COVID-19 is changing the way SMEs take payments, with the use of cash payments having halved and online card payments rising by a quarter during the pandemic, according to the latest independent research from Close Brothers Asset Finance.

Workplace wellbeing expert, Kate Bishop is offering a free Wellness in Action Plan for all UK employers and workers to help tackle the rising levels of anxiety felt by those returning to work after months of working from home or furlough.

Local businesses are core to our communities, but the impact of COVID-19 has been tough on business owners. As the UK steadily reopens its doors to businesses and people alike, Google has pledged to support small businesses across the country with a burgeoning package of products, tools and services to support the reopening and growth of British commerce.

Redundancy is not a modern phenomenon. Recessions date back to the year 1430 and at each occurrence, swathes of hard workers have lost their jobs.

Secure business operations on digital platforms bring a unique set of challenges to compliance for managers. Startups now have to seek SOC 2 compliance just like other traditional businesses.

While WFH or Working From Home has become one of the new buzz phrases from lockdown, this is not always the preferred option, reality or choice for a large number of companies or indeed employees. 

At a time when many professional growth strategies have been put on hold as businesses navigate the huge impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, one of the country’s career coaches is working to support and empower ambitious employees as they continue on their own pathways to success.

Britain’s small businesses achieved three years of innovation in just three months as they battled to keep trading during the coronavirus lockdown. While such efforts to keep revenues flowing have been successful for some owners, concerns about employment prospects and future investment remain for many as lockdown restrictions begin to ease.

The re-opening of shops provided a much-needed relief for retailers in the last two weeks, as the number of companies with a negative assessment of trading conditions plummeted from more than half (54%) to 37%, according to the latest Opinium-Cebr Business Distress Tracker.

Global small business platform, Xero has announced its new analysis has revealed the extent of COVID-19’s impact on UK small business employment and revenue between March and May 2020, showing a 28% drop in revenue and a six percent decline in employment. Late payments to UK small businesses increased by 7.8 days between February and May 2020.

More than two-thirds of business leaders across the UK have no idea how much employee sickness is costing their business, according to e-days, the absence intelligence platform.

The Coronavirus pandemic could deepen the North-South divide in the UK - that is according to new Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer. He did, however, make it clear that the problem could be alleviated with a fairer distribution of investment into the Northern regions.

As the UK marks three months under lockdown, Sage has published an in-depth report based on weekly polling of a total of 5,000 SMEs over the course of the lockdown period.

The Mayor of London’s scaleup programme has teamed up with Microsoft to provide some of the capital’s leading small companies with extra support to help them grow.

Roy Ledgister, Founder & CEO of Convivia, speaks to Startups Magazine about his experiences and offers some insight into entrepreneurship.

Britain is facing a projected £74bn drop in revenue for creative industries due to the coronavirus pandemic, with 400,000 jobs of artists, designers, musicians, creators and curators likely to be lost.

The vision for Alexa is to set customers free to do more in life. To achieve this, Amazon is continuing to assist the growing number of startups and entrepreneurs working with voice technology.

The number of people on UK payrolls dropped by 612,000 between March and May, according to early data from the Office for National Statistics and HM Revenue and Customs that is starting to show the depth of the hit to the economy from the pandemic. The UK unemployment rate for the three months to April 2020 was estimated at 3.9%, 0.1 percentage points higher than a year earlier but largely unchanged on the previous quarter.

Over the last few weeks, Chancellor Rishi Sunak spelled out how he and the Treasury plan to end the Job Retention Scheme - also known as furlough - at the end of October. The scheme is currently paying 80% of the wages of at least 8.4 million workers placed on furlough by their employers. Many are concerned that the majority of these workers will be made redundant as soon as the scheme ends, leading to mass unemployment.

The Bank of England has revealed that it may take the cost of borrowing below zero for the first time in its over 300-year history; following moves by Eurozone countries to introduce negative interest rates. The move could effectively mean that savers pay to have their money with banks and are incentivised to borrow money and increase their spending.