As a small business owner, PR should be considered as a crucial part of your business strategy. Despite our obsession with social media and the glut of information that we consume daily, nothing can take away from the feeling of certitude that traditional press channels provide us. Be it in the form of news, business features or a founder profile piece, if it has the press’s seal of approval, it positively influences the way audiences respond to that piece of news.

What a year for venture investing. Crunchbase recently released figures that show venture funding soared to a total of $288bn for the first half of 2021. This represents an all-time record high and four times the level of VC spending four years ago! With all this money raised, it seems natural that venture funding would be the first port of call for startup founders. However, that view is based on several myths. Sometimes venture capital is simply not the right fit for many businesses. And I say that as a venture investor myself.

Today’s smart cities are transforming the way we live, work and play. But far from being just a 21st-century gimmick, there are significant, even life-changing, advantages to the implementation of smart technology in cities around the world. 

It’s a myth that investors expect founders to not pay themselves a salary. Anthony Rose, CEO and Co-founder of SeedLegals, explains why.

The way in which consumers are searching for products online has changed. In recent times, there has been a significant increase in question-based searches from consumers looking for quick solutions to their needs, overtaking direct searches for brand names. It’s clear the consumer environment is evolving, so what can be done to ensure existing and emerging businesses can keep up?

Your startup has entered the market, and you are wondering what to focus on first. When starting any business you must go through certain stages, so startups focus first on product development, then on building a customer base and establishing a positive cash flow.

The office is still a vital component of the world of work in 2021, especially for small and medium sized businesses which are leading the way in the return to the workplace. Latest figures from property agent Cushman & Wakefield shows that office lettings are at the highest level since lockdown started, and our own occupancy rates at WorkPad concur with this.

Managing your finances is the most important task to understand as a new business owner, but if you’ve never needed to keep accounts before it can seem like a daunting task. However, by following a few simple steps, you can ensure your accounts are precise and your finances are aligned with your operational goals.

COVID-19 has shown the power of clinical trials. It took less than 300 days for one vaccine to go from being an idea in a lab to be ready for administering to the general public. The question now is how we can accelerate clinical trials for other diseases, at a time when the healthcare industry is stretched and doesn’t have the capacity to run patient research at the speed or scale that’s needed.

Here, we caught up with Dr Matt Wilson, Founder and CEO of research automation platform, uMed, who is on a mission to help more healthcare providers and their patients take part in clinical studies.

Guy Rigby, Founder and now Chair of the Entrepreneurial Services Group at Smith & Williamson, and his fellow crew member, entrepreneur, investor and sports enthusiast, David Murray – will row across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge in 'The Entrepreneur Ship'. Rigby and Murray will begin their row from the Canaries to Antigua on 12th December 2021, hoping to arrive in February 2022. The completed challenge will see them recognised as the oldest pair in the world to row any ocean.

With banks paying just 0.05% on business savings, SMEs have the opportunity to earn much higher returns by investing their surplus cash in the stock market, says Andrey Dobrynin, Managing Director at InvestEngine.

Over the past year, the coronavirus outbreak left many workers confined to their homes. While this presented several challenges, it also allowed people to enjoy their creature comforts. From regular (perhaps too regular) trips to the fridge, to watching TV or playing video games on lunch breaks. The UK workforce has certainly become accustomed to a more convivial working environment. The question for many businesses, is how does this translate into work-place expectations when so many are now flocking back to offices? Love Energy Savings wanted to find out.

In 2020, Siemens Smart Infrastructure and WUN H2 partnered up to build a hydrogen production plant in Germany. The plant will run on renewable energy and will be carbon-free, contributing to Germany’s pledge to become gas-neutral by 2050. However exciting the news, Siemens is an established business within automation industry, the road to carbon neutrality is often harder for small manufacturers. Here Neil Ballinger, head of EMEA at automation parts supplier EU Automation, shares some tips.

Making.com, an online platform that simplifies the connection between people looking for production technology and suppliers that offer it, has launched. It is a platform to group technologies around the products they help make, allowing creators of all sizes access to the ‘hidden network’ of machines, manufacturers, tooling suppliers and therefore the knowledge previously accessible only through long-established private networks.

World Suicide Prevention Day takes place on the 10th September 2021. Overseas employees face very specific challenges that can differ depending on their host nation. Employers must be aware of the support, or lack of it, available in different countries and ensure their provision leaves no gaps.

Cera, a UK based provider of at home healthcare services, has now delivered more than ten million in-person healthcare visits to older and vulnerable people throughout the UK, in their homes, since the outbreak of COVID-19.

AirBolt, a consumer and enterprise tracking and access company, has announced the closing of its $2m series seed fundraising round, with a majority growth investment led by 72Capital. The investment will accelerate plans to expand AirBolt’s range of connected devices and global partnerships. It will also allow AirBolt to grow more aggressively internationally, expand into new product categories, and enhance its global live tracking service to deliver more peace of mind to its growing community of users.

BP Ventures has €10m in-car digital payments provider, ryd. The company offers a single digital payment solution for drivers, for services such as fuel purchases, EV charging and car washing, via its app or through integration with smart car systems.

QJumpers, a sourcing and recruitment software provider, has announced it's AI Talent Sourcing. The tool scours publicly available information and uses AI to find, rank and engage highly qualified, passive job candidates that previously could not be found through traditional sourcing and advertising methods.