Monthly Archives: June 2021

Hot Business News Today

Tips on running a B&B

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Originally written by Alice Douglas on Small Business
13 tips on running a B&B
In 2004 I opened a B&B in a converted church in Snowdonia. I was a single parent with two children under five. I was apprehensive at the prospect of welcoming strangers into my house and kept imagining one might be an axe murderer. However, I soon realized the best part of running a B&B is all the wonderful people you get to meet. Guests are rarely savage keyboard warriors out to immortalise you with a damning review, but on the contrary are mostly extremely forgiving of the odd mishap. I’ve had my fair share, like an escaped hamster paying a midnight visit in one of the four poster rooms, and other mundane but unavoidable dramas like boiler issues or hot tub breakdowns, but guests on the whole are very tolerant.
They are also in residence when good and bad life events happen to you, such as your child’s birthday celebrations or that sudden phone call when in the blink of an eye a loved one is lost. When that happened, a guest took over the breakfast service and persuaded me to go to London straightaway while they stayed to

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Hot Business News Today

Spencer Matthews: ‘We needed 12 or 13 times more money than I thought’

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Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
Welcome to Small Business Snippets, the podcast from SmallBusiness.co.uk. Today’s guest is Spencer Matthews – entrepreneur, TV personality and angel investor.
We discuss how his experiences with alcohol encouraged him to launch his low and no alcohol drinks business, CleanCo.
Listen to it in the media player below.

Alternatively, you can watch the video here:

You can also catch our episodes with:

Entrepreneur and former Dragon on Dragon’s Den Ireland, Lady Chanelle McCoy
Businessman and The Apprentice winner, Mark Wright
Entrepreneur and campaigner, Paul Lindley
Managing director of Brompton Bikes, Will Butler-Adams
Businessman and author, Gerald Ratner
Entrepreneur and TV presenter, Trinny Woodall
Pub owner and bartender on Channel 4’s First Dates, Merlin Griffiths
Founder and chairman of Pimlico (formerly Pimlico Plumbers), Charlie Mullins
Retail expert and former Dragon, Theo Paphitis
Author and boardroom expert, John Tusa
Digital guru and investor, Sherry Coutu
Entrepreneur and former Dragon, Rachel Elnaugh
Businesswoman and Dragon, Deborah Meaden
Entrepreneur and The Apprentice 2005 candidate, Tim Campbell
Gousto CEO, Timo Boldt
Entrepreneur and The Apprentice 2018 candidate, Jackie Fast
Investor and former Dragon, Piers Linney
Investment fund manager, Nicola Horlick
Supermodel turned entrepreneur, Caprice

We’ve got podcast episodes from the first series looking at:

How one business owner’s mental breakdown caused her to see trolls from her past
How one entrepreneur hired a videographer

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Hot Business News Today

Small business to spend £23bn this year alone keeping Covid safe

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Originally written by Timothy Adler on Small Business
Small businesses will spend £23bn this year on making premises Covid safe, according to research by financial services provider Hitachi Capital.
Office risk assessments, signs, sanitising products, professional cleaning and air filtering systems are forecast to cost every UK small business about £4,850 each on average this year, the equivalent of just under £23bn in total.
Hitachi Capital surveyed 1,500 small businesses for its survey.

Fixed premises will cost on average £5,443 this year to be Covid safe
Outdoor on onsite businesses cost on average £5,446 to be Covid safe
Businesses offering home working expect to spend on average £3,660

Small business that is completely working remotely (20 per cent of those surveyed) will have the smallest Covid-secure costs, with 68 per cent not spending anything on disease control and 21 per cent spending less than £1,000 per company.
>See also: Covid debt drowning small businesses to the tune of £104bn
Losing money to keep Covid safe
Meanwhile, one third of small businesses are losing money by sacrificing customer numbers to keep Covid safe, according to a separate Iwoca survey.
A quarter of small businesses are experiencing fewer sales because of coronavirus social distancing, the survey found. Four out of 10 small businesses

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