By Jonny Clark, Managing Director, ITPEnergised Whilst environmental and energy consultancies may be more commonplace nowadays, ten years ago when industry veteran Jonny Clark set up ITPEnergised with a vision of creating a relationship-focused renewable energy consultancy, the landscape was very different. Having worked in environmental and energy consultancy for more than a quarter of a century, prior to founding ITPEnergised, Jonny was board director for a major environmental & energy consultancy having overseen billions of pounds of projects across wind, solar and biomass globally, as well as mining, waste, transmission and distribution projects. In this article, Jonny looks back…
Author: sme-admin
Paralympic gold medallist Chris Hunt Skelley MBE has returned to the UK from a five-week training tour of Japan as he continues his preparation for the European Championships and IBSA World Games later this month (August 18 to 27 2023). This intense training has also helped the gold medallist from Tokyo 2020 to prepare for qualification to compete in the next Paralympics in Paris next year. Chris said: “The camp was about building up to the Championships and World Games, to take it up to the next level and making sure we were in the best possible shape we can be.”…
Broadly put, an HR Business Partner (HRBP) works to deliver the organisation’s strategy through people actions. HR Business Partnering is best thought of as an overall approach, focused on delivering value and helping the business achieve its strategy, rather than a specific job description or a list of responsibilities. Or, in the words of one HR Director CRF spoke to as part of recent research into the future of HR Business Partnering, HRBPs work to ‘change and drive businesses forward.’ The original Business Partner model can be traced back to Dave Ulrich’s seminal book, Human Resource Champions, published in 1997.…
Holiday makers across the UK may be disappointed this year, as ice cream producers have reported having to reduce the variety of flavours they offer in the face of rising ingredient and production costs. And this is just one of many examples of small businesses having to make difficult decisions to keep afloat. As an experienced General Counsel supporting a variety of businesses, Katie Sandys-Renton, Lawyer at The Legal Director, provides comment on how business leaders can ensure the cost-of-living crisis doesn’t impact creativity in their business. She has seen just how this cost-of-living crisis is hitting SMEs and so…
Alan Davison, Personal Finance Distribution Director at Together, advises on getting a mortgage when there is a credit blip on your record. The current financial landscape, dogged by high living costs and inflationary pressures, has made it increasingly difficult to get on the housing ladder due to more people having a less than perfect credit score. With the FCA reporting the number of adults who missed bills or loan payments in at least three of the last six months has risen by 1.4mn to 5.6mn1, the proportion of those with blips on their record is on the up – with predictions this…
For remote and hybrid workers, finding a coffee shop that is easily accessible to your usual workplace, home office, or commuting route can be extremely beneficial. It ensures that you can conveniently transition to and from workstations without losing valuable work time. Choosing a coffee shop in proximity to your closest or most convenient tube station provides just that! To help London’s hybrid workers and coffee lovers, the team at Craft Docs have explored London’s Zone 1 tube station to find the most convenient small chain and independent coffee shops to work from. The data covers all 68 tube stations…
Law firm Tozers provides advice to SME businesses in London and across the country, when they relocate their businesses as well as their families and homes to the beautiful West Country. Here three of the law partners give perspectives from a property, corporate and employment standpoint offering practical advice on how to go about such a wholesale relocation of both business and home, avoid the pitfalls, navigate the hazards, and how to make it a success and a dream come true. Staycations remain the preferred type of holiday for many, with a recent survey revealing that 72% of Brits are…
Relocation experts believe that ‘work from the beach’ narratives undermine both the opportunities and complexities of employee mobility From Airbnb to Zopa, more and more businesses are leading the way in allowing employees to work from abroad throughout the year. This is a positive step forward for a more inclusive, borderless approach to work. However, many of the conversations around these benefits focus on swapping your home office for the beach. According to Localyze, an online global mobility platform that removes borders to talent and opportunities, relocating for work holds much more opportunity — and complexity — that goes far…
A quarter (28%) of small businesses in the UK are now generating more sales from social media than from any other channel, including e-commerce and bricks-and-mortar stores, according to research from BT*. Yet, despite the widespread uptake of social media as a sales tool, one in five (21%) entrepreneurs are concerned that they lack the digital skills to help them get the best results for their business out of social platforms. In a bid to help the UK’s smallest enterprises better leverage the business benefits of social media, BT has teamed up with business influencer and YouTube star, Patricia Bright,…
Low financial literacy could be costing the average household in the UK around £2,850 every year according to a new study by Allianz. Over a 10 year period, this could amount to £40,647 compared to households led by people who really understand financial basics. The study surveyed more than 1,000 people in the UK alongside six other countries, asking them a series of questions designed to test their understanding of financial basics, such as interest rates, inflation, and investment risks and returns. Worryingly, the results reveal that more than a quarter or 26% of Brits lack the knowledge and skills…