If your business is registered with Companies House, all your directors and people with significant control (PSCs) will need to verify their identity. This requirement applies from 18 November 2025, when a 12-month transition period begins. Identity verification will help strengthen the integrity of the UK company register and help tackle misuse of company information. This is good news for business, users of the register and efforts to tackle economic crime. Companies House has designed the identity verification processes to be simple, secure and robust using existing forms of identification, such as a passport or driving licence. From 18 November…

 At least once in your lifetime, you’ll find yourself at a crossroads.  One path whispers: Keep going. Just one more step. The other screams: You’ve had enough. Walk away while you still can.  You’ll often make a decision based on what feels right at the time. And looking back a few years on, you’ll realise that your entire life is a collection of such moments and decisions. Every time you choose to stay or to leave. Every time fear won or courage did.  As a business owner, I’ve found that in many instances, giving up should not be your immediate…

Expanding internationally is often seen as a defining moment for a growing business. For many leaders, the idea of taking their product or service into new territories represents the peak of ambition, proof that their business has global potential.   But expansion cannot be driven by ambition alone. It must be grounded in strategy, realism and a clear understanding of purpose.  James Grew, Chief Revenue Officer at Altia  has spent much of his career helping technology firms move from national to international scale, he has seen both the opportunities and the pitfalls that come with global growth. He beleives that for SMEs,…

Herefordshire entrepreneur Becky Wall BEM is celebrating a remarkable double success – having been named Entrepreneur of the Year 2025 at the Herefordshire Means Business Awards and also receiving a Silver Award for Lifetime Achievement at the national Best Business Women Awards 2025. The Herefordshire Means Business Awards event took place at The Paddocks Hotel, Symonds Yat, where almost 300 guests, business friends and acquaintances gathered to recognise excellence across the county. Becky, co-owner of Loo of the Year Awards Ltd and co-founder of A Plush Flush, was shortlisted for two categories: Entrepreneur of the Year and Business Leader of…

How did you start your business? I lived in Istanbul for a while. That was where The Liberty Guild was born.  Sitting on the lower deck of the Galata Bridge, watching the balletic perpetual motion of the ferries in the harbor as they went about their daily business. “What comes next” just came. When nothing is familiar anymore, there is no convention to hold you back. That’s where a new form of ad agency started to take shape. Or should I say, the impetus to actually found the business, not just think about it. Entrepreneurship is about the ‘when’. About…

Access to new water supplies for UK businesses is being restricted because of long term water shortages, research by water services and treatment specialist Alpheus has revealed. Data from Environmental Information Requests submitted to water companies across the country found that new supplies are being restricted for non-domestic requests. Large areas of the UK are already water-stressed, and the Environment Agency warned earlier this year that England faces a 5 billion litre a day shortfall for public water supplies by 2055. In addition to the long-standing water shortfalls, last week, England experienced its fourth heatwave of the summer, and four…

Petter Neby, Founder & CEO at Punkt. suggests that privacy-first devices, designed without always-listening assistants, could offer the UK a more secure digital future. A friend once told me their phone must be eavesdropping. They had casually mentioned a trip they were on, and soon after saw adverts for holidays in their feed. Coincidence? Perhaps, but stories like this resonate because they highlight a real concern that our devices and platforms know more about us than we think. The same is true when people sign up to platforms like TikTok or Instagram. With a single click of ‘accept,’ users often…

Zen Internet, a B Corp certified business, has marked its 30th anniversary with a celebration at its Rochdale headquarters, honouring three decades of innovation, growth and doing business “the right way”. The company officially opened its doors for business on 13 October 1995, following its incorporation by founders Richard Tang (CEO) and his brother Daniel on 13 September. It’s 30-year milestone makes it the UK’s longest-standing independent Internet Service Provider (ISP). Richard started Zen with just £5,000, a few Linux PCs, and six dial-up modems perched on an Ikea shelf. It’s grown from a two-person start-up into one of the…

The concentration of small businesses in Tottenham has doubled in the past four years as the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium became a regular home to major international events such as NFL games, new data from GoDaddy reveals. The trend highlights how large-scale cultural events can spark entrepreneurship and create ripple effects across local economies. The analysis comes from the GoDaddy Small Business Research Lab, an international research initiative that studies the economic impact of more than 600,000 small businesses in the UK and the attitudes of the owners who start and run them. Each constituency earns a ‘microbusiness density’ count –…

Stockley’s growing presence within handcrafted confectionery, indulgent chocolate and enticing fudges meant that it was only a matter of time before this leading voice within top drawer British confectionery needed to review and enhance its production capabilities to meet its bold, long-term expansion plans. Having out-grown its current site thanks to an ambitious vision and consistent double-digit growth, Mark Adcock (MD) explained how it was now, ‘Imperative that a business enjoying positive growing pains was both willing and able to take the next step to a new, purpose-built facility that could fulfil its significant growth ambitions; whilst staying true to…