Designing your business systems can give you clarity in many areas and identify what steps you are missing or need to improve. The key is to keep things simple. The core of your business is your customer journey, so that’s what you should focus on. You and your team may have many ideas on new ways to improve the journey, but it is important to look at the following six main steps when shaping it.

Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy, accounting for 36% of turnover in the UK private sector and half of the UK workforce. However, this backbone is experiencing a great period of economic uncertainty as both their costs have increased and customers have less to spend. This uncertainty has led to four in five small business owners struggling to plan beyond 2023. Facing such economic headwinds, small businesses should look to the power of branding as the way to continue thriving. 

It’s mental awareness month, and educating people about mental health is essential as more and more people are affected. When people around us are experiencing mental health issues, we need to know how to respond.

In the final article in our four-part series, we will pick up where we left off in part three (startups leveraging each other’s networks to drive portfolio sales) and look at how young firms buying from each other creates opportunities for closer collaborations. Over to Sam Perry, Founder of Ensemble, with contributions from Rory Sadler Co-Founder and CEO at Trumpet.

If there is one thing everyone hates, it's the sense of failure. Indeed, the sweetness of victory feels just so much better. As an entrepreneur, though, you may learn much more from setbacks than successes. We must approach failure with a different mindset - seeing it as a chance rather than an obstacle.

Mental Health Awareness Week takes place 15 – 21 May, and this year’s theme focuses on anxiety. Most people can relate to feelings of anxiety around a social activity, be it a family gathering, big work meeting, or starting a new job. Social anxiety disorder, however, can be far more debilitating than the ‘normal’ nervousness that we can all experience, and it can have a significant impact on the wellbeing and relationships of those it affects, as well as those around them. 

In my day gig as a provider of sales support services to startups, it’s fascinating to hear which factors are believed to be the most important when trying to attract new customers.

Britain’s parents are paying to work.

Every startup or scaleup founder knows how tough raising investment in this environment can be. From getting the correct marketing documents together, perfecting your pitch to building your confidence and finding the right investors; the process can be a minefield.

As the Internet industry becomes increasingly competitive, businesses must differentiate themselves by providing unique customer experiences. Provide insight into CRM data and how it can be used to help personalise the experience. Engaging customers, retaining them, and increasing sales can be achieved by using customer data.

As a startup, branding can end up as an afterthought. It’s understandable when you’re spinning a hundred plates at once, many of which require immediate attention (finances, workforce, strategy).

Following the sudden switch to remote work caused by the pandemic, this new way of working has become commonplace, with huge demand among employees for it to stay.

As fun and rewarding as it is, business traveling can lead to a very unhealthy lifestyle.

When traveling, people tend to think less about a healthy diet, sleep less, or don’t get enough exercise. Also, business meetings and conferences often end up with binge drinking large amounts of free alcohol.

According to Harvard Business Review, business travel is connected with depression, anxiety, and even alcoholism.

Staying healthy while traveling isn't hard, but there are certain things and habits worth implementing.

In today’s digital world, businesses are looking for new and innovative ways to connect with customers.

Many hundreds of thousands of new businesses are set up each year in the UK. Indeed, according to Companies House, just over 200,000 new businesses were established in the first three months of 2023. For some, the founders will be content with a lifestyle business or will not wish to scale in any meaningful way. But the majority of businesses will need to raise some form of funding and for many this will be during the early-stage of the business when it is looking to scale.

Space has inspired countless generations of people who have marvelled at the night sky. It’s no wonder then that the space sector proves to be an attractive option, especially for fresh graduates and early career engineers. But the realities of a sector where remuneration for highly-skilled engineering talent struggles to keep pace with other industries means it is hard for space businesses to retain good talent.

In the second instalment of our four-article series, we looked at how startups can often partner with each other to secure cutting-edge solutions, leading to competitive advantages.

In today’s business climate, there’s no denying the importance of sustainable operating practices. Operating sustainably has plenty of tangible benefits for businesses – aside from a clean conscience of course. Increased profitability and desirability as an employer are just two of the advantages that can be gleaned from sustainable business.

We know from our own research that first-party misuse is increasing dramatically. Two thirds of the merchants we surveyed as part of our last annual Chargeback Field Report said that they have seen first-party misuse rise by an average of 28%. Every chargeback dispute can cost a company 2.5x the cost of the initial transaction and can necessitate companies setting up departments solely dedicated to recovering funds lost to chargebacks.

Starting a business is usually the most creative, exciting and scary period in the life of an entrepreneur. Usually, it’s a time when ideas materialise and ambition is fuelling all energy reserves.