People across the country are being encouraged to show some love for small businesses as they face another challenging month in lockdown. With a government review of current restrictions not due until 22nd February, Small Business Britain issued the call ahead of this weekend’s Valentine’s Day.

Digital innovations have changed the way businesses operate. Where once a company might remain in the one location with the same target customer base, technological advances have created room for expansion overseas.

Before you even think about starting a business you have to know that there is going to be a need for your services or product. In our case, a large number of teachers leaving their profession in addition to the ever-increasing class sizes in public schools mean that there was a growing gap in the market for private tuition.

Google Analytics provides you with a wealth of information about the way your site is being used, but as the pandemic has shown us, statistics can be misleading. Data can be sliced and diced in such a number of ways it can become almost meaningless.

Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it’s now imperative. Creating a sustainable future remains prominent on global agendas. As organisations strive for longevity, businesses are looking for innovative solutions to ensure business continuity. 

In the time of COVID-19, the unheard victims are those entering the jobs market or hoping to build a career. The loss of life is tragic and deserves to dominate the headlines. Yet, we should not ignore the longer-term consequences to the confidence of our young people. 16 to 24-year-olds are the most likely to lose their job or be made redundant. It is also impossible for those fresh out of university to find a position. It is hard to win that first step on the ladder in the best of times, and these are not those times.

And the Whatsapp ordeal is a cautionary tale for those who fail to recognise it. Since pretty much the beginning of human commerce, entrepreneurs have based their strategy around competing on two verticals, price and quality. Generally speaking, if your price is low, you’d expect the quality to also be low and vice versa.

It is important to highlight the challenges that startups face when supporting employee mental wellness and how to easily transform wellness in the workplace.

73% of tech talent would consider working for a startup in 2021, with male tech talent more likely to work for a startup (63%) than female (49%). That’s according to a recent survey by Talent Works, which asked UK employees in a variety of tech roles what they look for in a job and where they look for new opportunities.

With the transition into the new era of digital marketing precipitated by the COVID-19 related shopping disruptions, the SEO landscape in 2021 looks like nothing before. With eCommerce sales expected to jump from 14.1% in 2019 to 22% by 2023, mobile shopping dominating the online retail and UX becoming a ranking factor.

In the final part of this series, I’m looking right in the eyes of the elephant in the room: risk.

There are many joys that come from starting life as a freelancer or small business owner – the empowering feeling of striking out on your own, the freedom to set your schedule, the sense of accomplishment when your ideas come to life. But one of the biggest headaches is suddenly being in charge of your own finances, from payroll to budgeting to taxes, especially if you have limited experience in these areas.

NeuReality, an Israeli startup developing high performance AI compute for cloud data centres and edge nodes, emerges from stealth today with $8m seed from Cardumen Capital, OurCrowd and Varana Capital to fuel the growth of real life AI applications running at scale. NeuReality will introduce its first AI platform early this year.

Just one percent of VC-funded founders in the US are Black and the rates of investment in European Black-owned businesses even lower. Just three percent of Londoners working in the tech sector are Black and only 8.5% of senior leaders in the UK tech sector from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds.

Uptime, the free app that presents expertly curated five-minute Knowledge Hacks of the world’s best books, courses, and documentaries, has raised a $16m Seed round to bring its platform to more users globally. 

AberInnovation has announced the six winners from the first phase of BioAccelerate 2020, their flagship business accelerator programme for biotechnology, agri-tech and food and drink innovations.

The impact of innovation from the technology sector permeates our everyday lives. No sooner has one technology gone mainstream, but speculation begins on where the next big thing will come from, or what it will be.

As one of the UK’s leading third-party logistics providers, Wincanton plays a huge role in construction projects all across the UK. Now, with the launch of Sprint 3 of W2 Labs - an innovation lab designed to discover emerging innovative ideas and tackle some of the logistics industry’s toughest challenges, they are aiming to focus on the construction sector specifically.

For anyone looking to make the leap into self-employment, the moment might just have arrived. Insurance broker PolicyBee has uncovered that online searches for freelancers increased over the last year, particularly for individuals with digital marketing skills.

Jolt, a leading online business school backed by Octopus Ventures and Balderton Capital, today announces that it has created over 400 work placements at some of the UK’s most exciting tech businesses through its bespoke version of the Government’s Kickstart Scheme.