The past 18 months have been challenging but, as some might say, through adversity comes opportunity. The pandemic has given many people the chance to reconsider their position - what they’re doing and where they want to go - so it comes as no surprise that 2020 saw a record number of startups.

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. 

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.  

If we aren’t currently talking about the upcoming COP26, that is taking place this Sunday (so article pending next week), or about Facebook rebranding as Meta, (who knows where that came from?) then everyone is talking about the Chancellor’s budget announcement and what that means four the startups and small businesses out there.

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.

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. 

The modern workplace is rapidly becoming an increasingly competitive place in the post-pandemic environment. Ultimately, such high competition in the office leads to a lot of stress and strife. As colleagues and other staff members become sick, the remaining ones have to take the slack. 

According to data from What Customers Want, 91% of consumers prefer to purchase from small to medium-sized businesses. Why?

Online reputation management (ORM) focuses on helping businesses create a positive public impression. To achieve this, a company needs to counteract all the negative material there is online about them. 

Startup businesses ought to grow in size and complexity. The expression of the business founders’ passion to meet a need in the marketplace, should in theory grow as big as possible to meet that need. Unfortunately, for most startups scaling up often leads to failure and is a leading cause of startups not succeeding within the first 10 years.

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.

When you start a new business there are so many barriers that you need to overcome.  The first barrier is validating your business idea and ensuring that it will be profitable, and that there’ll be a target market willing and able to buy from you. 

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.

The holiday season can be a stressful time for any startup. However, add the current global supply chain issues to the holiday rush, and businesses just might see a repeat of the fulfillment issues from late 2020.