Small and-Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and freelancers in the creative industries have received a major boost with the launch of new programme of financial resources and support just as the country enters a new national lockdown.
Micro businesses and SMEs expect the beginning of 2021 to be tough, but are redoubling their efforts to improve their performance and become more productive. These are among the key findings of a new data set published today by Be the Business. Future editions will track changes in five areas of business activity, each of which has consistently been shown to impact on productivity.
This last 12 months has shown what businesses can achieve through the power of collaboration, some naming 2020 the year for brand partnership dominance. Businesses have had to co-operate in unique and creative ways to navigate a COVID-19 stricken world.
Job interviews are tough. Video interviews can be a disaster. Poor internet connection, the threat of a pet or child appearing in the background, and nowhere to hide from your own face as you try to concentrate on presenting the best version of yourself.
We all have an unconventional interest or two. From those who hand-make chess boards, to avid Tetris players, to people who have read every Austen novel twelve times, it’s our hobbies that give life meaning and colour.
Scale Space, the UK’s new community for scaling businesses, has joined forces with the University of Edinburgh to help unlock the innovation potential of startups working in the AI sector through a new Post-Covid AI Accelerator Programme.
The latest startups to join the ATI Boeing Accelerator have been announced with ten companies joining the programme. The startups for the second cohort were selected from nearly 200 applications, from more than 40 countries and range from Hull to Queensland, and the US to Germany. Providing solutions for the aerospace industry such as software to support inflight medical events and emergencies and behavioural science technologies to reduce airlines’ greenhouse gas emissions.
When Anthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day were looking ahead at 2021, one positive silver lining they could draw from the year was the favourable effect of the pandemic on the climate. The duo, who met at Oxford University, were already co-founders of a successful startup, but like many businesses faced severe difficulty and uncertainty of what the future would bring.
Otta, a startup that helps job seekers find roles at fast-growing companies, has revealed the most innovative companies in London to work for in 2021. Fifty startups and scaleups appear on the Rocket List, including tech unicorns Cazoo, Hopin (now a ‘double unicorn’) and Gousto, along with fintech firms, Revolut and Checkout.com, which are hiring for the most roles right now (79 and 68 respectively).
ETF Partners (The Environmental Technologies Fund) has announced a £5m investment in The Modern Milkman (TMM), a fast-growth UK startup committed to building a more convenient and sustainable approach to grocery shopping. The Manchester-based business delivers convenient groceries from independent and local suppliers directly to customers’ doorsteps in returnable and reusable packaging.
Uppbeat, a new startup providing free music for YouTubers and content creators, has recently launched. Removing the barriers to high quality, legitimate music, it is poised to become the go-to resource for creators across the world.
Since the year began, entrepreneurs have observed a serious global economic downturn as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small businesses have been impacted greatly by this crisis because they have limited resources to adapt to the changing context. If you own such a business, you must have experienced sales go down as well as an increased difficulty in accessing business inputs. While it might look like the end of your business, you should not despair.
At the start of the pandemic, thousands of employees were forced to work from home overnight, resulting in businesses scrambling to adapt. In the coming days and weeks, digital adoption accelerated like never before.
In 2020 we experienced a lot of change to our working lives, with many of us turning to Google for tips and advice on working from home. Influenced by what we’ve all been searching over the past few months, Lauren Gordon, Behavioural Insights Adviser at Bupa UK shares the top workplace trends to follow for 2021 and tips on how to make these trends work for your physical and mental health.
It’s official – London is Europe’s global tech city, with London based technology firms having raised more than $10.5bn in new investment from venture capital firms in 2020. As good as that is, the good news just keeps on coming, as 2021 looks to be even more promising given that London based VC firms have raised record amounts of fresh funds ready to deploy this year.
Although we have bid a grateful farewell to 2020, the disruption and uncertainty we experienced are spilling over into 2021. If there is one thing that we learnt last year, however, it’s that we need to accelerate the pace of transformative change. Connected technology is of critical importance in this process, and is likely to be one of the key economic drivers going forward.
As a successful entrepreneur in his own right, Daryl Woodhouse knows the price that success can sometimes seem to demand. In 2010, aged 26, he secured a national role at a FTSE top 10 corporate leaving in 2011 to set up his own business, which quickly grew into a seven-figure revenue, winning 30 awards in the process.
With most of the country on strict lockdown and no prospect of returning to the office any time soon, 2021 is playing out like much of last year so far, and people all over the country are understandably frustrated and tired. With uncertainty around the future and remote working continuing for most, staying motivated at work is crucial for us to maintain positive momentum and mindset this year.
With the COVID-19 crisis leaving the economy in turmoil and more than 800,000 people out of a job, the New Year heralds a fresh start for Britain’s entrepreneurs. Around 56,000 new businesses are expected to start-out this month – which is almost 2,000 a day.
SupplyCompass, the production platform for brands and manufacturers, has unveiled a major product update that now allows fashion businesses to invite and onboard their own factories, and streamline communication via an in-built Slack-style chat feature.
