Recent years have been challenging for small businesses, with an estimated 20% increase in insolvencies in 2022, and nearly 400,000 businesses closing between 2020 and 2021. Despite this, SMEs continue to launch new businesses. Last year saw a record for start-ups registered on Companies House, with nearly 80 new companies listed per hour in the first half of the year. With another difficult year likely ahead in 2023, it’s important that entrepreneurs set themselves up with the best chance of success possible. That’s why Virgin Money launched a study to reveal the UK cities with the best prospects for starting a…
Author: sme-admin
Good people are the foundation stones of growing SMEs. The late Steve Jobs was very clear about this: “The secret of my success is that we have gone to exceptional lengths to hire the best people in the world.” For example, he believed the difference between a good programmer and a great one was a factor of 25 to 1 – which has a significant effect on the recruitment decision at Apple. Large businesses like this may be in the fortunate position of having a raft of applicant for their vacancies. However SMEs often find it tough to find any,…
Reward Finance Group has helped boost the region’s economy by providing £5.2m of funding to SMEs in the first year of launching in the Midlands, to enable them to unlock growth potential, create new jobs or navigate through a difficult trading period. Experiencing unprecedented growth since opening its Birmingham office 12 months ago, Reward has tripled its headcount and is looking to further build on its success and expand its broker network in the year ahead. The company attributes this rapid success to its straightforward and flexible lending products, speed of delivery, and the confidence of an increasing number of SME-size companies to build…
Profitability reached in just over two years since the bank opened its doors to lending – making Allica one of the fastest UK fintechs to ever achieve profitability The bank only opened its door to lending in March 2020, but has already lent over £1 billion to mid-sized SMEs and now has monthly loan originations reaching close to £1 billion on an annualised basis. The bank has been profitable on a monthly basis since June 2022, just over two years since opening its doors to lending in March 2020 – making Allica one of the fastest UK fintechs to ever…
Mark Gray, UK and Ireland Country Manager for Universal Robots talked to SMToday about how and why the manufacturing industry should start to look at the advantages of automation and the possibility of a four-day working week. The pandemic has spurred immense transformation in our approach to work, with terms such a ‘flexible working’ and ‘work-life balance’ rising to prominence in our general lexicon. As our focus remains on improving employee wellbeing and quality of a life, in June 2022 over 3,300 workers at over 70 UK firms began a historic six-month trial of a four-day working week. Much has been discussed…
Dan Stanley, the award winning ex-Army commando and founder of the organisation BetterMen, has published his first book ‘Rethinking Masculinity – a modern man’s guide to succeeding in life’. (available October 3). The 38-year-old who lives in South Wales created BetterMen in 2018 after experiencing an early mid-life crisis following the birth of his first child – a little girl. He felt lost in life, unsure of who he was and how he wanted to live his life. “I spent my life trying to prove my worth through success – trying to be the best, being an over-achiever. I did…
Inefficiency in a business often sneaks up on you. You start off with a spreadsheet here or there to help you track revenue or to assist with project management and expenses. Before long, you’re repeating entry data across different systems and several spreadsheets. Left to fester, these inefficient processes slow down your business. Sales, and naturally growth slows because your team doesn’t have the time to focus on bringing in more business alongside all the admin that’s now involved in their roles. Regardless of the industry you’re in, efficiency is key to a successful business. Without efficiency across the board, you’ll see…
The problem of unpaid invoices is probably at least as old as invoices themselves (give or take 28 days for payment). In the vast majority of cases, bills are raised and bills are paid – most of them promptly and within the payment terms. When invoices are not paid the problem invariably falls into two camps: (1) can’t pay; and/or (2) won’t pay. Can’t pay is normally a more difficult problem to resolve and to an extent can be mitigated against, by for example, seeking payment in advance of services or running credit checks. Troublingly but inevitably, sometimes “can’t pay”…
Among the many adaptations we made during the Covid-19 pandemic, one of the most impactful has been home working. For most owners and employees this was temporary, but for some the advantages of working from home have led to calls for a more permanent change in their work-life balance. One such route is hybrid working, where people have some type of home-working arrangement alongside time spent in the office. In fact a 2020 survey by YouGov of 4933 adults in the UK found that 57% wanted the option to work from home to continue, of which 18% wanted to work…
Nicki Clark is Chief Executive of employee-owned, North East-based business support organisations UMi. Nicki recently received an OBE in the Queen’s Jubilee birthday honours for services to business and social enterprise in North East England. Nicki started out in banking, travelled the world selling soft drinks or ‘posh pop’ as she likes to describe it, has set up businesses and social enterprises and worked closely with both the public and private sector. Nicki believes passionately that businesses have the power to make a difference to lives and the world around us, so she’s made sure that UMi measures success by more…