Personal wellbeing is a key factor driving entrepreneurs to leave traditional jobs and set up their own businesses. This is a core finding of a new research study into the motivations of new business owners.

UK-based Unlock, a SaaS-enabled marketplace to build culture among remote teams, has raised a $2m seed round.

Freedom business summit 2021, the global summit for those looking for ways to take their freedom back, mitigate geopolitical risks, protect their wealth and build a location independent lifestyle is returning this November. 

Building on the success of the Virtual Interiors Event in February, which attracted almost 4,000 commercial interiors professionals from 83 countries, and a thought leadership festival in September, which saw over 800 ticket registrations, a second VI:INSIGHTS is due to take place 6th - 10th December.  

Europe’s largest business show is back for 2021, returning to the ExCeL London on the 24th and 25th November, with the launch of co-located shows including Working From Home Live and Retrain Expo. Helping 25,000 SMEs and startups to grow and develop, the 43rd edition of The Business Show will reveal the secrets of the business adaption, innovation and survival as we recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business leaders have urged political leaders to use next week’s COP26 summit as the 'catalyst for change' and to help turbocharge a eco-revolution among UK firms. Global leaders will converge on Glasgow next week as the world unites to tackle climate change. Now, ahead of the conference, business leaders and experts have set out the policies they’d like to see delivered to help them trade in a more sustainable way. 

Large scale disaster events have increased during the last two decades, and this upsurge can be put down to climate change. As 70 per cent of the world population lives in cities, improving urban resilience against disasters is paramount, and to do this effectively you need to involve the communities most affected say Professor Jon Coaffee, Politics and International Studies and Academic lead for the Global Research Priority in Sustainable Cities, University of Warwick.

Real Business Rescue reveals an almost 10% improvement in SMEs in significant distress following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

Activate Studio opens winter cohort application for early-stage tech startups for winter 2021.

AppFollow, the leading app review insights and management platform released findings from a new research report: 'Reputation Management for Mobile Apps | Rating & Reviews in 2021', which extensively examines the unmet demand for stellar customer experiences across all mobile applications, including a lack of sufficient customer support and not taking on board requested features or reported issues.  

Over 90 local SMEs join the all-in-one business dashboard tool myDATA3 within the first weeks of launch.

Award-winning Australian shin splints treatment, Solushin, announces its partnership with Osgo, an educator and distributor of medical products in the United Kingdom.

Richard Godmon, a tax partner at top 25 accountancy firm, Menzies LLP gave some insight on the implications of the Chancellor’s announcements for UK businesses as they get on the road to recovery, after pandemic-related disruption.

The post pandemic budget failed to deliver the shot in the arm many entrepreneurs were hoping for, a business leader has warned. Toby Harper, the CEO of Harper James Solicitors, said the Chancellor’s announcements didn’t match the ambition many business owners would have liked to see. 

Welcoming today’s budget announcement, which commits additional funding to skills development, trade bodies and professional associations across the UK are calling on the government to support industry-led jobs and skills training programmes – to address the UK’s digital skills crisis and strengthen its economic recovery from coronavirus.

Weaver Labs, a UK startup that is driving growth through connectivity, will work in collaboration with OroraTech as part of a Track & Trust consortium led by Datarella.

BJSS and Northcoders to offer Birmingham SMEs 10 fully-funded digital skills programmes.

 

As COVID restrictions are lifting and the world is opening back up again, businesses are keen to get back to travelling.

Following on from the easing of national lockdown restrictions in April, Real Business Rescue have released their quarterly Business Distress Index for Q2 (April - June 2020), uncovering a post-pandemic health check on SMEs in the UK. You can view the full report here. 

Europe’s largest Business Show is back for 2021, returning to London’s ExCeL on the 24th & 25th of November, helping small businesses grow and develop. The 43rd edition of the show will reveal the secrets of business adaptation, innovation and survival as we recover from the pandemic.