Time is ticking down to the day that Amazon will stop accepting Visa credit cards in the UK. Come January 19th, the retailer is to scrap payments from Visa credit cards due to the high fees it says the card provider places on transactions. Whatever their opinion of Amazon, many retailers of all sizes will no doubt be keeping a close watch. Card processing fees can make a sizeable dent in earnings and with Amazon questioning Visa’s rates, many others will be thinking about what this could mean for payments more widely. Recovering from lost earnings during the pandemic, and…
Author: sme-admin
John Edwards begins his new role as UK Information Commissioner today (Tuesday 4 January). Mr Edwards, who joins on a five year term, spent the past eight years as New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, and before that worked as a barrister. He succeeds Elizabeth Denham CBE, whose term as UK Information Commissioner ended last year. Mr Edwards said: “Privacy is a right not a privilege. In a world where our personal data can drive everything from the healthcare we receive to the job opportunities we see, we all deserve to have our data treated with respect. “My role is to work with…
Leadership specialists Caroline Esterson and Wendy Gannaway are launching a new programme to help leaders navigate and succeed in the new world of business. The pair, who co-founded Genius Learning almost ten years ago, believe 2022 will require leaders in business, charities and public service organisations to step up as never before. Caroline said: “Organisations have faced seismic challenges over the past two years which place increasing demands on leaders – and that’s not going away. We are in a new world. “The pandemic, rising customer expectations and COP26 are challenging strategic goals and the way people relate to their…
It’s been a difficult year for most businesses, dealing with the fallout from Brexit and the disruption from the covid restrictions. Some business have thrived while many others have struggled to deal with the consequences of lockdown. As we now enter another period of restrictions the hope is we can quickly move back to normality. A New Year is just around the corner and though UK SMEs will continue to face uncertainties for a while, the general consensus by economists worldwide is that the global economy is well on track to recover to where it would have been had the…
Swindon journalist and media consultant Fiona Scott has launched a podcast to dispel the myths and mysteries around the dark arts of PR. Her PR Not BS podcast went live this month and features advice and tips to business owners, charities, social enterprises, company directors as well as public service organisations and other PR professionals. “During the pandemic I’ve spent a lot more time training people in business and in the charitable sector to be visible and present when we were locked down tight for weeks at a time,” Fiona said. “This led me to plan a podcast with the…
Richard Osborne, is the founder and CEO of UK Business Forums and Business Data Group. This week, in the run up to Christmas, he spoke to SME Today offering some tips and advice for UK SMEs. “As we come to the end of 2021 and look back at the year that was, it’s difficult to know exactly where to begin. What’s for sure, as we fast approach the second anniversary of Covid-19, being part of our lives, is that SMEs have yet again had to navigate a relentless succession of catastrophic events throughout the year. In the week before Christmas, founders…
As the COVID-19 Omicron variant spreads at pace across the country, and the risk of yet more restrictions heightening, more and more employers have had to rethink their plans for in-person Christmas parties, meetings, working from the office, and other workplace activities for the remainder of this year and next. The UK Government has announced that vaccines continue to remain our best line of defence and is pursuing ambitious plans to get all adults who had their first two vaccination doses a booster jab by year end, while calling all adults who have not yet received their first or second…
It’s a month since the COP26 negotiations closed their doors, and debate continues amongst policymakers and scientists. Have agreements gone far enough to avoid climate catastrophe and limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees? Whatever your view, in the absence of strong multi-lateral, international agreement, it’s clear that all businesses have a responsibility to act now – and an opportunity to demonstrate leadership on climate and CO2 emissions. Tracey Herald who is Head of Sustainability at Virgin Media O2 sets out the important role small businesses must play in helping the UK to reach its net zero targets. This includes…
The London chapter of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO), the world’s leading peer-to-peer network of successful business owners, has begun accepting applications for this year’s qualifying rounds of the EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA). Local chapter EO London announced that it will be hosting the National Qualifying Competition on 24ty of February in Cass University. EO GSEA is a premier awards programme for students who own or operate a business while attending college or university. Student entrepreneurs compete against peers in a series of local and national qualifying rounds to make their way to the global finals that will be held…
SMEs in the UK are turning to crowdfunding to fuel growth out of the pandemic, finds new research. According to a survey of UK business leaders from law firm Moore Barlow, SMEs are more likely to choose non-traditional ways of accessing capital such as crowdfunding (32 per cent) or offering investment opportunities to employees (30 per cent), than they are to seek debt finance (26 per cent), initiate a management buy-out (26 per cent), or seek venture capital or private equity investment (28 per cent). All but one of the 250 c-suite executives and business owners polled said they intend to…