Originally written by Dan Matthews on Small Business
Businesses that protect the environment with lean, efficient operations enjoy a multitude of benefits. Most obvious among these is the warm feeling that comes with knowing you are making a positive contribution towards the battle against climate change.
But green businesses can also save money, improve brand reputation and even increase their chances of securing finance from lenders who are increasingly hawkish about portfolio businesses sustainability credentials.
So how can you ensure your business is as green as it can be? Here are 10 tips to get you started:
1) Make it easier to recycle
Most people recycle as a matter of course in their homes, but at work it’s all too often a different story. Placing a standard paper bin under every desk is a good way to encourage landfill waste, so work out how you can make recycling bins accessible to even your busiest employees.
Invest in clear labelling too; this helps them find the right bins for each piece of recycling and saves time.
2) Encourage low-carbon commuting
This can come in a number of forms, from a ride-to-work scheme to season ticket loans for public transport. If people must drive, consider ways to encourage car-pooling, perhaps
Tag Archive for IT
Hot Business News Today
How my small business can contribute to reducing climate change
by Dan Matthews • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Dan Matthews on Small Business
Businesses that protect the environment with lean, efficient operations enjoy a multitude of benefits. Most obvious among these is the warm feeling that comes with knowing you are making a positive contribution towards the battle against climate change.
But green businesses can also save money, improve brand reputation and even increase their chances of securing finance from lenders who are increasingly hawkish about portfolio businesses sustainability credentials.
So how can you ensure your business is as green as it can be? Here are 10 tips to get you started:
1) Make it easier to recycle
Most people recycle as a matter of course in their homes, but at work it’s all too often a different story. Placing a standard paper bin under every desk is a good way to encourage landfill waste, so work out how you can make recycling bins accessible to even your busiest employees.
Invest in clear labelling too; this helps them find the right bins for each piece of recycling and saves time.
2) Encourage low-carbon commuting
This can come in a number of forms, from a ride-to-work scheme to season ticket loans for public transport. If people must drive, consider ways to encourage car-pooling, perhaps
Hot Business News Today
Where to find your £5,000 small business technology grant
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The Government has announced a new £20m IT funding package to help small businesses get through the coronavirus pandemic.
Small and medium-sized businesses can access a small business technology grant between £1,000 and £5,000 to spend on new equipment and IT and professional advice.
The small business technology grant can be spent on the following:
Accountants
Financial
Human resources
IT and digital
Legal
Or it can be used to buy minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to carry on trading or diversify during the COVID-19 pandemic.
>See also: You have just one month to claim up to £1.6bn in unspent grants
And the cash could also be used to stage events providing guidance to businesses responding to coronavirus.
Ironically, given the Government’s pro-Brexit stance, the money is coming through the last hurrah of the European Regional Development Fund, the EU fund which supports poorer regions.
The £20m worth of technology and support grants are being administered by the Government’s 38 regional growth hubs.
>See also: Rishi Sunak gives small businesses £2000 grants for young trainees
You can find the list of growth hubs where you apply for the new £1,000 to £5,000 small business technology grants here.
Regional growth minister Simon Clarke said: “We
Hot Business News Today
Where to find your £5,000 small business technology grant
by Timothy Adler • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
The Government has announced a new £20m IT funding package to help small businesses get through the coronavirus pandemic.
Small and medium-sized businesses can access a small business technology grant between £1,000 and £5,000 to spend on new equipment and IT and professional advice.
The small business technology grant can be spent on the following:
Accountants
Financial
Human resources
IT and digital
Legal
Or it can be used to buy minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to carry on trading or diversify during the COVID-19 pandemic.
>See also: You have just one month to claim up to £1.6bn in unspent grants
And the cash could also be used to stage events providing guidance to businesses responding to coronavirus.
Ironically, given the Government’s pro-Brexit stance, the money is coming through the last hurrah of the European Regional Development Fund, the EU fund which supports poorer regions.
The £20m worth of technology and support grants are being administered by the Government’s 38 regional growth hubs.
>See also: Rishi Sunak gives small businesses £2000 grants for young trainees
You can find the list of growth hubs where you apply for the new £1,000 to £5,000 small business technology grants here.
Regional growth minister Simon Clarke said: “We
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4 things small business needs to think about when buying-in tech
by Colin O'Flaherty • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Colin O’Flaherty on Small Business
Over the past 10 years alone, technology has changed the world almost beyond recognition. In a time when cloud computing, big data analytics and digital-first consumer experiences are the norm, it is hard to believe that it was only in 2009 that music streaming went mainstream and the video-on-demand market exploded.
Against this backdrop, American Express’ latest research into the business strategies of the UK’s small and medium sized enterprises found that these businesses are prioritising harnessing the latest technology to unlock growth and opportunity. In fact, almost two-thirds (65pc) of SMEs believe that digital technology will create new business opportunities, while the majority of UK SMEs rank adopting the latest tech as one of the top business challenges they’ll be working hardest to address over the next three years.
>See also: Upgrading business technology – new vs refurbished
The UK’s SMEs are also clear on the types of technologies they want and need. The top three they plan to implement in the next three years are workforce productivity tools, faster and more reliable communications systems and integrated enterprise-wide software platforms and enterprise applications. In addition to these more functional applications, SMEs also have big plans
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How to enable mobile working in the modern workplace
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
The workplace has changed for both large incumbents and smaller businesses. Flexibility and mobile working are now key ingredients for success, especially for business leaders aiming to grow their business. As technology evolves and improves as well, the means to achieve these new ways of working has led to a significant increase in competition; moving from an idea to a product or business has never been more achievable and the existence of hundreds of billion dollar companies today compared to only a handful 10 years ago is testament to this. Most of these businesses started with a small number of talented employees, such as Instagram or Rubrik, before they were either acquired by larger entities or experienced tremendous growth and became the now not-so-fabled unicorn. Technology is the enabler and is empowering creativity, collaboration and success.
The modern workplace is one of opportunity, but it needs modern solutions to turn those opportunities into success; solutions which can help eager founders work on-the-go and champion their business, while also enticing the very best talent who want to work flexibly in an environment that reflects their ideologies and requirements.
The facts support this. According to the Steelcase
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Why boosting productivity means innovating small business technology
by Partner Content • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Partner Content on Small Business
Solving Britain’s productivity puzzle is vitally important if the UK is to compete against other, stronger economies, experts agree. Small business technology is key to unlocking this puzzle – especially as we move towards a screen-based attention economy.
Productivity in Britain has been flat over last 10 years, partly because of low wages, which has weakened the business case for technology investment.
Figures released in May 2019 by the Office for National Statistics revealed that British productivity has improved by just 0.5pc per year since 2008 and lags 15pc behind other G7 countries.
According to a Small Business survey sponsored by Dell Small Business, nearly two thirds of small business owners are losing sleep over their company’s lack of productivity.
Lesley Giles, director of thinktank The Work Foundation, says: “Part of the UK productivity problem is that our employment levels are high, and they’re divided between high-value roles but also low-value jobs.”
However, given the talk about extending the living wage, and if Brexit turns off the supply of low-cost labour, The Work Foundation argues that the business case for automation and digitalisation becomes more compelling.
In any case, argues Richard Blakesley, co-founder of tech fund Capital Pilot, trying
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How to make your office technology work for you
by Dan Matthews • • 0 Comments
Originally written by Dan Matthews on Small Business
For more than a decade, the UK has been mired in a “productivity puzzle”. Ever since the so-called credit crunch and the financial crisis which followed in 2008, businesses have struggled to become more efficient.
As you might expect, economic growth, employment levels and total hours worked all slumped during the recession; but within a few years they returned to near-trend levels. Productivity got left behind.
According to the latest official figures, UK output per hour fell 0.1pc in the final quarter of 2018 compared with the same three-month period in 2017. It was the second consecutive decline and further evidence of an unprecedented stagnation.
That’s despite all the astonishing office technology advances that have taken place in recent times, including software as a service (saas) and cloud computing, plus ever-more sophisticated smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, not to mention the constellation of new online services designed to power businesses forward.
“UK small businesses are not as productive as they could be,” says Shaun Shirazian, UK head of product at Intuit QuickBooks. “The gap in productivity between the top and bottom 10pc of firms is 80pc larger in the UK than it is in the US, France
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Tech for start-ups: three IT essentials to help your new business
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Start-ups are appearing everywhere. Since the global recession, millions of people in the UK have decided that they would prefer to work for themselves rather than work for someone else. Despite improvements in the global and national economy, this trend shows no signs of slowing down. In 2015, 608,100 new businesses were incorporated, up 4.6 per
The post Tech for start-ups: three IT essentials to help your new business appeared first on Small Business.
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How the right technology can transform your business
by Anna Jordan • • 0 Comments
Transforming businesses with technology isn’t a new idea by any means, but incorporating technology is now a must-have for a business. From manufacturing and retail to design and creative services, all businesses – no matter how small – can improve, innovate and grow. Taking advantage of new technological advances is one way to immeasurably improve productivity,
The post How the right technology can transform your business appeared first on Small Business.