women drive more impact-driven projects than men, prioritising the social impact of their businesses and communities over revenue. For many VCs, this is a red flag against backing such initiatives.

At now 81 years old, I’ve learned a thing or two about business and entrepreneurship along the way. My career to date has taken me from the engineering workshop, through delivering training and seminars to teams across the world, to even now taking on new projects in my ninth decade.

In 2024, cybersecurity breaches and attacks were a significant issue for UK businesses, with approximately 50% of organisations reporting incidents. Government data reveals that 58% of small businesses, 70% of medium-sized businesses, and 74% of large businesses experienced cyber threats.

In 2024, AI unsurprisingly continued to take the business world by storm – with 72% of businesses integrating this technology into at least one business function. From AI chatbots to AI coding assistants – the possibilities of AI are endless, and businesses are grasping the opportunities it has to offer with both hands.

The healthcare system is under strain: overloaded doctors, mounting administrative burdens, and patient care pathways stretched to breaking point. As demand on services continues to grow, digital solutions are becoming more critical in transforming how healthcare is delivered. But what are the startups doing to address these real-time challenges?

January can be about resolutions, but really, it should be about goals if you want to achieve anything.

As the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Shoorah, Ferne McCann is a familiar face on UK television, known for appearances on popular shows like ITV’s I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins, and BBC’s Celebrity Best Home Cook. However, life in the spotlight is not without its challenges.

2024 was a year of seismic change with a new government coming into power and a UK budget that will undoubtedly impact the UK’s small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 2025. So, as we look ahead to next year, what technology trends will lead?