Demonstrating the importance of small business to the UK’s COVID-19 recovery, a new report from Xero, shows 410,000 small business jobs need to be created by the end of the year to return to the pre-pandemic jobs trajectory. Using anonymised and aggregated data of hundreds of thousands of customer records as part of the Xero Small Business Insights (XSBI) programme, developed in partnership with Accenture, The Job Ahead report suggested that UK small business job losses have been almost double those in big businesses. With small businesses employing over half of the UK workforce, a strong sector recovery will be needed to achieve significant…
Author: sme-admin
For entrepreneurs who run their own mid-size company the fact is that one day it will need to be sold. Often, they haven’t accepted that fact, or even thought about it yet, and as such are not well-prepared when it comes to that day. Are you running your business for shareholder value, or just for profit? The answers will decide whether the business outlives you and whether you get a great return for years of hard work. Did you know that it typically takes a company 4-5 years to be ready for sale, so even if the notion to sell…
Today, Capalona, the UK online business finance broker, has launched its SME bank account comparison engine. The Fintech company based in Wales has already helped thousands of SMEs secure finance and compare products to support business growth. Capalona says its new search engine allows customers to compare business bank account providers to find the best-fit bank account for their business needs – ultimately helping them keep on top of their company’s finances. Capalona works with an extensive range of business bank account providers in the UK, including Cashplus, CardOneMoney, Tide, Revolut, and ANNA, and the comparison search engine is straightforward…
Three UK job seekers have had their CVs launched into space in a world-first stunt to celebrate Star Wars Day today (May 4th). Online job board Zoek ran a competition through March and April and three lucky jobseekers have had their CVs placed on a digital billboard and sent to space to give a stratospheric boost to their visibility. Lucy Russell (22), David Hinley (65) and Sam Kapadia’s CVs were presented in space using a hydrogen-filled balloon the size of a two-storey house, which carried the digital display over 100,000 feet above the Earth. The launch vehicle constructed and flown…
Most countries in the world have been heavily affected by COVID-19 since the beginning of the crisis last year. The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres rightly described the pandemic as the worst global crisis facing humanity since the Second World War. After first emerging in China the spread of the virus pushed many countries to impose national lockdowns and quarantine policies to flatten the exponential growth curve of infections. As a result, global economies have faced unprecedented decline and many companies have been forced to cease their activities, leading to operational or liquidity crises. Small and medium-size enterprises are the lifeblood of the UK economy. They account for 50 percent of the total revenue generated by UK businesses and 44…
April 29th 2021 saw the 4th annual Thames Valley and South West Business & Community Awards, with over 2,000 nominations across 26 different awards categories and more than 400 businesses attending the celebration. After a brief foreword by Alec Jones-Hall, the director of Great British Expos, attendees were delighted by entertainment in the form of Mark ‘Sparky’ Harding and Anne ‘Sprite’ Jeffery-Harding, who sang classics from the likes of Elvis, The Beatles and ABBA. Alec – along with Tina Fincham, who works for Aspen Waite – then introduced the hosts of the event: Paul Waite (Chief Executive of Aspen Waite)…
Waitrose has announced that it will expand its Deliveroo service to 110 new shops across the country with up to 400 new Waitrose shop roles created by the roll out. It will increase the number of Waitrose shops on Deliveroo to 150 in total by the end of the summer and is expected to take the number of people who are able to enjoy Waitrose food on Deliveroo to around 13 million. The partnership is a central part of Deliveroo’s expansion strategy across the UK. Customers will be able to order from an increased range of between 750 to 1,000…
Mathys & Squire announces plant Biophilica, producer of leather alternative made from urban plant waste, as the winner of the firm’s world IP day SME pitch event. The Mathys & Squire Scaleup Quarter team hosted a virtual pitch event on Monday 26 April 2021 to celebrate World IP Day. The theme for 2021 was ‘IP and SMEs: Taking your ideas to market’. With SMEs making up over 99% of all UK businesses and contributing around half of all business turnover in the UK, the importance of supporting such businesses in their growth and development is clear for driving economic recovery and…
Boardies®, a privately owned, London-based business that designs, manufactures and sells distinctive swimwear products around the world, has today been honoured with a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade 2021. The brand, which was launched in 2014 by Nick Crook (a former Levi’s, K-Swiss, Reebok and Pentland Brands executive), has successfully negotiated the challenges of Covid-19, pivoting to a direct to consumer strategy, resulting in a six-fold increase in online sales. Despite the pandemic and its restrictions on travel and holidays, Boardies® products have continued to sell to customers around the world, especially in the USA, Canada, Australia,…
BookingLive, the leading online booking and reservation software provider, is offering independent hospitality and hair and beauty venues its booking and scheduling system for free. Having successfully piloted the scheduling solutions with local government groups across the country throughout the pandemic, BookingLive are again offering their free scheduling and booking solution to organisations in need. As lockdown restrictions begin to ease, many independent hospitality and hair and beauty venues are expecting a surge in booking requests. To help cope with the increased demand, BookingLive is offering its booking and scheduling system for free, providing hospitality and hair and beauty venues the opportunity…