Today saw what we had all been waiting for, the budget announcement from the Chancellor Rishi Sunak - but what does that mean for the economy and small businesses? 

The UK is heading towards a ‘burnout breakpoint’ with search data exposing alarming levels of people seeking help. As we quickly approach the anniversary of the first lockdown, Chris Parke, CEO of Talking Talent who discovered these findings is urging businesses to support employees and implement practical solutions to prevent similar levels throughout 2021 and hordes of workers reaching their breakpoint.

Xero has announced the acquisition of Planday, a workforce management platform with more than 350,000 employee users across Europe and the UK that simplifies employee scheduling, allowing businesses to forecast and manage their labour costs.

Ten exciting startups are pioneering new green technologies with support from 5PRING and its Green Innovation Challenge programme, set-up in partnership with Suez, a large utilities company, and the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) last year.

Generating £27.8bn gross value added annually, and employing more than 360,000 people, the West Midlands is the UK’s largest centre for Business, Professional and Financial Services (BPFS) outside London. Now, business leaders from Shoosmiths, Wesleyan, Bruntwood, CBRE and Birmingham Law Society, amongst others, are working with the region’s just under 12,500 leading tech and digital companies to see how they can integrate AI and advanced technology into their everyday activities.

Tractable, the AI startup accelerating recovery from accidents and natural disasters, has announced that former Microsoft CFO and Ignition Partners Managing Partner, John Connors, has joined its Board of Directors.

BLEND (formerly OneHourTranslation), an end-to-end technology-based multi-market enabler, announced the completion of a $10m funding round to fuel its continued rapid growth. Existing investor Fortissimo Capital led the round following a year of strategic expansion reflected in the company’s new brand and offering. BLEND leverages OneHourTranslation’s AI-driven language technology, 25,000 expert linguists, and advanced tech stack to help global brands establish a native presence in fundamentally different markets, worldwide.

Class-ify, a new digital platform ‘powered by human connection’, has been launched by former Just Eat employees to enable fitness instructors to build their own businesses online. Set to revolutionise the fitness industry by providing a workout experience ‘powered by human connection’, Class-ify helps independent health and fitness instructors monetise their audience and build a global community, all from the use of a laptop or smartphone device. 

Retail Marketing Group (RMG), a UK-based marketing agency, has announced the launch of E:VENT Virtual & Hybrid Solutions, a virtual world experience that enables businesses to bring people and teams back together. Designed to keep employees, visitors and customers safe whilst working from home, the new E:VENT solutions provide a bespoke virtual environment for exclusive, secure and innovative events, and offers intimate board meetings to full-scale conference productions, as well as interactive learning, employee engagement, and celebratory experiences.

The Central Research Laboratory (CRL) is seeking applications for its 8th world leading accelerator programme, supporting early growth stage product pioneers.

To mark International Women’s Day 2021, Sodexo Engage UK is offering women an opportunity to join its job shadowing program, SheWorks.

Digital Boost, a new platform connecting organisations with digital skills founded by serial entrepreneur Sherry Coutu CBE, has today set out a bold ambition to digitally upskill 500,000 women from female-led organisations by January 2022, with 200,000 of those from BAME backgrounds.

The founder of LatchAid, a FemTech startup using innovative technology to revolutionise breastfeeding and early parenting support, has won the prestigious Women in Innovation award.

UK businesses are at risk of losing employee trust through choosing to abstain from reporting their gender gap figures, following on from the EHRC’s second deadline extension. Government figures show that nearly half of 10,000 eligible employers chose not to submit their pay gap figures last year - equalling to nearly 5,000 businesses that possibly have something to hide.

Xero accounting and bookkeeping practices and app partners across the UK and Ireland were honoured at the annual Xero awards. Hosted by Gary Turner, Xero UK & EMEA Managing Director and comedian, Henry Paker in an online ceremony, the awards showcased the achievements of those supporting small businesses through one of the toughest years. 

A London-based business growth agency has set up a neural network to help enhance its Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) services.

Angel Business Club will lift the lid on the secrets to investment success when the club’s Insights Series returns on Wednesday 17th March.

Innovative property technology company, Vouch has confirmed that their team has more than doubled since March 2020, marking a 118% workforce increase despite the lockdown. Designed and built by letting agents for letting agents, Vouch delivers a referencing solution designed for the 21st century. 

Following the government’s latest support measures for SMEs, new research from Xero shows that many firms acknowledge they will make more use of technology to capitalise on the post-lockdown bounceback, with the potential for a £16.6bn productivity boost.

To mark International Women's Day, University of Bristol-led tech incubator, SETsquared Bristol, are opening applications for Enterprising Women 2.0, a pre-incubation programme for women-led businesses, in partnership with NatWest.