Accounting for 99% of all companies and 77% of the workforce, according to McKinsey, small and medium-size enterprises are, by far, the largest commercial segment in the UK.

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:

Having decided that the entrepreneurial life is for you, it is then necessary to think about how you will actually make that best happen. The specific legal structure that you choose is only the vehicle used to transform your ideas into reality, and your theory into sales and profit. 

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. 

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.

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.

For anyone starting a business there is that delicious and intoxicating mixture of excitement tinged with fear. Both these are driven by stepping into the unknown and doing something new. Doing anything new or different will always present new challenges, and the further outside of your personal experience or comfort zone any new enterprise is, then potentially the larger those challenges will be.

Autumn is already upon us and the nights are drawing in - Christmas is only just round the corner. However, this isn’t always a reason for small businesses to celebrate. The calendar year-end can often coincide with tricky cashflow gaps for smaller companies which can lead to some less than silent nights for business owners. Here are some tips on why it may be worth thinking ahead now and looking at company finances in advance, to avoid getting some unsightly lumps of coal in the company stocking instead of a winter celebration. 

London is the leading destination to grow a technology business outside of Silicon Valley, according to a comprehensive ranking of international startup hubs compiled by Startup Genome for its annual Global Startup Ecosystem Report 2021.

Ensuring your business has a gender pay report in place has “never been more important”, a leading employment solicitor said. Companies with 250 or more members of staff now have just two weeks to report their gender pay gap information

Talent Works, the collaborative talent acquisition company, is working with Individual Placement & Support (IPS) specialist IPS Grow to hire 1,500 employment specialists by 2024.