It used to be that the classier, bulkier and more luxurious the packaging, the more appealing the brand. Thankfully, consumer mindset is changing and adapting to help protect the planet and reduce extreme amounts of waste.

We’ve all heard about the ‘Great Resignation’: a mass exodus of employees worldwide, caused by a rapidly changing working landscape and general pandemic fatigue. In the UK, almost a quarter of workers say that they are actively planning on quitting their jobs in the next few months, while job vacancies are at the highest level since records began.

It is no secret that the global pandemic has shifted consumer spending habits, with more and more people opting to shop online. What is different about this shift however, is where people are buying from. With the number of social media platforms available today, it should come as no surprise that there has been an increase in purchasing directly from these sites. According to research, social commerce sales will continue to rise by 35.8% by the end of 2021. Despite this, many businesses have failed to recognise how impactful price optimisation can be on social commerce, and if used correctly, how it can help retailers capitalise on the increasing popularity of social commerce. 

As we marked National Work Life Week last month, it became clear that work-life balance is a value not everyone shares equally. According to a new poll carried out by the charity Working Families, 41% of working mothers say being a parent is holding them back from promotion at work – and 50% of people with caring responsibilities (such as looking after an ill or elderly relative) feel the same way. 

Consumer technology products, such as laptops, are increasingly difficult to differentiate. Operating systems aside, most laptops are of similar size and shape and offer broadly the same functionality. Clamshell laptops typically combine a display, a keyboard, and a trackpad – with few aspects that really distinguish models from competitors. 

Employee engagement is often seen as an activity on top of the day-job, rather than a critical measure of it, and it’s worth remembering that employees join organisations engaged – disengagement is the result of poor experiences at work.

There’s something about plastic that makes us forget it’s real money, and spend without giving a hoot for the consequences — hence the age-old caution against putting it all on the credit card.

The climate crisis and food crisis go hand in hand. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that we will have to increase food production by 70% by 2050 if we want to feed the expected 10 billion mouths.

The life of an entrepreneur, especially in the initial stages of founding and growing a new company, is often marked by long, gruelling hours spent working alone. Though being your own boss is one of the main attractions to starting your own business, it is an inherently risky endeavour that can leave you making critical decisions alone, and ultimately shouldering a lot of responsibility.

This week, Startups Magazine spoke to Chris Sims, Managing Director, SoHo (Single/Small Office, Home Office) and Marketing at BT.

With so many businesses making a positive social impact on the world around us, Startups Magazine rounds up its top 10 Tech4Good startups of 2021.

Today, businesses are under pressure to navigate the fast-changing skills and digital landscape.

Global VC funding broke new ground in the first half of 2021, with a staggering $288bn invested worldwide.

With COP26 reinforcing the detrimental effects of climate change, mass engagement in sustainability is stronger than ever. To preserve an inhabitable climate, net zero must be achieved by 2050, businesses altering their operations accordingly is a contributor to this.

Starting a career as a freelancer can be rewarding. You’ll have a job with the flexibility to support a positive work-life balance. You may find it is a lucrative option, too. One report found 70% of freelancers earn more than their traditionally employed counterparts.

Over the last few years we have seen a big evolution of online communication and sales. The times when companies were sending cold emails to random receivers are long gone.

BixBio was founded in 2019 by James Ross and Tyronne McCrindle. The pair are from Cape Town, South Africa, and seek to address the massive underrepresentation of African data in global genetic datasets.

The new post-Brexit UK-EU trade relationship is having a big impact on companies across all sectors and localities, with new procedures, customs controls and added layers of bureaucracy rendering many business models unsustainable.

As world leaders converge on Glasgow for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (Cop26), the need for climate action has never been stronger.

The festive season is just around the corner, and many retailers are gearing up for the most important date in their calendar - Black Friday.

With Black Friday among us, phishing attacks are set to skyrocket, so here we consider why – and how – ecommerce startups should be prepared.

As of this past Autumn, all employees in the UK now have a right to request flexible working options from day one. As a business of any size, it’s now a necessity to consider your approach to flexible working.

It’s hard to believe that email - or electronic mail - wasn’t introduced until the early 1990s when the World Wide Web was first launched for widespread use. Since then it has become a vital communications tool for businesses and people across the globe

The reason I decided to write my book ‘Doing the Opposite’ was because I realised something quite extraordinary through my life experiences. I questioned why my latest business, Cloudfm Group had been so successful and grown from £1m to £70m in just four years.

In a startup, the CTO is involved in making important technical decisions and has a key role in the success of a project. CTO chooses the technologies needed to create a product and controls the entire development process.

Today’s business problems need the untapped potential of women-led enterprises which represent as much as £250bn of additional value for the UK economy.

The focus for many businesses throughout the pandemic has been on cashflow and liquidity - for some it has simply been a case of short-term survival. In some cases the the information distributed by directors will have a real bearing on their own remuneration or even employment. 

Once considered as a term for the next-gen of cars, the use of 'hybrid' is now more popularly used to describe the new way of working.

Whether your cyber security startup is new to social media marketing or it already has a presence on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and other such platforms, this guide is relevant for you. Read until the end to find out our 10 checklist points to tick off for a solid social media marketing execution for your cyber security business.

Commercial heat pumps take natural thermal energy from the air, ground, or water and turn it into heat that can be used for hot water and heating systems.

Being a startup owner has its challenges. From updating the books to implementing the perfect marketing strategy, it can feel like time is running against you. Nevertheless, there are several ways in which you can manage your time more effectively.

Starting and scaling a business requires founders to undertake many different roles; many of which they will do themselves initially but other tasks they will inevitably require some assistance with. But whatever the business, any founder looking to scale must ensure that they tell a good story, and they tell it well.  But what does this actually mean?

Outsourcing is the practice of letting an outside firm handle your company’s processes. It’s a phenomenon used by small and large companies alike.

The complexion of the SMB landscape is regularly subject to change. Disruptive market entrants, new technologies, and fluctuations in the economy, represent just a handful of the influences that can force SMBs to revise their business models.

In today’s world, we are leasing assets a lot more regularly. According to Dataforce, Europeans are leasing and renting cars more than ever before, including both short-term and operational leasing. Over the last five years, the leasing market skyrocketed from 2.6 million to four million due to the culture of ownership evolving.

With the launch of Build on AWS, AWS simplified the first steps of launching scalable, reliable, secure, and optimised infrastructure tailored to startups’ industry or use case. This enables startups to focus on building their core product knowing they’re using AWS best practices for their underlying cloud infrastructure. We spoke to Katie Drucker, Director and Global Leader, Business Development, on how AWS is continuing to help guide startups in their journeys to choose and implement the right infrastructure for their business needs.

With the ever-increasing focus on tech in our lives and the sheer volume of new, ground-breaking tech launches that one hears or reads about, you could miss one vital element of their story. The IP behind them. And, for any tech that has significant IP value, the IP creator/founder needs to be acutely aware of the lead times available in the patent process. If deadlines are missed, rights can vanish in an instant. Jim Gastle, IP enthusiast and Canadian patent agent, explains this in more detail.

Black Friday is fast approaching, this year falling on 26th November, meaning most businesses are busy preparing for one of the most hectic weekends of the year in retail.

Over the last few decades, the world has made huge strides forward in promoting gender equality in the workforce. In fact, last year saw the employment gap between men and women fall to 6.3%, the lowest point since records began in 1971.

Jayna Patel, a commercial litigation solicitor with Wilsons Solicitors LLP, discusses why startups need to be alive to the implications of restrictive covenants.

So you want to start a business? As you’ve no doubt heard, that tends to go smoother when you start by formulating a business plan to set your goals and guide your actions. Doing so isn’t always the most intuitive process, however, If you’ve never put one together before, then how would you know where to start? That’s what this article intends to address, by providing you with some initial tips that should point you down the road to success. Here’s what you should know.

The IP addresses assigned to the homeowners mean residential proxies. These IP addresses are flagged in your regional internet registries. So, why do organisations need a proxy?

The world’s pollution levels are continuing to be an issue that needs addressing. While the worldwide lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have lowered our air pollutants, before the outbreak there were seven million deaths each year due to pollution. 

Diversity and inclusion may not seem to be a priority for a rising startup when cash flow and driving sales are normally front of mind. However, building a foundation of diversity and inclusion (D&I) within the operation sooner rather than later is more important than you might think.

Sandy Carter, Vice President of Public Sector Partners and Programs at Amazon Web Services, shared her experience as a pioneering woman in tech. She discussed how embracing diversity drives innovation as well as the importance of empowering the next generation of female leaders.

The last few years have been really challenging, but adapting through necessity has shown us new ways of working that can be just as effective. Despite the stresses of lockdowns, we’ve seen some benefits to our working environments which have fuelled positive changes for employee wellbeing.

Without a doubt, the pandemic has changed our economy forever; and it may not have felt like the most obvious year to launch a business, but with Britons locked down entrepreneurial spirit seems to be inflated as 2020 saw a 12.3% increase in new businesses, the highest growth on record.

In many ways, we actually have to thank the pandemic for highlighting just how unprepared our economies were to tackle a crisis. It acted as a catalyst for change across industry sectors, including higher and further education, that had been slow to embrace digital transformation and stand up to disruption.

Technology Venture Capitalist’s have invested a record £20bn into British startups this year, and with economic recovery at the front of everyone’s mind, there is, surprisingly, a remarkable level of optimism emerging from the embers of the pandemic.

The majority of businesses that are looking to scale in any meaningful way will look to raise funding at some point. As well as the other steps already discussed in this series and in my new book, there are two very specific actions that need to be undertaken; valuing your business and embarking on a fundraising campaign.

A shift towards hybrid working, increased use of digital channels and the rise of new technologies means that businesses rely on the internet now more than ever. A reliable, high-quality connection is a non-negotiable for efficient operations across all industries, but it’s important to determine the right way to connect for your business. While many businesses opt for broadband, could an Ethernet leased line be a better choice?

The past 18 months have been challenging but, as some might say, through adversity comes opportunity. The pandemic has given many people the chance to reconsider their position - what they’re doing and where they want to go - so it comes as no surprise that 2020 saw a record number of startups.

If we aren’t currently talking about the upcoming COP26, that is taking place this Sunday (so article pending next week), or about Facebook rebranding as Meta, (who knows where that came from?) then everyone is talking about the Chancellor’s budget announcement and what that means four the startups and small businesses out there.

A recent Utility Bidder article reveals that hybrid working offices could save businesses up to a net of £1.6bn. 

Online reputation management (ORM) focuses on helping businesses create a positive public impression. To achieve this, a company needs to counteract all the negative material there is online about them. 

When you start a new business there are so many barriers that you need to overcome.  The first barrier is validating your business idea and ensuring that it will be profitable, and that there’ll be a target market willing and able to buy from you. 

The holiday season can be a stressful time for any startup. However, add the current global supply chain issues to the holiday rush, and businesses just might see a repeat of the fulfillment issues from late 2020. 

Every brand thinks they can turn on the charm to impress the ladies, but the opposite is often true. While an enormous 89% of women control daily shopping, the overwhelming majority (a whopping 91%) feel advertisers simply don’t understand us. Shocking, I know.

The digital transformation is bringing significant benefits for firms of all sizes. From new revenue opportunities to reduced transaction costs to better access to information, digital technologies are boosting performance and profitability.

Your team will be at the core of your business and growing one that works for you and your business is probably one of the most important factors in building a successful business.

While you should be proud that your kid can speak fluently in your native language, learning a second language at an early age can open doors to many more opportunities.

I would be lying if I said that raising capital as a female Founder is an easy process. Even those that make it look easy, have faced invisible barriers that aren’t present with their male counterparts. What I have learnt, however, is that having this knowledge - that I am a woman (and woman of colour) and that I am on the backfoot - simply doesn’t help me at all.

Before March 2020, catching ‘fresher’s flu’ was a right of passage for university students. Fast forward 18 months and students around the world stayed indoors to keep illness at bay. However, the pandemic has taught the education sector an important lesson - the value of selecting the right communication tools. 

The startup phase is full of energy and excitement. That being said, taking the time to think about accounting and bookkeeping is a bit like asking which neighborhood wants to sit out the pickup ballgame to serve as scorekeeper.

If you have ever advertised online, the chances are that you have been a victim of ad fraud. Ad fraud can be defined as any attempt to defraud digital advertising networks and campaigns for financial gain. It is typically carried out through the use of bots – software applications programmed to do certain tasks – though there are a number of other methods that scammers use to trick advertisers and waste their budgets.

Placing a 30-second advert in the Super Bowl costs about £4 million. A billboard in Times Square might run you between ​​£1-2 million for a month. Even placing a simple spread in a popular magazine will typically start in the tens of thousands.

You are a tech founder or dream of a successful career as a VC investor. Imagine finding yourself in a room with one of the absolute legends in early stage investing in Europe. Not virtually. In-person. One hand away. Like good old times but better. 

Alongside inventing the first parachute and helicopter, Leonardo da Vinci is credited with creating the first CV. In 1482 he wrote to the Duke of Milan to try and secure some work. And it worked. The Duke become a fan, commissioned da Vinci for The Last Supper, and the rest is history.

It’s no secret that content is still king when optimising websites and pages for search engines. Every content marketer knows this all too well and that high-quality content is essential to drive visitors in today’s online world. However, relying on content alone is not enough. Using internal links is also necessary to support your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to drive traffic to your pages.

When wanting to transition into biotech startup, it’s important to consider your strategy to succeed. Biotech companies need to address an unmet medical/technological need in the market. Without careful evaluation of market potential, there is a risk of failure. 

This article could have been entitled ‘data and financials’ but so many of you would not have got even this far.  But the truth is that data and your financials are not just numbers, as without a clear understanding of both of these then nothing else stands much of a chance.  Data needs to be properly collected and analysed, and any assumptions and financial forecasts are then driven from this data.

C-suite staff are the cornerstone of every business, with their decisions accounting for just under half (45%) of overall company performance. Despite the C-suite titles being the most sought-after in business, it can often be an intense and all-consuming position.

There is a lot that goes into running a successful business. From managing employees, to budgeting to meet financial obligations, to keeping customers happy — a company leader is always on their toes. Like it or not, sustainability and green marketing have quickly become another thing to balance on an already large plate.

Hybrid working is happening. At least, that’s what large organisations are telling everyone. We recently examined the publicly stated positions of 150 FTSE and Fortune companies and found that two-thirds were on record advocating some form of hybrid working for their employees, compared to just 6% that had publicly stated their opposition for non-office-based working.

The buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere - and with good reason. AI plays a pivotal role in many aspects of our lives ranging from Google maps to facial recognition to voice assistants. AI is now ingrained into so many elements of our lives. But at what cost? 

Technology is a vital and core part of everyday life, and even more so now since COVID-19 struck and we faced a global lockdown.

Generational differences within a workplace are nothing new. For years we’ve listened to baby boomers and millennials clash over each other's attitudes towards work and how each generation has varying traits that impact their ability to work. 

One of the biggest reasons for startup failure is ‘the wrong team’. I’ve been building startups with different co-founders for over three decades and have seen a lot of what goes wrong.

Work-life balance is my lover and spreading its joy with others is one of my reasons for living (we are in a very open relationship, please join). But we’ve not always been so close.

When people think about mentorship in business, it’s usually along the lines of the following: a seasoned professional offering advice and support to younger and less experienced colleagues or associates. But mentorship can be so much more than this. In this challenging post-pandemic era, it is an essential ingredient, not only in building a successful company financially but also one that has a positive social impact. To understand just how important it can be, here are some ways mentorship can be considered and implemented:

A new report shows as many as one in seven people plan to set up their own business over the next 12 months as the country moves out of the pandemic. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report record numbers of new firms are already in the early stages of starting out.  

As a result of the pandemic, working from home has become, by default, the new normal. As many organizations are weighing up a partial return to the workplace – at least in a hybrid capacity – now is a good time to reflect on the efforts made to encourage positive interaction amongst teams throughout the WFH experiment. For many, this will involve rethinking how the office, and the new digital tools adopted over the past 18 months, fit into their business.

There’s always been something rather bittersweet about the back-to-school season. On one hand, it marks when the mornings start to feel a little more crisp, the return to the grind after that last bank holiday until Christmas. On the other, there’s a sense of hopeful optimism – a chance for new beginnings and an opportunity to return to work feeling refreshed.

As the 2021 festive season fast approaches, many small businesses will be turning their heads towards planning, utilising and thriving during the Christmas period. 

After more than a year apart, many businesses are now making plans to welcome their employees back into the workplace again. Remote working has been a test for companies during lockdown; while some have thrived and experienced growth, others have suffered under the pressure to quickly adapt. 

No matter how hard you work or how much you grind you’re going to need a chunk of cash to get that startup flywheel turning. Generating that initial inertia takes energy and fuel… you’ve brought the energy, but what about the fuel?!

While some countries still refrain from even admitting problems are here, human environmental impact is becoming so obvious that the world’s greatest companies are taking action.

As many move back to the offices, whether full-time or hybrid, there’s a palpable sense that our lives are starting to return to normal. However, a change that must be seen in this ‘new normal’ is more open discussions at work around mental health.

Getting a new business off the ground is an intensive and time-consuming endeavour that will test even the most resilient of us, which is why so many new companies are established without working systems and processes in place.

When you’re growing your startup, your to-do list can be never ending. From developing products and services through to building your team and securing those all-important first customers.

In a nutshell, digital transformation is the process of leveraging digitisation to transform business outcomes. So, what is the difference?

Even with a stand-out business idea, securing the funds to set your plans into motion is one of the biggest hurdles an emerging enterprise will face. Luckily, there are a number of ways in which your startup or SME can gain capital.

According to Creative Wellness Co, the global wellness market is valued at over $4.75 trillion. And if we think about the change in attitudes towards personal wellness over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic,  it’s no surprise that venture funding for retail health and wellness tech startups set a record in the first quarter of 2021, with $4.2bn invested across 153 deals.

How can you shop ethically, but within your means? Sustainable brands and products are on the rise, but they can often cost double what you’d pay for single-use items which are mass-produced or animal-tested. Maddie Booth, Founder of Scrubbee, told us all about her eco-friendly and affordable cosmetic brand.

You may have thought that the return to ‘normality’ would be a good thing for business. With most people now off furlough, some back in the office and others working permanently from home, there are mixed feelings from employees who are now having to adapt to the ‘new normal’. In fact, it has been estimated that over 40% of people globally plan to leave their jobs this year! 

The past few decades have been all about the myriad physical benefits of a healthy diet and regular exercise. We all know about the improvements in our cardiovascular health, not to mention decreased blood pressure and much lesser risks of developing various diseases. 

With the furlough scheme set to come to an end on 30th September, there are widespread fears that business owners still unable to welcome back their pre-pandemic workforces will be forced to make mass redundancies leaving millions more out of work.

Compliance is becoming a complex issue for organisations. As businesses engage in more remote and digital work practices due to COVID-19, governments globally are implementing a growing number of data privacy regulations for organisations to abide by.