One in ten highly skilled freelancers are currently out of work due to the impact of controversial reforms to IR35 tax legislation, according to new research. A survey of more than 1,300 contractors in highly skilled roles found that 21% are not currently working, with half of them attributing this to the impact of reforms to IR35 tax rules. Meanwhile, 55% of contractors said they had rejected an offer of work in the past 12 months due to it being deemed ‘inside IR35’ by the client. Furthermore, 24% said they intend to seek contracts overseas this year to escape the…

Following last weekend’s unseasonably strong winds, one of the UK’s largest insurance providers has revealed a 449% increase in flood claims over the past 12 months, and issued guidance on how to prepare for more adverse weather expected this month. Simply Business, insurance providers to over 900,000 small businesses and landlords, examined all claims submitted between the period March 2022 to March 2024 to discover the uplift. Storm Kathleen, the 11th of the season and named by the Irish Meteorological Service on Thursday, rolled in with blustery conditions on Friday. Flights across the UK and Ireland were brought to a…

Half of all UK adults have experienced imposter syndrome at work, and employers aren’t doing enough to tackle the issue. Imposter syndrome needs to be brought into the spotlight in workplace conversations, says Jill Whittaker, Managing Director of The Executive Development Network. By knowing the symptoms and which colleagues may be more at risk, employers can better support and empower their employees with tools to combat the condition. Given how widespread the condition is, not enough of us are talking about imposter syndrome. That sinking feeling of worry and anxiety, that others see you as a fraud while at work,…

The start of the new financial year is the ideal time for businesses of all sizes to establish a marketing budget for the coming twelve months. A dedicated marketing budget is essentially a comprehensive list of all money you will allocate to your marketing efforts. Formalising your marketing spend in this way is vital to tracking and measuring your return on investment [ROI], and ensuring your budget is only going towards the most effective activities. Robert Konzon, Director of Finance at Climb Online explores the key considerations for creating an effective marketing budget in the new tax year. Set objectives…

Businesses and individuals are switching to electric vehicles in ever-increasing numbers. Latest figures show there were more than 1 million fully electric cars registered in the UK in February 2024 on top of a further 56,000 electric vans and 620,000 plug-in hybrids. Now, with a government ban on the sale of all new petrol and diesel cars due to come into force in 2035, more and more businesses and employees will be trading in their polluting fossil-fuel company vehicles for a zero-emissions electric model. From salary sacrifice schemes to tax benefits, business car insurance specialists, Keith Michaels has weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of driving an…

In a recently released survey from the Bank of England, in collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade, data showed that 20% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) said they had underinvested in their business during the previous three years, yet the sector still shows a general theme of aversion to raising external finance. Consistent with other research, 50% of businesses reported only using existing capital to re-invest in the business, along with around 70% of businesses preferring to grow slowly than to have debt. For established companies with solid propositions and thriving customer pipelines, the prospect of organic…

Over two third (69%) of UK decision-makers surveyed say sustainability is important for their business, while 61% consider the circular economy important. Nearly 9 in 10 (89%) consider waste management important in becoming a sustainable business. But, despite these good intentions, only 53% of UK businesses have their recycling collected.    The main barrier to being more sustainable is ‘cost’ say over a third (36%) of SME business decision makers surveyed in recent research from sustainable waste management firm Biffa with a survey conducted by the YouGov analysis institute. At a time when SMEs and larger businesses may be looking to…

Have you ever hesitated to make a simple phone call at work, feeling your heart race as you contemplate dialling the number? Perhaps you’ve experienced the relief of the call going unanswered, or the dread of picking up the ringing office phone. If so, you’re not alone. These are telltale signs of what millions of UK employees silently battle every day: phone anxiety. New research by telephone answering provider Face For Business sheds light on the true extent of this pervasive problem within the UK, revealing that a staggering 65% of UK office workers experience some level of anxiety when using the phone.…

April is Stress Awareness Month and with stress, depression and anxiety accounting for almost half of all work-related ill-health cases (49%), it is clear that effective strategies for dealing with workplace stress are urgently needed. WorkNest, the employment law and HR specialists who support 40,000 organisations across the UK, handled an average of 3,000 sickness absence related enquiries every month in the past year. In line with the HSE’s statistics, it calculates that around half of these cases are specific to employees suffering from stress, anxiety or depression. A particular area of concern for employers is how much contact to…

New Intuit QuickBooks research reveals how UK small businesses plan to tackle the new tax year with the 6th April start date now upon us. Nearly all (99.6%) of small businesses surveyed plan to make changes to how they operate their business in the new tax year. In fact, 41% of small businesses who plan to make changes to their business predict these will be radical. The top five changes small businesses will make in the new tax year include: 52% will start using AI to make the tax year more efficient 50% plan to find ways to reduce tax liabilities…

Steve Hearsum, an experienced consultant, supervisor and developer of change practitioners, asks the question “How comfortable are you with being wrong?” Not in a ‘well-you-will-learn-in-time-I-was actually-right’ code apology way, more an all-embracing acceptance of your fallibility. In her book Being Wrong (2011), Kathryn Schulz comments that “a whole lot of us go through life assuming that we are basically right, basically all the time, about basically everything … As absurd as it sounds when we stop to think about it, our steady state seems to be one of unconsciously assuming that we are very close to omniscient.” But what happens…

WITH the pace of legal divergence from EU law increasing at the turn of the year, ministers have tried to simplify holiday pay entitlements to fit a post-Brexit Britain. Clive Day, partner at the employment team for legal and professional services business Knights, discusses the key immediate preparations for businesses ahead of impending changes to holiday entitlement and pay this month. Will the calculation of holiday pay change? Yes, for some workers. For holiday years starting after 1 April, there will be two parallel regimes in the UK for how holiday is earned and paid. The original regime (derived largely from EU…

From virtual reality (VR) and robotics to wearables and chatbots, eight of the tech trends changing the healthcare industry have been revealed. FDM Group, a global business and tech consultancy, has highlighted eight ways that technological advancements are presenting opportunities for the healthcare industry to improve efficiency, personalise care, and ultimately, enhance patient outcomes. In the healthcare industry, we are witnessing a shift from traditional care models towards more personalised, patient-centric approaches, which are largely being driven by advancements in digital technology. The integration of technology in healthcare is laying the foundation for safer, more efficient, and more human-centred healthcare solutions.…

Senior managers sometimes find themselves having to investigate complaints against supervisors or lower-level managers. However, what should you do when the tide turns inward and someone raises a grievance against you, the senior manager or business owner? How do you handle a situation where you are the subject of a workplace investigation? The mere thought of being the subject of a grievance enquiry can be overwhelming. Imagine the anxiety over the potential damage to your credibility and its impact on your role as a leader or business owner. The fear of not knowing how to resolve the issue can be…

The escalating adoption of ad blockers, particularly on iOS devices, presents a pressing challenge for brands relying on traditional paid advertising channels. Aaron Peters, Managing Director of Sprout Media, looks at the rising challenge of iOS ad blockers and their implications for brands striving to maintain ROI in paid media campaigns. The popularity of ad blockers [software or browser extensions that prevent digital advertisements from being displayed on a user’s device] has been a growing concern for businesses for years. However, the release of iOS 9 by Apple has recently brought mobile ad blocking back into the spotlight. The new…

A third (33%) of business owners in the UK don’t know how much their business is worth, according to new research from Marktlink, one of Europe’s largest independent international M&A advisory firms for SMEs. Despite this, as market conditions look set to improve, three-quarters (75%) of SME leaders expect the value of their business to increase in the next 12 months. When compared to the European average of 72%, UK SMEs are most optimistic about growth in valuations as they come out of the other side of a tumultuous year. The second instalment of the firm’s Marktlink Monitor surveyed 1066 business owners across…